http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9SPdh4Nzy4
On Dec 3, 9:27 am, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > White House Hosts Job Summit Today“Creating jobs is a political and economic > imperative for President Obama, who is holding a high-profile jobs summit > Thursday that aides hope will demonstrate his concern for the plight of > everyday Americans. Obama has summoned 130 corporate executives, economists, > small-business owners and union leaders to the White House to sound out ideas > for accelerating job growth during the worst labor market in a generation.” > (Washington Post, Thursday)They just have to find the right magic words.A > Real Con JobByRobert G. Anderson• July 1976 • Volume: 26 • Issue: 7Mr. > Anderson is executive secretary and director of seminars of the Foundation > for Economic Education.“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all > production.” Adam Smith pretty well said it all with that statement two > hundred years ago inThe Wealth of Nations.Unfortunately, this basic economic > truth has been all but lost in today’s world. The public press and political > rhetoric today focus attention on creating employment. The plight of the > unemployed and the presumed inability to obtain employment have become the > overwhelming concerns of our society. > This concentration upon job creation has tended to conceal the ultimate end > toward which a job is directed. Full employment has become an end in itself > and society is assumed to have attained its final goal if all are employed. > The prevailing economic wisdom holds that the purpose of production is to > create jobs; but, in reality, we produce in order to enjoy the fruits of > production. > While it may indeed be true that work can build character and is valuable for > that purpose, this does not negate the economic necessity that the job be > productive. In a free society, as Adam Smith observed, we produce in order > that we may consume. Job creation, which generates greater production grows > out of the desire for greater consumption. > The pursuit of full employment as a political goal is in total conflict with > the ideal of a society of free individuals. The political goal of “job > creation” not only involves the use of force, but will assure a waste of > scarce resources by massive misallocation within the labor market. > In a free society the desire to consume more will generate productive work. > The creation of “jobs” by political action, however, will hamper productive > effort by siphoning scarce resources away from the market into the public > sector. > In an unhampered market society all individuals seeking productive jobs can > find employment. With unrestricted competition among employers, and a freely > adjusting wage rate, there would be employment for all who wished it. Each > individual, guided by his own self-interest, would maximize his productive > work in an effort to achieve his goal of greater consumption. The jobs so > created are the basic means by which individuals acting voluntarily and > peacefully can attain a higher level of consumption. > Tragically, our society today does not enjoy the benefits of such freedom in > the economic sector. Government intervention over many years has generated > massive distortion and permanent unemployment within large sectors of the > labor market. Union cartels, protected by various laws, effectively exclude > competing labor; minimum wage laws bar low-productivity workers; welfare > legislation encourages people not to work; and government-generated inflation > in the pursuit of “full employment” creates inevitable economic recessions. > These forces, and many others, have established a continuing corps of > unemployed, or worse yet, the so-called “unemployables.” > Rather than examine the political causes of unemployment, and the resulting > loss of consumption generated by such unemployment, all political attention > is focused on unemployment itself. Again, it is a case of government > attacking the adverse effects of its earlier actions rather than ceasing the > interferences that have caused the problem. Ironically, the remedy continues > to center on the effect rather than the cause of government-created > unemployment. The problem thus is being aggravated by such attempts to solve > it. > The political answer seems so simple: The way to eliminate unemployment is to > make the state “an employer of last resort.” After all, socialist societies > have no unemployment problem. The socialist system assures every individual a > “job.” Why not borrow another of the socialist “virtues” in order to “solve” > one of our major economic dilemmas? > But that is to lose sight of the problem: We do not seek jobs for their own > sake; the end we seek is improved consumption. Unless work will generate > greater production of those goods individuals wish to consume, it is wasted > effort and should be avoided. Work is a great consumer of resources, (we wear > out) and employment is beneficialonlyif it yields a return greater than the > value of the resources expended. > The failure to understand this economic truth has led to such policies as > “featherbedding,” shortened hours of work, restrictive work rules, attacks on > automation, and the like. The false belief that there exists only a given > quantity of work, and that more jobs can be created only by dividing this > work among more people, has led to the adoption of such programs. > In reality, there can never be a shortage of work. As long as individuals > possess wants, the demand for their fulfillment will always be present. The > employment of labor is a never-ending race to satisfy more and more of man’s > wants. The creation of jobs is a natural consequence of the insatiable human > desire to attain an ever higher level of material well being and there is no > other way that can be achieved. > This improvement in well-being depends upon more productive work. The > objective of every job is “to get more goods out of the woods in a shorter > period of time!” This is the only way man has ever been able to improve his > material circumstances. In a free market society it is the combining of labor > with capital (better tools) in a social division of labor that has brought > about this result. Labor, employing an ever-increasing quantity of capital, > generates a higher and higher productivity, with its ultimate benefit in a > higher level of consumption for the worker. > Abandonment of these economic facts of life in favor of job creation by the > state can lead only to a decline in prosperity. Job creation demands economic > resources to sustain such employment. As long as the productivity on the job > exceeds the resources consumed in employment, a growth in prosperity is > assured. A freely functioning market, guided by consumer-directed signals of > profit and loss will employ productive resources most efficiently. Without > such market direction, the return from labor devoted to a job can never be > known. > Government, as the “employer of last resort,” has no resources of its own to > create jobs. All too often overlooked is the fact that “government funds” are > a figment of political rhetoric. Governments do not create the resources they > consume, but redistribute instead the resources of others. Before governments > can provide resources to anyone, they must first withdraw such resources from > private ownership and control tax them away from someone. > The notion that government can be “an employer of last resort” denies this > truth by implying that government possesses in itself the resources for job > creation. What in fact must occur, if government is to be an employer, is an > even greater growth in the political redistributive process in our society. > More victims must be plundered of their resources in order to support an > ever-growing throng of government wards. > The resources surrendered by productive individuals to sustain the > government’s role as “an employer of last resort” impoverishes even further > the productive citizen. These lost resources, which would have been privately > channeled back into the market through increased consumption or productive > savings, are instead transferred to the new corps of government beneficiaries. > The political transfer of these resources does indeed create jobs in the > government sector. What it does not create is an improvement in the economic > well-being of the citizenry. In fact, it creates precisely the opposite > effect. > The ever-increasing burden of government on the private productive sector > discourages future productive effort. The government seizure of private > resources prevents the employment of these same resources in a job-creating > market role. The further impoverishment of productive individuals retards > even further the market’s ability to increase productive employment. Future > productivity and well-being suffer from the lost resources that are > redistributed by government to its new job corps. > If the new government job corps could generate greater productivity than is > consumed in resources, there would be no reason for its creation. The market > much earlier would have created such jobs, since it would have ‘been in the > self-interest of all to have done so. To use government as “an employer of > last resort” is an open admission that job productivity must be less than the > resources consumed in such employment. > When the goal of government is to become the “employer of last resort,” when > consumption is no longer the sole end of production, when the job becomes an > end in itself rather than a means to an end, then the prosperity of the > society will surely be adversely affected. What we get will not be greater > abundance through the creation of productive real jobs but instead a > realconjob!http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/a-real-con-job/?utm_source=The+Freeman&utm_campaign=7e84a8cd97-In_brief_11-09-2009&utm_medium=email -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
