You are here: Home » Archives »

Obama’s “Recovery” is a Government Recovery

December 11, 2012 06:14

Government job growth is not economic growth. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s an increase in theft from the private sector, via taxes and debt.

By Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.

CNSnews.com reports:

The unemployment rate for civilian government workers plunged from 4.2 percent in October to 3.8 percent in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as government added 35,000 to its taxpayer-funded payrolls during the month.

In October, federal, state and local governments in the United States employed 20,524,000 people. In November, that climbed to 20,559,000.

As recently as July, the unemployment rate for government workers was as high as 5.7 percent, according to the BLS. That month, government employed only 20,015,000.

Since July, times have been very good for government in the United States, with governments managing to add 544,000 workers to their payrolls.

Under Obama, unemployment is (finally) going down. Right? Sure, you stop counting people who give up on employment, and who choose to live off relatives or (more likely) the government. Sure, you ignore the fact that the private sector is not growing, while the public/government sector is enjoying an unprecedented boom.

This is not mere politics. It’s reality. Money comes from the private sector. The government of an impoverished nation cannot even afford a decent police force or army. Only the government of a nation with a vibrant private sector can afford anything. The United States still has a vibrant private economy, but even so the government cannot afford all it provides, which is why we have all the debt.

Government job growth is not economic growth. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s an increase in theft from the private sector, via taxes and debt. It’s a rise in jobs done inefficiently by the public sector that could be done far more efficiently in the private sector. It’s an increase in human activity in contexts where people would not willingly pay for goods or services — which is the whole basis for government providing them in the first place.

Obama’s economy is a parasite economy. A parasite does not create, innovate or produce. A parasite lives and feeds off of its host.

In economic terms, the host is the private economy. Tax money — taken for the most part from the hated “rich” who make more than $250,000 per year — is the illustration of that host. $16 trillion in debt — and counting — is the other illustration of that host.

The majority of Americans who voted for Obama no doubt feel serene about their choice. “That Obama. He sure is smart. He’s creating more jobs all the time.” Unfortunately, his former opponent Mitt Romney fed this fallacy by claiming throughout his campaign for President, “No, I will create more jobs than Obama.”

In reality, no President can create jobs. It doesn’t matter whether the President is a know-nothing professor like Obama, or a former businessman like Romney. Only the private sector creates jobs. The only way a president (and Congress) can influence the creation of jobs is through getting government out of the way. How? By lowering taxes, and even eliminating most of them. By eliminating regulation, outside of laws against force and fraud. By limiting government to protecting individuals from violent criminals — more than enough for any one government to do.

These are extreme measures, and 180-degree reversals of where we’re heading now. But they represent the only way out of America continuing its gradual descent into the next Roman Empire. At some point, people will have to stop blaming capitalism (the only system that provides any wealth at all, for anyone) and start blaming government (the cause of all economic ills, the extent to which it intervenes in the economy.)

Republicans (like Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey) and more overtly socialist Democrats — they all disagree with this. On fundamentals, they’re the same. That’s why you see all the Republican Senators and House Speaker John Boehner falling faster than dominos the minute the election ended. For such spineless and unprincipled souls, it’s actually a relief to finally stop pretending that they really believe in limited government when, in truth, government is their career and reason for living. Chris Christie revealed his hollow shell a few days before the election, groveling before America’s false prophet of prosperity, Obama.

Our President, Congress and Supreme Court are permitting the unfettered expansion and growth of a government economy. The more the government does, the less will actually get done. This isn’t merely because government does everything badly. It’s also because there’s less and less of a private sector to do anything well, the more that government does.

Although not a majority, millions of Americans do agree with what I’m saying here. Yet we have no viable party, or active political movement, to represent us.

The false serenity created by failure to factor in what economic growth actually is spells danger for our society. It’s like being on a jet that’s in trouble, beginning its fatal descent, with the majority of passengers desperately assuming: “We’re still up in the air. All is well.”

Dr. Hurd has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Psychology, Saybrook Institute, San Francisco, CA, November 1991. Degree awarded With Distinction. Master’s of Social Work (M.S.W.), Clinical, The University of Maryland at Baltimore, May 1988. Bachelor’s of Arts (B.A.), Psychology, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, May 1985. Distinguished Psychology Student Award, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. Dr. Hurd blogs at DrHurd.com