Shovel Ready Jobs? Just Be Sure To Wear Boots!

Thoughts For Friday 11-16-2012

The answer to the question whether a government, ours or any other regime, can create jobs depends on who answers it. The Obama Administration claims it has made or saved millions during the past 4 years, citing that the U.S. economy now has more jobs than it did when the president took office in January of 2009.

While the other side of the aisle, the Conservative side, says hold on there a minute, that claim is not exactly true. In fact it can be construed to be grossly false depending on how one interprets the numbers. Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) U6 unemployment rate tells a much different story say the Republicans.

The BLS U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment, but also counts “marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons.” The more familiar U-3 rate, the official unemployment rate, which is the proportion of the civilian labor force that is unemployed but actively seeking employment.

However, the U-6 rate clearly shows that actual unemployment is higher today than it was when Obama first took office and giving solid credence to the Conservative side of the aisle’s argument.

Click on chart to see larger view.

The U-3 rate is at the same level as it was in 2009 when Obama took office and the ‘real’ [rate] is still really lousy says Rick Newman. He writes, “. . the basic jobless rate today is 3.1 points higher than it was five years ago, the broader U-6 rate is 6.3 points higher.

But the one thing that is unambiguous is that we’ve never had a jobs recovery as anemic as the one we’re experiencing now.

But can government create opportunities? Well, again that depends who defines the word ‘opportunities’ and again who is answering the question. Nothing is clear about what ‘opportunities’ are being developed in the various technologies being funded by the current administration ‘green policy’ agenda.

The whole concept of the Obama ‘stimulus’ package was to create jobs. Many so-called ‘Green’ companies touted by the Obama Administration have gone into bankruptcy amounting into hundreds of millions of dollars of lost tax-payer monies. Many attempts to pour even more millions into wasteful green job training programs have returned failing grades of gigantic proportions.

Rusty Weiss, of FreedomWorks, writes, “The green jobs training initiative has been no different, begging the question – How was the stimulus bill ever going to create jobs, when the administration couldn’t even train people for them?

‘Real live jobs’, it turns out, has been less than real, and severely lacking in jobs. All told, the program fell 84% below its own goal of job creation.”

Wynton Hall of breitbart.com, writes, “Critics say the low jobs numbers are hardly surprising, given the amount of cronyism involved in the allocation of the green energy stimulus monies.

As Newsweek has reported, roughly 80% of the Department of Energy’s $20.5 billion in loans granted “went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.” That is a sad statement of fact.

James Miller doesn’t think our government is very good at creating jobs as he explains in his article below. “Government is not an enabler of this kind of opportunity but a barrier to enterprise.”

Can Government Create Opportunity?

The percentage of Americans who reside in the lowest income quintile and move up either to the middle quintile or higher has been in decline over the past three decades.  This statistic should be alarming as it is indicative of stagnation within an economy that supposedly fosters the entrepreneurial spirit. In a world of scarcity, opportunity for a better life is an ever-present reality.

In the marketplace, success is achieved by making others better off.  Achievement for the state means trampling on the rights of others.  One embodies the elements of peace and cooperation which give way to fostering incalculable opportunities to thrive.

The other results in a perpetual state of conflict between those who “pay the taxes” and “those who are the recipients of their proceeds.” The state creates opportunity for latter and decimates it for the former. The only way to set free the innovative minds who build wealth and opportunity is to scale back this [exploitative] state of affairs.

In another interesting article, Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog , writes, “What government did do was create a class of dependent people who relied upon the government for their day to day existence. The transformation to a nanny state has not only created millions of non-productive members of society, but it can only be sustained by borrowing and passing the bill on to future unborn generations.”

Dysfunctional, Dishonest, Insane, And Intolerable

Government programs created in the 1960s created a culture of dependency, government control, relentlessly higher debt, materialism, and willful ignorance.

The incompetence, arrogance, ineptitude and insanity of government officials at the Federal, State, and Local level are stunning to behold.

We need to ask ourselves whether we the people are getting better government service and efficiency today; with government spending at 35% to 40% of GDP, than we did in the 1950’s and early 1960’s when government spending was 20% to 25% of GDP.

We doubt that most people are getting 60% more value from our benevolent government today than they did in the 1950’s. By encouraging dependency and reliance upon the all-powerful government, the motivation to educate yourself, get married before having children, work hard, and pull yourself out of poverty is diminished.

Can a small minority of critical thinking citizens lead a revolution that topples the existing social order and restores the Republic to its founding principles of liberty, self-responsibility, civic duty, and mutual obligation to future generations?

Maybe it is just me, but i think it is up to individuals wanting to better themselves, work hard and strive to become something other than a dependent of the Obama ‘Nanny State’ Socialism. For anyone doubting the existence of a nanny state there are countless Examples Of Obama’s Nanny State Gone Wild in these URL’s.

This other side have become leaches dependent on sucking the life-blood out of the creators. If it isn’t stopped everyone will perish with no one left behind to hold the candle.

The question, “Can Government Create Jobs?” The answer is a resounding NO!

However, the ‘Government’ always has jobs available shoveling all the manure they continue to hand out to the uneducated, lazy or simply malcontent. I expect that very soon you could be classified and TOLD what type of employment you are to accept in the newly formed “Speedy Creation of Responsible Employees Working Department”. Just ask for your Special High Intensity Training as the government has a lot of it to hand out. If you fit into that description, just be sure to bring your shovel and wear hip boots as it is really deep out there.

Remember, 50% voted for the ‘Hope and Change’ and 50% didn’t and that is where we leave it for this Friday.

Your thoughts are welcome.

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Written by Gary