Think for a moment about how ridiculous the notion is that the government could create a job.
A job is simply when someone is being paid to produce something based upon supply and demand. Take for example a job working at McDonald’s. Even though they are at the butt of every joke from high school teachers to movie stars, these everyday normal citizens are hired by owner/operator/entrepreneurs across the country to create a product to sell to anyone who wants it.
The simple fact is, there is a demand for burgers, fries, shakes, etc.. The banks realize this, so they loan money to an owner. The owner realizes this, so he uses his money to make the most cost efficient product possible. And the employee realizes thiss so they look to the owner for a job.
So where does the owner get his money to pay the employee? Mostly from the customers who walked in the store of their own free will, picked out what they wanted to eat from a wide-range of selections and handed their money over without force.
Now let’s turn to the government.
The government provides Public Goods like national defense, police, courts, roads, snow removal, and various other things. But let’s stick with the “good” Public Goods. The stuff that people want.
So just like burgers, fries, and other McDonald’s products, there is a demand for many of the services that the government provides. But for some reason, government has decided it must force people to pay instead of having the banks loan money to an entrepreneur to provide the good. So the government hires a police force, or IRS, to collect a certain percentage of money from every person.
Simply put, the government takes money from individuals like the employee at McDonald’s to then pay a person to remove snow for the State. And somehow, the government “created” that job.
Now, let me get this straight. The government takes money from Joe (McDonald’s employee). The government gives Joe’s money to Sam for Snow Removal and then we say “government created the job”?
So what was Joe going to do with his money if it wasn’t taken by the government? Put it under his mattress? No, that would require him to buy a mattress, which would then increase demand for mattresses and create jobs. Okay, so he burned it. No, that would require him to buy gasoline or build a fireplace, which would increase the demand for gasoline and stone and create jobs. Put it in the bank? Well definitely not, that’s were the McDonald’s entrepreneur/owner got his funds to give Joe his job.
Okay, so we understand that if Joe spends his money then he creates jobs by increasing the demand for a product and creating opportunity for entrepreneurs. So what could he possibly do with his money to not create jobs????
Back to the government. So they must take money from citizens in order to survive. In doing so, Joe loses the opportunity to create jobs through his consumer choices…
Wait, choices! That’s it! When you hear the government say they “created” jobs, what they actually meant is they created jobs where they wanted to create jobs, while Joe lost the opportunity to create jobs somewhere he wanted to.
So even if public goods would have not been created had Joe not been forced to give up his money, Joe still would have created jobs regardless of where his money went, private or public.
But the true way to think of it is that the government simply reallocates jobs, it does not create them.
Now you must ask yourself. Can the government really make a better choice at spending your money?
