Can you think of any politician who is not promising he or she will create jobs?
The President promises to create them if we slip him another half a billion to spend. All the Republican candidates assure us they will create jobs. These guys talk “green jobs.” They rant about bringing home the manufacturing jobs that fled overseas. They promise shovel-ready jobs. And construction jobs. And jobs that will magically appear when we create another federal training program. (There are only 47 such programs operating now. How well are they working for us, do you suppose?)
Here is a dirty little secret. Pssst. Politicians do not and cannot create these jobs.  Sure, they can take money from one pocket of the economy and stuff it into another pocket. They create jobs over here. But they dry up jobs over there. Because they have taken the money from over there. So there is no net gain in jobs.
We saw this in the wake of the porkulus bill. A big portion of the money went to states and counties and cities. They used it to keep their workers working. While the federal government added tons of jobs. Yet there was no net gain in jobs. Why? Because the pols scared the bejeepers out of the private sector when they piled a few trillion onto the national debt. And threatened new taxes galore. To pay for porkulus.
If you believe politicians can create jobs, I ask a simple question: Why don’t they? If they possess such power, why don’t they use it? They would solve a lot of problems, wouldn’t they?
We would never suffer recession. We would never suffer unemployment. Politicians at work – known as government – would sprinkle money around the place. And poof! Voila! Jobs would sprout like the flowers in spring.
How many jobs have you seen sprouting lately?
Ahhh, but these guys talk as if they possess such power. Next thing you know they will promise to reverse the rise of the seas. Maybe they will get around to turning lead into gold.
As you listen to all this talk about jobs, please know you this: The issue is NOT jobs. The issue is the conditions our genuine job-makers face.
The issue is that people in the private sector create jobs. Particularly those in small and mid-sized businesses. And those who go out on a limb to create fast-growing start ups.
The issue is about the venture capitalists and others. Those who take the risk to finance the new Apples when they are mere seedlings that may or may not make it.
The issue is that they face uncertainties galore. The President and various pols have threatened them and derided them. Job-makers don’t know what that will lead to. New taxes lay ahead. With the tax cuts that expire. And the many taxes within Obamacare. Job-makers don’t know which will whack them and which will not. So they cannot project how much workers will cost them.
Job-makers face a blizzard of new regulations and restrictions from government. They don’t know yet how much these will cost them.
The issue is not jobs. The issue is the conditions under which our job-creators must operate. Our politicians have made those conditions onerous. The rhetoric they spew these days suggests they fail to understand this.
From Tom ... as in Morgan.                   

For more columns and for Tom’s radio shows and new TV shows (and to write to Tom): tomasinmorgan.com.