How much did Obama’s two million jobs cost?

Last week on the anniversary of the enactment of the Obama stimulus bill, the president bragged about having saved or created some 2 million jobs thus far and said that the stimulus was on target to create or save 1.5 million more jobs, bringing up the estimated total to 3.5 million jobs saved or created.

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Aside from the fact that Obama’s claim is meaningless, as it is impossible to verify, let’s give the president the benefit of the doubt and for argument’s sake agree that the $787 billion stimulus bill will ultimately save or create 3.5 million jobs. As I wrote in these pages last week, math isn’t the Democrats’ strong suit. Dividing that $787 billion spent by 3.5 million jobs leaves us with an astounding $224,857 per job saved or created. From any perspective that seems to be a heavy price to pay per job, given that the average annual per capita income is somewhere just north of $40,000. Here’s an example of the government taking a dollar and turning it into 20¢, given that the amount the government has/will spend is just over five times more per job than what the average American earns. It’s a prime example of why government does not create wealth but rather impedes the creation of wealth. The president could have been much more effective had he taken that $787 billion and broken it up into lots of $30,000 each, and randomly passed it out to 24.5 million Americans. Imagine what kind of economic activity would have resulted from over 20 million people with an extra $30,000 to spend. Certainly, that would have stimulated the economy a lot more than filtering the cash through countless layers of bureaucracy. But it’s the sort of program that shows the sharp philosophical divide between the Left and the Right in America. The President and his minions on the left are all in favor of taking money away from “the rich” and recycling that money through various government schemes to those in need, all the while maintaining that this kind of stimulus is good for the economy because it results in infrastructure improvements, etc. But the question remains, does it create lasting benefits in terms of long-term job creation? The obvious answer is “no” because the jobs that government creates are intrinsically self-liquidating; as soon as whatever infrastructure improvement is complete those who completed it are out of a job. In addition, the stimulus spending on infrastructure improvement favors only a certain sector of the economy and not one that creates wealth. We know that the stimulus calls for spending in other areas of the economy as well, but paying businesses to create jobs is also self-defeating because once the stimulus money runs out, will there be enough residual economic benefit to continue to sustain the stimulus jobs without government money?

American people are being victimized by unscrupulous politicians with failed agendas

Those of us on the Right would have taken that stimulus money and turned it into a $787 billion tax cut across the board, reducing the burden on both business and working people, which would have resulted in a surge of new jobs as the additional funds found their way into the economy. What the US needs more than anything right now are jobs in the manufacturing sector, resource recovery and high tech industries. We do not need any more jobs in the service sector, as there are quite enough burger wrappers and Wal-Mart greeters to go around. The federal government doesn’t appear to be doing anything to create a business atmosphere conducive to this type of job creation. On the contrary, in addition to the planned high rates of taxation, many legislative endeavors spearheaded by the Obama White House will serve to exacerbate these problems. Just imagine what a cap and trade bill or a card-check bill will do to the few manufacturing jobs remaining. It’s clear that the Democrats have not done the math and are failing to understand how their largesse is made possible. Their plan to make 60% of America’s citizens dependent on the government while the remaining 40% pays for it might seem like a good way to ensure being reelected in perpetuity. But like all Ponzi schemes, there will eventually be losers. And the biggest losers of all will be the American people who are being victimized by unscrupulous politicians with failed agendas.