Saved or Created: The Real Voodo Economics

Despite a net job loss of over 2 million since the beginning of 2009, President Barack Obama claims that his policies “saved or created” 150,000 jobs. I can’t help but laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh at this. Oh, wait… and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh… and laugh and laugh. Okay, out of respect for those who lost their jobs I have to stop laughing!

Here’s why jobs “saved or created” is shameless rhetoric:

1. There’s no way to count the number of jobs “saved or created” by stimulus spending. The way the Obama administration comes up with the 150,000 figure is to basically assume that x amount of government spending creates a y number of jobs and just declare it so.

2. The second reason is related to something I call the Instant Billionaire Formula™. I claim that with the Instant Billionaire Formula™, anyone can become a billionaire, instantly! Here’s how it works… ready? Okay, write yourself a check for one BILLION dollars! And presto, you’re a billionaire! Of course, what I failed to mention to begin with is that applying the Instant Billionaire Formula™ costs a billion dollars (you just wrote yourself a check, remember?), so overall, your net worth really doesn’t change. But if we just look at the positive side of things, then, wow, yes, you just became a billionaire! Similarly, the government can create any number of jobs by taking money from someone and giving it to someone else for say, digging a ditch and filling it back up. But considering government’s propensity for waste, is there any net gain here? How many jobs are lost due to the stimulus spending, which is money that needs to be somehow taken out of the economy before it’s put back in? How productive are the jobs “saved or created” in relation to the jobs “forsaken or destroyed”? These are questions we must answer before we can claim 150,000 were “saved or created” while the net job loss is in the millions.

I’m sure that if President Bush had tried the “saved or created” trick, he would have been ridiculed to no end.

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