Governor
Beverly Perdue recently announced that with every construction project
in North Carolina funded by federal stimulus money a sign will be
posted saying "Jobs Now." She said, "That is going to be the logo in
North Carolina. We want people to know that we are putting folks back
to work."
In the coming months there will be similar announcements from state
and federal officials identifying specific jobs that are being financed
by the stimulus funds. Some will bear signs, as in North Carolina,
while others will be listed on websites tracking the money.
Brian Balfour of the Civitas Institute asked the following when
hearing of the "Jobs Now" project: "It's easy to see the 'Jobs Now'
projects of government roads and bridges. But where does that money
come from? What use would that money have been put toward if not taken
by the government to finance their public works?"
We know that money comes from taxpayers, but there is no definitive
way to know where that money would have gone otherwise - if other
policies had been in place. How it might have been spent is a matter of
speculation, but it's a pretty safe bet if that money was left in the
pockets of taxpayers it would be less likely to end up growing
government at the expense of the private sector.
Governor Beverly Perdue recently announced that with every construction project in
North Carolina funded by federal stimulus money a sign will be posted saying
"Jobs Now."
She said, "That is going to be
the logo in North Carolina. We want people to know that we are putting folks
back to work.”
In the coming months there will be similar announcements from state and
federal officials identifying specific jobs that are being financed by the
stimulus funds. Some will bear signs, as in North Carolina,
while others will be listed on websites tracking the money.
Brian Balfour of the Civitas Institute asked the
following when hearing of the “Jobs Now” project: “It's easy to see the ‘Jobs Now’ projects of government roads
and bridges. But where does that money come from? What use would that money
have been put toward if not taken by the government to finance their public
works?”
We know that money comes from taxpayers, but there
is no definitive way to know where that money would have gone otherwise – if
other policies had been in place. How it
might have been spent is a matter of speculation, but it’s a pretty safe bet if
that money was left in the pockets of taxpayers it would be less likely to end
up growing government at the expense of the private sector.
A recent report from the Employment
Security Commission of North Carolina showed big losses of private sector
jobs in the state, but the same report showed the government continued to grow
during that time. Alex Crafts at Red
Clay Citizen looked at the state employment figures and noted that “over the
last year, 210,000 non-farm industry workers have been left unemployed, while
government has increased their workforce by 19,800.”
Some groups, like the Business
Coalition for Fair Competition, will push for public
policies that promote the “utilization of and reliance upon the private sector
by government at all levels” and “eliminate unfair government-sponsored
competition with private, for profit enterprise, including small business.”
Other groups with
various interests will be compiling
information
and tracking where the
stimulus money is going at websites such as TracktheStimulus.com
and Recovery.gov. But there is no way to
track what jobs would have been created had the $787 billion been left to
taxpayers to spend.
Balfour wonders, “What signs will be given to the laborers
put out of work because of a redirection of resources from the private sector
to political ends? What signs will be given to those workers deprived of
opportunity due to jobs never created because resources are tied up in public
works?”
I don’t expect to see any signs going up in vacant
storefronts on Main Street identifying “Jobs That Might Have Been.” Nor do I expect to see a website called “How
Americans Would Have Spent $787 Billion If They Had Been Allowed to Keep It.” What I do hope to see and hear is a debate on
the topic.
Those seeking to justify the $787 billion in “stimulus” spending will likely
try to claim credit for every new job over the next few years. According to a recent report in the Wall Street
Journal regarding findings of the Government Accountability Office, “The
first official scorecard for the $787 billion economic-stimulus plan shows
limited progress in getting out the small portion of money meant for states and
communities this fiscal year.”
Nationwide, in March alone, private employers cut jobs by 742,000. The
President claims his policies have already created
or saved some 150,000 jobs, but 1.2 million jobs have been lost in the
American economy since his inauguration.
There are ways to track and show how the government spends
money and there are ways to track how individuals and businesses spend
money. What cannot be tracked or
quantified are the ways money might
have been spent by individuals and businesses if different policies had been in
place. There are ways though, through
specific examples and anecdotal evidence, for people to get an idea about some
ways different policies could have had different outcomes.
A businessman can explain how, if taxes had been
less burdensome, he would have hired additional employees. A family can describe ways their dollars
would have been pumped back into the economy through expenditures on home
improvement, or a much needed vacation, had they been allowed to keep more of
the money they earned.
If the debate over the next few months and years is over
how many jobs were created as a direct result of the 2009 “stimulus” act, we
will not learn much. A more interesting
and informative discussion would be about how much the government was grown
during that time and how private business might have benefitted from policies
that kept more of taxpayers’ money in their own hands.
Hopefully over the next couple of years we will see
a vigorous debate about what is better for the economy as a whole – a world
where government spends more money or where individuals and businesses do.
