Unions Support Subsidies For Digging Holes And Refilling Them With Dirt
Critics of government stimulus spending, including myself, have long criticized it as make-work. Programs that spend tax dollars on jobs to employ union members and government workers and, supposedly, stimulate the economy.
And it’s more true than anyone wants to admit. So true that, when pitched on the idea of a company that wants public funds to pay for digging holes and filling them back in again, union leaders are supportive comparing the initiative to other projects already approved.
The problem with allowing the left to perpetuate the idea that government spending creates jobs is that they begin to justify government projects and programs not by what they’ll accomplish but by how much money will be spent on the project to stimulate the economy.
So we get bridges not so that traffic can cross rivers and uneven terrain but so that union workers can have jobs building them. We maintain universities not for education so much as to stimulate the businesses around the campuses. We subsidize solar panels and wind turbines not because they’re cost-effective, reliable energy sources but because somebody might get a job maintaining them.
We should build a road because we need a road. We should build power plants because they work and meet real demand. Growing the government as economic stimulus is a good way to push our nation into long-lasting poverty.
Meanwhile, polling shows 57% believe venture capitalists do a better job of stimulating the economy than the government.
Tags: Economy, jobs, Stimulus
