All Posts Tagged With: "job creation"

What is Seen and What is Unseen: Government “Job Creation”

How can Obama and his economic advisers know what kinds of jobs will position our economy to “lead the world” in the long term? Indeed, how can we expect anyone to know what kinds of jobs will be able to offer such a guarantee of wealth and security, considering the enormous complexity of our world?

10Jun2009 | Larissa Price | 2 comments | Continued

Spreading the Work to Create More Jobs

Last month I emphasized that job creation is not a sensible objective for economic policy. The purpose of economic activity is not to do work for its own sake. What’s the point of creating jobs to produce goods or services that consumers don’t want as much as other things that could have been produced? Yet there is a widespread view that having government create more jobs is the best way to promote economic progress. Wrong.

1Feb2000 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | Continued

Hurricanes Are Creative Destruction? It Just Ain’t So!

My employer, Loyola College, is a Jesuit institution and, as such, encourages its students to participate in myriad community-service programs. In teaching introductory economics, I propose on the first day of class a marriage of economic education and community service. I offer to give students aluminum baseball bats with which they will walk through the [...]

1Feb2000 | Thomas J. DiLorenzo | 0 comments | Continued

Creating Jobs vs. Creating Wealth

Government policies are commonly evaluated in terms of how many jobs they create. Restricting imports is seen as a way to protect and create domestic jobs. Tax preferences and loopholes are commonly justified as ways of increasing employment in the favored activity. Presidents point with pride to the number of jobs created in the economy [...]

1Jan2000 | Dwight R. Lee | 5 comments | Continued

The Grateful Pedestrian

Yesterday evening I drove to a nearby restaurant. On my way I passed several strolling pedestrians. I did not kill a single one!
Please note that I possessed near absolute ability to do so. A quick and easy flick of my wrist on the steering wheel at almost any time on my drive would have meant [...]

1Jan1999 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | Continued