[…] White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained Thursday that paying out unemployment checks “is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are unemployed and obviously aren’t running a paycheck are going to spend the money that they get. They’re not going to save it, they’re going to spend it.” True, they probably will spend the money, on their mortgages, on food, and other necessary expenses. But Mr. Carney attributed miraculous qualities to these government handouts, saying “every place that, that money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring.” By that logic the whole country should go on unemployment.
Mr. Obama’s faith in the power of government is not surprising, but this argument is absurd. It ignores the fact that unemployment benefits are paid in place of lost wages. They are smaller than the paychecks they replaced thus are not a net plus for the economy. They do not “create growth” or jobs, but at best do what they were intended to do, sustain workers at livable but substantially reduced income levels while they look for jobs. Yes they allow the government to pour money into the economy, but these days that means piling on more debt to the red ink that is preventing economic growth in the first place.
Extending unemployment benefits keeps unemployment rates higher because it removes incentives to seek work. The current recession has seen the deepest, longest job losses of any since the Great Depression, in part because Congress kept extending the length of time workers could draw benefits. And even if this does mean that people will continue to pay their bills and buy groceries and other necessaries, it is not the basis for economic growth. In essence the White House wants to borrow money to pay people not to work, and declare it a victory when they spend the cash just to survive. Mr. Obama apparently believes this is how jobs are created. It is no wonder why the country is facing such desperate economic times. But at least the White House is happy so many people are out of jobs.
Of course they are. You don’t get British-style wildings — followed by weeks of liberal media handwringing about the “root causes” of the rioters’ “anger” (which, let me answer that preemptively: the TEA Party extremists and their insistence on “draconian cuts” to the “social safety net”) — without first creating the permanent dependency class.
And you can’t create the permanent dependency class when small businesses and Big Corporations are out there creating jobs and acting all capitalisty.
Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an “Obama Rushes In and Quells the Unrest, Calls for National Healing, Promises to Create a Department of Jobs That Will Seek to Create ‘Employment Fairness,’ Not Just Leave ‘Job Creation’ to Millionaires and Billionaires”-socialist omelet.
It’s good to be the king.
“Department of Jobs”?
You’ve GOTTA be shittin’ me…
A People ready to believe
non-sensedouble-think like “unemployment creates employment” is a People eager for a master.The whole damn government is a Department of Creating Jobs — but you have to pronounce the Old Testament character’s name correctly or people misunderstand.
They prefer to think of them as Professional Voters. As opposed to those rank amatuer tea partiers.
Stop coddling the infantile over-stuffed government Warren.
Wow, that is an amazing discovery. Almost as exciting as the discovery that raising the minimum wage 40% in the last 4 years creates jobs.
Just go with the biggest lie possible. “It can’t not be true!!”
It ignores the fact that unemployment benefits are paid in place of lost wages.
Not to mention the fact that they’re not paid in exchange for something produced. But gubmint types don’t get that, because they never have to answer to a bottom line. When they make a boneheaded decision that wastes tens of millions of dollars, nothing happens to them. No scolding, no demotion, no firing.
Somebody should kick Carnie in the teeth. Did not one JournoLista call him out on that idiocy? I know, silly question.
When the economy was going great guns in the 80’s everyone was on cocaine. Let’s let a few of those narco-subs up the river and dump all that cool, cool snow in those flashpans of economic activity, our nation’s low income neighborhoods. Think of the money our country’s unemployed would spend in order to get a good ounce of Bolivian marching powder. Think of the increase in productivity! Think of the jobs that would be created from a second round of the crack epidemic! More police, clockers, dealers, trauma room doctors and nurses, prostitutes, community organizers, and chop shops. Not to mention the all night gun shops, discos, diners, private security specialists and hardware stores. Payphones and pawn shops would come back, fencing contractors would be back in demand and making bank on razor wire upgrades, gold chains, nail salons, chicks would be skinny again and nipples would be everywhere!
OOOOh landau roofs and opera windows on cars… What the hell is he waiting for?
LMC, even possibly a drop on the Organ Donor waiting lists!
Oh, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, my friend. Get a load of the Department of Innovation.
Somebody needs to explain to these folks that Brazil wasn’t an instructional film.
That’s so Pelosi.
*But gubmint types don’t get that, because they never have to answer to a bottom line. *
And add to that, they’ve never had to “produce” something. To leftists, production isn’t actually producing, its automatically the end result of what they are doing ,whether it produces anything or not. They consider thinking about something “being productive” and don’t realize that the whole “thinking about something” is merely a lead-in to “doing something.”
Lol @13!
Department of Useless Assholes is about to go on a hiring spree come next November.
@ 12. Obviously they’re not rocket surgeons..