If Government Doesn’t Create Jobs, How is Romney Going to Create 12 Million of Them? 

From the Intersection, courtesy of a facebook friend:

“Government does not create jobs! Government does not create jobs!” – Mitt Romney, Hofstra Pres. Debate 2012

When Governor Romney made this claim, he was clearly about to lose his composure. Of course, it was already weakened due to President Obama’s calling him out on several statements Romney had made during the debate. But I have to wonder if he failed American History when he was in high school, since it’s clear that he really believes that government doesn’t create jobs.

More here.

And the essay writer goes on easily and convincingly to show that the government does, indeed, create jobs.  Lots of jobs, both directly and indirectly.  Indeed, the assertion that the government does not create jobs is so patently false, one wonders what the fuck this is actually about.  For that, you have to dig around a bit inside conservative philosophy, for what it is.  Unpleasant, I know, but necessary in order to understand such an absurdity.

A foundational notion for right-wing economic thinking is that every service the government provides serves to choke off a business opportunity for the private sector.  Public schools?  They rob entrepreneurs of the chance to charge people for their education.  Police and firemen?  Same thing; somebody could be making lots of money providing those services.  Public transportation, garbage collection and sanitation, disaster aid and relief, scientific research, environmental protection and cleanup, libraries, and on and on.  All these things, say the conservatives, are potential businesses that cannot exist as long as the government is doing it.

And, to some extent, of course, they're right.  Why should an investor try to get a private fire fighting company going when the government already does it for free?  In that sense, the government really does choke out private sector business opportunity.  Now we can argue this on merit: can the private sector really perform the same function as well as the public sector can while producing a profit at the same time?  I'm sure you already know what I think.  But when Romney and his ilk assert that the government cannot create jobs, they're essentially side-stepping the issue in its entirety and just pushing a stupid slogan.  That is, from this crack-headed point of view, the only legitimate jobs are the ones created by the private sector.  Because the government, as a source of services, is always illegitimate.

But that's not the argument they want to have.  Very likely because they know they'll lose.  I mean, sure, it's an interesting thought.  But it's not much more than a theory, one that belies the entire history of economics, not to mention common sense.  After all, the government has always been deeply involved in the economy, always provided various services evenhandedly and efficiently, in ways that the private sector just can't do, for numerous reasons.  That is, this theoretical reality, where business can do these things better than the government, has never existed in the entire history of humanity.  Just as communism remains a good system on paper, but a travesty in reality, the conservatives would have us upend societal choices made with good pragmatic reason over the centuries in order to implement something that might be beneficial, just maybe, if everything goes the way they say it will, particularly for the capitalist class, but they can't really say for sure because they don't really know.  Even though they think they know.  Yeah, Karl Marx knew, too.

But that's what it's about.  That's why these people say crazy shit like "government doesn't create jobs."  It's based on crackpot bullshit, radical social re-engineering, the likes of which have only been seen in Soviet Russia, or Red China.  That's why they have to speak in obvious absurdisms.  They're simply unwilling to tell a truth that they know would be rejected immediately.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$