Steele Claims Government Jobs "Aren't Jobs," Private Sector Jobs Never Go Away

[democracy1st]

Steele Confuses Stephanopoulos: Claims Government Jobs "Aren't Jobs," Private Sector Jobs Never Go Away

There is certainly a political debate to be waged over whether or not government spending can effectively create jobs. But in his interview on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Michael Steele seemed to suggest, as he did back in January, that government jobs are not, in fact, really jobs.

Rather, Steele said, government jobs are "just work." (Is work not a job?) The newly-minted RNC Chairman added that when it comes to the private sector, job loss is never permanent.

"They come back though George," said Steele. "That's the point. They've gone away before and they come back."

Stephanopolous did his best to sift through the logic, pointing out that millions of private sector jobs have been lost in just this past year.

Earlier in the interview, Steele acknowledged that the government can create "work" in the short-term. But the notion that this type of spending could spur economic growth -- whether in advancing environmentally friendly industries or through the filter down of more infrastructure -- was dismissed out of hand by Steele.



Transcript:

STEELE: You've got to look at what's going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job.

STEELE: No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates. It's going to be long term. What he's creating...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn't count if it's a government job?

(CROSSTALK)

STEELE: Hold on. No, let me -- let me -- let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we're talking about have an end point.

As a small-business owner, I'm looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It's a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I'm -- either way, the bottom line is...

STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don't really understand that distinction.

STEELE: Well, the difference -- the distinction is this. If a government -- if you've got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That's -- there's no guarantee that that -- that there's going to be more work when you're done in that job.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we've seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.

STEELE: But they come -- yes, they -- and they come back, though, George. That's the point. When they go -- they've gone away before, and they come back.

Link to video
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/08/steele-confuses-stephanop_n_164991.html

[Skittles]

1. outsourced jobs are coming back?

exactly when, Steele, you fucking asshat?

[Baikonour]

17. EXACTLY.

[ddeclue]

2. Talk about a Ph.D. in BULLSHIT...

a job is a job - it doesn't matter whether it is private or gov't and jobs coming back in the future is NEVER guaranteed regardless of what has happened in the past. Structural changes in the economy which eliminate jobs are hard to overcome if they ever can be overcome.

Right now the only "safe" jobs are:

1) Being an elected official.
2) Working for the defense department or DHS.
3) Being in the military.
4) Working for a defense contractor.
5) Working in health care.
6) Being a lawyer or bill collector.


:eyes:

[sandnsea]

3. Teachers, Nurses, Cops, Firefighters, Librarians,

Park Rangers, Museum Curators, Road Crews, Water Plant Technicians, City Planners, Tax Assessors, Judges...

Not real jobs.

And that is the problem with the right wing. If it isn't private enterprise, it doesn't count.

[Kool Kitty]

4. If Steele's head were any further up his own ass,

he could use his tongue as a necktie. When are the jobs that went away coming back, just after Easter? How about the Fourth of July? The jobs that are gone aren't coming back. How many people that have been "laid off" really have a chance of being called back?

[firedupdem]

5. I was watching that and I wanted to slap his face through the tv!

What is he talking about? What jobs left and came back? When is mine coming back? The last two left for India! Can he give them a ring and tell them I need that job returned immediately?

He's a fucking idiot!

[snot]

6. morans!!! = us, or them??? aarrrgh!!!

[Triana]

7. If PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS never go away then explain the record number of layoffs?

Eh?

Good heavens. These nincompoops are absolutely BRAIN-DEAD!

[Kool Kitty]

8. Don't you worry. Mr Stelle said that

those jobs will be coming right back! :crazy:

[MrSlayer]

9. Well yeah, construction jobs do come to an end.

When the road is finished or the building is built. That doesn't mean we shouldn't go ahead and build them. Steele is an idiot.

[Berry Cool]

19. And there are all KINDS of government jobs that don't relate to completing projects with an end date

What an idiot. He thinks that "government work" is only stuff like building roads and bridges, and when that ends there's nothing left to do? The stupid, it hurts.

[exboyfil]

10. I am not sure what he means but you can have the

ultimate Keynesian nightmare of one group of workers digging a hole in which a second group of workers fill.

Government jobs are good jobs if they fulfill a societal need better than can be achieved through the free enterprise system. I do not accept spending for spendings sake.

Looking at direct government jobs from a microeconomic perspective. The marginal cost of these individuals is only the difference between what they are being paid minus taxes versus what they would have received from the public treasury otherwise (unemployment, welfare etc).

I think Steele's concern is the camel's nose in the tent argument. As large segments of the economy are set aside for public workers, these changes will never be reversed. It then becomes a question in which these portions of the economy better reside in the public or private sector. Health care/health insurance is becoming a public sector function over time in our economy, and we should just move forward on it.

A good example of where private makes more sense than public is the manufacture of tractors. "Russia makes tractors which sell for $50,000 on world markets. But each tractor requires $60,000 worth of raw materials. Each tractor subtracts $10,000 in value from raw material inputs." from the Hoover Institute.

Some concerns I have about this whole Green push. If it turns out that alternative energy is significantly more expensive than the "dirty" options (ie coal and oil), then we will be at a competitive and strategic disadvantage to economies which do not convert over to Green energy. I don't think you can argue externalities if even a few major players refuse to go along (China and India being two examples). If Al Gore is right, once we get our own house in order, then we need to consider drastic actions against those other economies (to the point of fighting a war???).

Anything we can do to reduce our need to maintain 4 carrier groups and 200,000 soldiers in the Middle East to ensure oil flow will be on the upside. Both the Greens and I agree on this point. If we get there by not drilling any more wells or digging up any more coal/uranium, then I am all for it. I just don't know what the animal rights people are going to think about the bats killed by the wind mills and the lizards killed by the solar collectors. I also think you are going to find that these alternatives are going to end up costing more than an equivalent coal fired plant would achieve, and the available amount of energy to be harvested will be insufficient to meet demand (especially with an electric conversion for automobiles).

[ddeclue]

15. If it jump starts the economy then who really cares if one group is digging the hole that another

fills in?

Do you honestly believe that there is no private sector equivalent?

How about cigarette manufacturers vs nicotine patch sellers?

How about Burger King vs. LA Fitness?

How about health insurance companies vs. doctors?

How about lawnmower manufacturers vs. sprinkler system manufacturers?

There are plenty of examples of the private sector working at "crossed purposes" yet no one points out the "nightmare" there - hey it's just "free enterprise" when they do it for profit.

The fact is that these anecdotal spending complaints are all just that anecdotal and not indicative of the overall package. In fact many of the so called "pork" problems are not problems at all but have legitimate benefits to society beyond their spending aspects.

The whole point - and Mr. Keynes was right - is that DEMAND drives the economy and economic investment NOT supply. Investors are chickenshits who will not invest first and hope a demand shows up later, they want their profit, they want it right now and they want it guaranteed. The only way that can happen is if they invest where a demand already exists.

The only way to fix a deep recession is through government spending to hire workers to perform work so that they will have money to spend back into the economy and so that they will have the confidence in their financial situation necessary to spend. Otherwise it is the feedback loop of cutting jobs which cuts demand by consumers which in turn causes more job cuts.

The longer term solution is re-regulation, financial transparency and the breaking up of these giant corporations and banks into small entities that will be forced to compete with each other and hire workers and a requirement that imported goods are produced under US labor, safety and environmental laws or are taxed to death otherwise.


Doug D.

[HillbillyBob]

11. Whut???!!! thats like ^(turd) + fool = dumbshit

nt

[Birthmark]

12. Steele is a truism-spouting moron. eom

[JDPriestly]

13. Tell that to the people who used to work in the L.A. garment industry.

Most of their work was outsourced to China. It never came back. It probably never will unless we pass legislation that limits imports of textiles from China. Sure, the employers are still selling clothes and still making money. But the people who used to make patterns and cut and sew clothes are no longer needed. What are they doing now? Good question.

I have to also say that the 62-year-old woman who worked as a secretary for over 40 years and who got laid off a year or so ago will never see another paycheck -- never in her life unless she gets a government job. That's because when private employers looking for a secretary can take their pick from a bevy of gorgeous things all under 40, they don't even see that experienced, capable if less pleasing to the eye 62-year-old. Sure, age discrimination is against the law, but you can never prove that the reason the 32-year-old and not the 62-year-old got the job was because of age -- not with so many unemployed secretaries out there.

Same for the 55-year-old man who got laid off from his job as a truck driver because his back isn't so good anymore and his boss wouldn't or couldn't give him an accommodation for his disability. Sure, a lot of other truck drivers are losing their jobs, but that guy was the first to go and he'll be the last to be rehired. In fact, no private employer is going to take the risk of hiring him.

Even when private employers start hiring, they aren't going to hire the people who need the jobs or work the most. That's what Mr. Steele refuses to recognize. Who cares whether they have a job or just work as long as they can feed themselves and those who depend on them.

[Marr]

14. If you truly love a job, set it free to India. If it loves you in return, it will come back.

These people are certifiable. They just pull this shit out of the air, don't they? The jobs "come back"? How the fuck does he figure that? I'd love to have been sitting in Stephanopoulos' chair today. I'd have asked Steele how, specifically, these jobs come back. When they come back. Cite some recent examples.

[ddeclue]

16. B.E.A. UTIFUL - DUZY AWARD FOR THIS ONE!!!

:rofl:

If you love it set it free - if it doesn't come back - KILL IT!

:rofl:

[ashling]

18. As Keynes (and George W Bush) reminded us

Steele acknowledged that the government can create "work" in the short-term.,

but, as Keynes (and George W Bush) reminded us, in the long term, we're all dead.

Children don't eat in the long term ... families don't heat their houses and clothe their families in the long term ... in the long ter, the bury their dead.

♠

[Hubert Flottz]

20. What he means is, War is the only good way to make jobs!

"Where there's smoke there's work!"

EDIT...BTW, Steele is the perfect name for a guy who leads a gang of thieves.

[Ganja Ninja]

21. This a particularly lame red herring of a talking point.

[grannie4peace]

22. BS- steele is stupid!

[ProfessorGAC]

23. So Mike Steele Doesn't Have A Job?

It has a term. The contract will run out. It's not private sector.

So, Mikey is admitting he doesn't have a real job?
GAC

[terisan]

26. The RNC Chair is a private sector job. The government does pay for it. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

27. I Said That Where?

I never said it was paid for by the gov't. So, did you have a point?

He said a "job" is something a private business owner creates. The RNC is not a privately owned business. They even have a .org designation on the internet. That means that at least in the cyberworld, THEY'RE NOT A BUSINESS!

They are a national political organization that has tax exemption but do not provide charitable services. That's about as public sector as it can get. It can be public sector without being paid for by gov't.

So, again: Did you have a point?
GAC

[opihimoimoi]

24. The Pub Party has no choice but to BS their way into the debate:discussion

Obama has a Lock on Truth.....them Pubs wilt when hit with Truth

[BlooInBloo]

25. That was classic.