Where Do Jobs Come From? Uh, You'll Have to Ask The Private Sector...

Jobs are the only thing politicians want to talk about right now -- how they will create jobs if elected again and how their opponents are doing a poor job.

Tonight the President is outlining his plan to create jobs.  Although not official yet, rumor has it that it will involve spending 300 billion dollars to get Americans back to work.

But before the partisan pundits and politicians begin to debate this plan, shouldn't we first agree if governments can create jobs?

Sure, the government can put people to work for the government (like in the stimulus), but those jobs are fleeting and not prevalent enough to make a large difference.

Regardless of what the plan is, can government create jobs?  An episode of This American Life was devoted to just this topic.  One act of the show involved taking a look at a strategy by Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker.  Walker pledged to create 250,000 jobs while in office.  Being a Republican though, Walker believes government actually doesn't create jobs, it just has to get out of the way of the private sector. But the logic he employs is cartesian.  He claims to be creating jobs while arguing he cannot create jobs.

Walker lays claim to jobs created by businesses by arguing his tax cuts made businesses want to hire more people.  But when most businesses were contacted, they explained that they were planning on hiring anyway, (but thanks for the tax cuts!).

Democrats on the other hand, prefer to try to create jobs by spending.  But the decision to hire a new employee is a complicated and multifaceted decision, and it is mostly determined by the market, not by politicians' plans.

It's an interesting relationship though.  Businesses don't really want to hire people if they don't have to.  Employees are expensive.  The people who want businesses to hire are the people who want jobs.  And right now, the President wants to keep his job, so he has to showcase a plan to create some.