Amount of new census jobs in May: 411,000
Total census workers 564,000
Cost to count American citizens 14.5 billion
Cost to count American citizens in 2000 4.5 billion
Total workers in private sector for comparison:
• Oil and gas extraction (about 165,000 workers)
• Electronic and appliance stores (about 480,000)
• Air transportation (about 456,000)
• Rail transportation (about 216,000)
Mr President, you can't stimulate the economy with government jobs. You can't cut the deficit with government jobs. The government doesn't create anything especially wealth, it consumes wealth. These are simple facts and realities and they must be realized for the truth they represent if you expect to change the current situation.
Is it the truth though? Is the way to encourage consumer spending to take more jobs away? Logic would dictate that this would decrease consumer spending. The only way that it could possibly encourage a private sector led recovery is if the savings were passed on as tax cuts for small businesses or the self-employed.
Then there is a risk that this could fail. Less jobs equals less tax revenue. Less tax revenue equals higher budget deficits.
Its a vicious circle. Cuts in public expenditure would equate to falls in public revenue, not only through taxation of public sector employees but also through the loss of contracts to the private sector.
Yes a cut in public spending could be the long term answer, but only if the savings are used to introduce real incentives for entreprenuership and outside investment.
The US situation almost exactly mirrors the UK dillema, albeit the UK situ is even worse right now.
Those public sector jobs need to be replaced by private sector jobs. The likely effect is further falls in private sector jobs. Unless the government cuts corporate taxes.
What you have to answer is the following question.... "How do you encourage economic activity and a private-led recovery". Otherwise further job losses could be catostrophic.
There are two answers that I can think of. Number 1 is to devalue your currency by drastically lowering interest rates. Number 2 is to cut corporate taxes. It seems however that your interest rates are already as low as they can go. I don't know anything about corporate taxes or what US businesses have to pay on their revenues.
Ironically, your government has a plan to make US employees more attractive to corporations, which is rejected by the generally more capitalist right. By making healthcare the burdeon of the taxpayer, and not the employer, it is cheaper for corporations to employ domestically / relocate operations to the USA. The burdeon of healthcare would be placed on the employee through their tax payments.
This would ultimately mean less disposable income for those employed, but less people unemployed. Sounds fair to me.
I dont think that there is any easy answer to be honest. A cut in public spending could be more expensive to the country than maintaining current levels of public spending.
It is more than possible for cuts in public spending to cause a "double dip" recession. The alternative is to wait for the natural private recovery, whenever that may be, and then work on permanently reducing public spending only when the labour markets can handle the transistion.
Its a little like you or me reaching the peak of our spending power. Do we pay more than our required mortgage repayments when we get a $10000 pay rise? Or do we pay the same and hope that our earnings keep on going up for the 25 year term? With the ultimate risk that you may find yourself earning hardly anything 5 years ago thinking "damn, I wish I had put some money away when I was earning lots, or made more progress on my mortgage repayments".
What happens if you start making lots of money again in a few years? You learn from your mistake and pay as much of your mortgage off as you can, whilst you can.
Perhaps this is the lesson that western economies REALLY need to learn. When the times are good, reduce your debts, work at a surplus at all times. So that when the times are bad, you dont regret your wastefullness.
I see the UK, and the USA, as countries with really badly managed finances. Just like that friend that everybody has who once had it all and lost it. Thankfully the situation is pretty global, maybe that friend will make sure he never loses it again.
What would be your answer, leeberttea, to the cut in public spending? What would this achieve? Want would you want out of the deal?
You cant borrow your way out of debt!
Employing more workers that produce nothing is just that, more borrowing and more expense..
It is not the answer...
It would be better to have spent the money on some form of incentive to start new businesses than to just pay for more inefficient workers for the state... No tax to pay on your profits for 3 years as long as you employ more than 5 people! How many people would be motivated to try to start a business??
The USA has I believe the second highest corporate tax rate in the world.
We are also blessed with all kinds of labor and environmental regulations, some of which we simply do not want to live with out but which importing countries are not burdened with. As a country we need to demand that importers be subject to the same regulation or a tax. We need to cut our corporate tax as well.
Government jobs are paid for with tax money. Government workers may spend and pay taxes, but the money they are spending and paying taxes with is generated in the private sector. Remember the government doesn't create anything, though they do buy goods and services from the private sector returning some dollars. Ideally government spending must be cut and government jobs eliminated so that the tax burden can be lowered to spur spending and jobs creation in the private sector.
The Government is using the Census workers as a propaganda tool to say the economy is recovering. These are part time jobs... some only a few hours a week. They get laid off then "rehired" so they numbers can show gains.
Then when the census count is completely over and they are all laid off they do not have to show job loss because the workers are NOT eligible for unemployment benefits.
It's pretty clear to anyone with a brain that census jobs are meaningless but they do in fact increase the deficit and accomplish nothing. 48 Million people didn't even respond. So how can the information they collect be deemed even remotely accurate.
We can do everything in this country electronically but we count people manually?
HUBBERS
Check this out.
The average PAY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR is $50,000+ $9,000 in fringe benefits = $59,000
The average pay in the PUBLIC( government ) SECTOR is $70,000+ $40,000 in fringe benefits = $110,000
The private sector unemployment is 9.7%+,the public sector unemployment is 3%. Something is wrong with the equations, can you agree.
Government is growing at a rapid pace, the private sector is going broke.
In your report , can you get the amount of pension and social security dollars paid by employer ( public ), healthcare, insurance, vacations sick day benefits and other fringe benefits cost should be included when you quote the gross income of any person
Because of the Horizon oil disaster President Obama has put a moratorium on deep oil drilling.That decision will cost 65,000 private jobs to be lost. Obama's promise of jobs is nowhere in sight.
I read that he wants to continue deep oil drilling as part of a comprehensive enery plan.
Whereas you pubbies advocate for oil only.
You like the monopolies...on energy, media, world conquest......
If we had been working on alternative energy from the beginning, we would not be in this mess.
But Noooooo, it had to be oil oil and oil. Subsidies from US.....raising prices on US...getting rich off US....
And then when the inevitable happens...oil rig explosion, huge destruction of the planet...you go and blame Obama....the one who is advocating for alternativbe energy!!!
This is all the fault of big corporate interests who are alway placed ahead of everything.
Check out the military and NASA...you think they couldn't have alterative energy in place in a second? Please!
It's the corporate honchos in private sector and gvt. who halt progress...to line their own pockets.
Look what Beckles did to Van Jones....a green energy advocate smeared out of office by a bleeding heart corporatist!
Look at you know who's energy policy: War for Oil!
Obama ran on green/clean and mean....but he is willing to use anything at our advantage. Including nuclear and deep oil drilling...so stop with the mis-leading.
That it is pretty broad and baseless accusation to the 'pubbies' here that you clearly disagree with.
"Obama ran on green/clean and mean....but he is willing to use anything at our advantage. Including nuclear and deep oil drilling...so stop with the mis-leading." I doubt anyone here would disagree with your statement -- and I didn't see a thing in the prior posts that were mis-leading in this regard.
The critical issue of continued unemployment in the private sector, as opposed to the government sector, and the fact that the growing gov't payroll is being paid by private tax payer dollars -- is a very valid concern.
Both the catastrophe in the Gulf and the resulting moratorium on drilling is and will continue to worsen the unemployment situation in the private sector. That is just a fact pertinent to the topic of this forum, and not a judgment on the wisdom of deep water drilling.
by MikeNV 15 years ago
The Associated Press released a story today... an anti-republican, pro Obama piece about jobs created with stimulous money in South Carolina in a mostly Republican area."The new hires came from a broad area including parts of South Carolina and Georgia, and unemployment rates have continued to...
by ga anderson 10 years ago
I stole this from another thread, so the topic could be discussed without further hijacking the thread it was on. I hope that was OK.John, I am not putting forth criticisms for you to defend. I do not know enough about MMT to hold an intelligent conversation about it. I was merely pointing to...
by Mike Russo 11 years ago
During Obama's state of the union speech, he stated that he wants the minimum wage raised and is going to raise it for federal employees. He implied this will create jobs. The republican party countered with: Where are the jobs?" House Republican Conference Chair Cathy...
by Arthur Fontes 15 years ago
Thousands rally at Illinois Capitol — for a tax raiseThousands of teachers and other union workers descended on the state Capitol on Wednesday and chanted "raise my taxes" to try to pressure politicians to avoid major budget cuts.http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010 …...
by PR Morgan 14 years ago
Do you think most public workers are overpaid?
by ahorseback 6 years ago
$15.00 per hour min wage and benefits , "....... goal to eliminate working poverty and --involuntary unemployment altogether ", .....whatever that means . But doesn't know where the finances to pay for it will come from yet his "......people are working on that....... "?
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