MORE ON: GOVERNMENT CAN'T CREATE JOBS

This from an article in Politico:
Some policymakers are now looking at expanding job training and other federal employment programs. Even conservative House Budget Committee ChairmanPaul Ryan (R-Wis.) proposed to “strengthen” these programs in his recent fiscal plan. Alas, the history of waste and failure in these programs argues for termination, not expansion.

Federal programs for unemployed and disadvantaged workers now cost $18 billion a year, yet the Government Accountability Office recently concluded that “little is known about the effectiveness of employment and training programs we identified.” Indeed, many studies over the decades have found that these programs — though well intentioned — don’t help the economy much, if at all.

DWD--The above actually doesn't go far enough. There is considerable evidence that government job programs actually "create" a net loss in jobs!

GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE?

Robert Lucas of the University of Chicago offers a couple of telling graphs. This first chart shows the history of U.S. economic growth over the past 140 years. As you can see, the growth rate was remarkably constant over time, and there were always periods of rapid growth following economic downturns.



Lucas, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1995, then looks at the data for the recent downturn and recovery. As you can see, we have been struggling to get back to average growth rates and we have not enjoyed any of the above-average growth that normally follows a recession.



The key question, of course, is why growth has been anemic, resulting in (what seems to be) a permanent loss of output. In his presentation, Lucas warns that bad government policy is playing a big role. He says that “the problem is government is doing too much,” and he specifically highlights the “likelihood of much higher taxes, focused on ‘the rich’” and a “large increase in the role of government” in the healthcare sector.
In his conclusion, Professor Lucas is not overly optimistic about recovering lost output. He doesn’t make any flamboyant claims, but he does note that “European economies have larger government role and 20-30% lower income level than US.”
The obvious connection is that America is becoming a European-style welfare state and it is unavoidable that we will suffer from European-style economic malaise.
To those of you who would like to see a more healthy economic recovery: please don't ask the government to help.

US CITIZENS ARE POLITICALLY DOUBLE-MINDED

If you're interested, please click on "WHO'S ON FIRST?" found in the right margin of this page.
Thank you,
DWD

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM ABE LINCOLN AND OTHERS

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away peoples initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” -- Abraham Lincoln

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Abraham Lincoln

The founding fathers preferred a Republican form of government over a simple democracy. As Thomas Jefferson said, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.”

Here is the end result of democracies — “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fical policy.” – Alexander Tyler, 1787 (Scottish history professor)

And finally,
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."              --  Cicero, 55 BC.

ADAM SMITH ON GOVERNMENT AND TAXES

Writing in the mid- to late-1700's, Adam Smith penned the following:

“The agents of [government] regard the wealth of their master {i.e., we the people} as inexhaustible; are careless at what price they buy; are careless at what price they sell.”

“Those unproductive hands...may consume so great a share...that all the frugality and good conduct of individuals may not be able to compensate...this violent and forced encroachment.”

“After all the proper subjects of taxation have been exhausted, if the exigencies of the state still continue to require new taxes, they must be imposed on improper ones.”

“The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would...assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”