Saturday, January 12, 2008

It is all about jobs

This is exactly right. Social programs are a necessary safety net. However (to really abuse the metaphor), the real goal is to make sure people don't fall off the high-wire in the first place. Lots of jobs that pay well enough to support families does that. The state and local government's primary job (warning, metaphor switch coming) is to ensure that the economic environment is a well fertilized field that will cause lots of jobs to grow on their own. A city government that makes it easy for 5000 new well paying jobs are created is doing a better job that one that runs shelters for 5000 homeless. While obviously both need to be done, the creating of one well paying job will have a more positive impact.

Fortunately, making it easy for job growth is predominantly one of getting the hell out of the way (regulations, taxes) and figuring out how to advertise the strengths of the citizens to potential businesses.

More businesses/jobs means more tax dollars which means more money for social programs. Grow the tax base by more businesses, not by raising business taxes.


The Corner on National Review Online
In today’s innovative high-tech world economy, where the global spread of free-market capitalism is the single biggest growth factor, saying “the entrepreneur is no longer king” is just plain wrong. New technologies and new companies are springing up everywhere, and it is precisely this Schumpeterian process that is the single-biggest driver of jobs, incomes, prosperity, and wealth creation.

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