

Off the Rails: GOP Opens Reign By Killing Jobs - jeremybythesea
http://redgreenandblue.org/2010/11/05/off-the-rails-gop-opens-reign-by-killing-jobs/

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variety
You know, there are often hidden fallacies embedded within these "massive
spending == job creation" arguments.

Chief among these being, all of the regional governments are currently facing
major budget crises, and (no matter whom you chose to blame) are _already_
laying off blue-collar workers, helter-skelter, as a result.

For example, in reference to the ARC project cited in the article, MTA (the
agency which runs the NYC subway and regional rail lines, for example),
looking at something like an 810m deficit, and has slashed something on the
order of 600 jobs as a result -- not to mention collateral economic damage to
the region caused by loss of transit service, and the damage to come caused by
enormous (20%+) fee hikes it is proposing.

Of course, money for the ARC project wasn't coming directly out of the MTA
budget. But the money has to come from somewhere; part of the reason behind
the current MTA morass has a lot to do with the lack of NY state money (or
moral capital) to bail them out.

Point being, however you slice it, money is finite; gobs of money (supposedly)
creating X jobs over here could also be spent creating (or saving) X+1 jobs
over there, etc.

Another aspect to consider is that for some reason, people seem to love to cut
and paste supposed job creation figures for these wonderful projects, without
looking into what these figures rally mean (let alone whether they can be
substantiated). So quite often you'll find that "6,000 jobs" really means,
umm, guess what, "6,000 job- _years_ ", or more like an average of 1,200 jobs
over a 5-year project (say).

And that's even if these jobs actually come into being (to the extent
advertised). It actually turns out to be really, really difficult to predict
the number of jobs that will be directly created by any of these projects.

I actually tend to favor, or at least consider to be not so bad,the idea of
spending for job creation on general principle -- but at best it should be
thought of as a "winback", or an ameliorating effect of the fiscal damage
caused by extravagant ($10B+) public spending projects.

At the end of the day, they should be evaluated for the direct benefits they
might bring (e.g. relief of congestion, revenue from projected ridership),
rather than as the fantastic "job creation engines" they are often touted as
being.

