Matthew Yglesias says go over here for the details.
Who ever defined creating new jobs as the end-game of an economic stimulus package? Clearly the Progressive proposals are going to win at this metric as they are primarily intended to stimulate the economy BY creating jobs. In fact, I think if you research it, you will find many economists that will argue there are more effective ways of stimulating the economy than “creating” jobs in the New Deal sense of the phrase.
I don’t have enough research at my fingertips as I write this to refute or confirm the argument laid out in the chart, though I will say that by their very nature, the blue bars are fundamentally bigger government, while the orange bars are focused on getting the government out of the way. If you’ve been reading me for even a few days, I think you know which I favor.
EDIT:
I posted this as a comment, but wanted to get some more reactions by giving it it’s own post…
By “New Deal job creation”, I was specifically referring to the infrastructure push implemented as part of the New Deal - government spending to build and improve infrastructure only for the sake of employing those needed to do the work.
I see this kind of job creation as somewhat futile - yes, it helps in the short run, creating jobs and wages for those that have fallen on hard times. However, after the dams and roads are built, those people go back to being unemployed - the government jobs were temporary.
In a way, they were artificial - the economy didn’t actually expand in a meaningful way, so these workers are unable to be reabsorbed into the private sector workforce - they remain dependent on the government in a different way, unemployment and welfare.
My point being - the jobs that are created need to be real, permanent jobs - not jobs created by the government for the mere sake of increasing employment. The Hertiage Foundation’s plan of tax cuts aims to stimulate the private economy to create jobs, whereas the Progressive proposals are aimed at creating “artificial employment”.
Source: southpol
