Writing at Real Clear Politics, John Stossel tackles a pet peeve of ours, ‘green jobs’:
Politicians always promise that their programs will create jobs. It’s used to justify building palatial sports stadiums for wealthy team owners. Alaska Rep. Don Young claimed the infamous “bridge to nowhere” would create jobs. The fallacy is the same in every case: Even if the program creates jobs building bridges or windmills, it necessarily prevents other jobs from being created. This is because government spending merely diverts money from private projects to government projects.
Governments create no wealth. They only move it around while taking a cut for their trouble. So any jobs created over here come at the expense of jobs that would have been created over there. Overlooking this fact is known as the broken-window fallacy. The French economist Frederic Bastiat pointed out that a broken shop window will create work for a glassmaker, but that work comes only at the expense of the cook or tailor the shopkeeper would have patronized if he didn’t have to replace the window.
Right on point about politicians promising to create jobs. Remember Philadelphia where Leon Altamose who tried to build a hotel just outside of Philadelphia with non-union labor. Union labor attacked and destroyed his job site resulting in the many promises to Philadelphia union labor in return for votes during mayorial campaigns. Stadiums,the never ending airport project, etc. Altamose, an entrepreneur, was an example of shifted promised distributed wealth that politicians have no stake other than votes. Or consider how union labor went all out to support Clinton for the promise of “jobs” to watch him fast track NAFTA. Then labor supported him again. Moving wealth around is a funny thing, labor cried about jobs leaving while enjoying unprecedented increases in quality of life during the last eight years. It wasn’t too, too long ago we were watching three channels on a black and white TV listening to a stereo with records and while using slide rules in high school. Promises and rhetoric do not create a strong economy. Free markets, entrepreneurs, and leadership does.