I'm really glad there are sites like MediaMatters.org and CrooksandLiars.com out there that host video clips and type up transcripts of things I want to read. C&L did the legwork to bring us George Will's retelling of a Milton Friedman story:
"It put me in mind of a great story Milton Friedman used to tell. He went to Asia in the 1960s and was proudly taken by the government to see a public works project. They were building a canal. He was struck everyone was digging the canal with shovels. Friedman says, why no heavy earth-moving equipment?
"They said, oh, this is a jobs program. So Friedman says, why don't you give them spoons instead of shovels? I think we understand, now, the sterility of government trying to create jobs."
Makework jobs are not jobs; they are welfare payments. This isn't a criticism of welfare, just a clarification.
Wealth is resources, and inefficency produces less resources. It's mathematically true.
Ah - ok! So this is within the context of the other previous Economic Reality Checks. I didn't know there was a theme or greater point to your ERC's - other than simply being true statements about economics.
Wealth and wellbeing are not synonymous.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I'm talking about make-work jobs.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad there are sites like MediaMatters.org and CrooksandLiars.com out there that host video clips and type up transcripts of things I want to read. C&L did the legwork to bring us George Will's retelling of a Milton Friedman story:
"It put me in mind of a great story Milton Friedman used to tell. He went to Asia in the 1960s and was proudly taken by the government to see a public works project. They were building a canal. He was struck everyone was digging the canal with shovels. Friedman says, why no heavy earth-moving equipment?
"They said, oh, this is a jobs program. So Friedman says, why don't you give them spoons instead of shovels? I think we understand, now, the sterility of government trying to create jobs."
Makework jobs are not jobs; they are welfare payments. This isn't a criticism of welfare, just a clarification.
Wealth is resources, and inefficency produces less resources. It's mathematically true.
Ah - ok! So this is within the context of the other previous Economic Reality Checks. I didn't know there was a theme or greater point to your ERC's - other than simply being true statements about economics.
ReplyDeleteI came up with them on a whim. They are important little cogs that a lot of people leave out from their machinery.
ReplyDelete