Thus, creating public sector jobs using Stimulus Money is equivalent to trying to cool the room by opening the refrigerator door—achieving economic prosperity will take an infinite amount of time.

By Jack Beavers at Center for a Just Society

Science defines cold as the absence of heat. Through science, we have learned to extract heat using refrigerants—by consuming energy (electricity), we condense refrigerant vapors, cool the condensate liquid, and then flash (revaporize) it through an expansion valve. We use the resulting cold vapors to cool our homes and refrigerate our food.

In engineering college we studied the various refrigerant fluids—freon, propane, ammonia, etc.—and learned the ones best suited for the each of the various applications our society has dreamed up. It was during these studies that one professor taught us that we must never get so absorbed in applying our knowledge to solve a problem that we forget to look at the obvious.

The professor did this using a one-problem test. We were given a week to provide an answer and we could reference any information available for solving the problem. The test question was:

“A refrigerator is sitting in a room with no windows and one door. The room is 20 ft by 20 ft with a 10 ft ceiling—and when the door is closed the room is perfectly sealed and insulated. The room is at 70 deg F and the refrigerator has a cooling capacity of 600 BTU/Hr. If the refrigerator door is opened, how long will it take the room to cool down to 65 deg F?

When we turned in our answers, only one of us out of the 22 in the class had the correct answer. And the answer came not from the “A” student, instead it came from one who had actually worked in his father’s A/C repair business. His answer, “an infinite time”, came from actual experience. You see, he knew that when you open the refrigerator door, the refrigeration system only moves heat from the open door side to the back coils—thus the room can never cool down. In fact, it would probably warm up due to the heat produced from the inefficient use of electricity in powering the refrigeration system.

This simple scientific truth can also be applied to resolve our current political argument over how to grow the U.S. Economy. Do we create public sector (government) jobs using Stimulus Money or create private sector jobs through deregulation and lower taxes? The application is simple and obvious—public sector jobs exist because of the tax money generated from private sector jobs. Public sector jobs consume the wealth created by private sector jobs. Thus, creating public sector jobs using Stimulus Money is equivalent to trying to cool the room by opening the refrigerator door—achieving economic prosperity will take an infinite amount of time.

Thus to paraphrase,“Economic prosperity is the absence of government jobs.”

 
Jack T. Beavers is an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Consultant with a BS in Chemical Engineering (BSChE), a Professional Engineering (PE) license, a Certification in Business Management (CBM), and a Certification as an Internal Control Specialist (CICS). He has previously held a Certification as an ISO-9000 Internal Auditor – and his work history includes Enterprise Risk Assessment responsibilities as a Manager of Internal Audit. Please email your comments to forum@ajustsociety.org.

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