The Job Creators

What will you do to create jobs? - This is a common question we hear asked of political candidates. It sounds like a fair question, especially in a country that has seen persistently high unemployment rates for a few years. People want to know what will be done to raise employment, and many believe this will be a deciding factor in the 2012 presidential election. 

However, while I agree that economic concerns need to be taken highly into account during the next election, I take issue with this question. When did the people of the United States, traditionally the most entrepreneurial country in the world, begin to expect the government to create the jobs? No, contrary to what seems to be popular belief, the government shouldn't create our jobs, nor should politicians. People are the job creators. 

Sure, the Obama stimulus created jobs, but temporarily. And in most cases, they seemed to be jobs given just for the sake of jobs. The result of these jobs, that I have witnessed, is pointless, useless new roads were built all over the country. At whose expense were the jobs? The taxpayer's. Yet the people who paid for these jobs, didn't get to tell their employees what jobs they wanted done. No, the jobs were determined through central planning, with the idea that it doesn't matter what the job is, as long as people are working. The 780 billion dollar stimulus was the largest in our history. If government spending truly creates more jobs, we should have seen a fast recovery from the recession. To the contrary, we have seen an abnormally slow recovery. 

So I propose a different sort of economic question for the candidates. What will they do to allow job growth and prosperity? No, I don't want the government to create a job for me at the taxpayer's expense. All I ask, and what I believe my fellow Americans should ask, is - What will the government do to stay out of the way, and allow jobs to thrive?

This doesn't mean "do nothing." There is a lot that can be done, but we should look at what the government needs to cut, rather than what it needs to add. It's not difficult to see what is causing harm to businesses. I spoke to a local air conditioning repair business owner yesterday. He had only three complaints. The first of which was the record setting heat wave, here in Little Rock. Then, he told me of how the sharply rising freon costs (stemming from EPA regulations) have hurt his business. The other complaint was about the government's mandates on thermostats, in an attempt to limit mercury (although the new thermostats still use mercury). Apparently, the government has created a monopoly on thermostats. As the A/C repairman put it, "It's not OK for anyone else to sell something with mercury in it, but it's OK for the government." 

The traditional way of approaching macroeconomic problems is to look at the aggregate numbers, and try to manipulate them into improvement. In my opinion, looking at the motivations of individuals, like my A/C repairman and other business owners, would be a better way of addressing economic problems. If you take this approach, it's blatantly obvious what is holding the recovery back. Here's a hint: it's not the lack of regulation in the market.

Let's stop asking our elected officials what they can do for us. Ask them what they can stop doing.