NY Times’ Paul Krugman Calls for ‘Government Jobs’ Jobs Plan; Cites Union-Funded Study
by Kyle OlsonUndeterred by stubbornly high unemployment rates, and a stimulus plan that has fallen flat, talk of a second stimulus package is growing louder. But to shed the unsuccessful “stimulus” moniker, Democrats and government labor unions have adopted a “jobs plan.”
Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist who’s never seen a government expenditure he didn’t like, Sunday pointed to a “study” by the Economic Policy Institute, which alleges spending $40 billion over 3 years could create about a million “public-service” jobs.
In other words, Krugman and EPI would see fit to simply create government jobs, instead of trying to help the private sector. That makes sense, given who supports EPI.
The Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association have kicked in nearly $2 million in their members’ dues dollars over the last couple years to fund EPI’s research, according to financial reports filed with the federal government and found at ACORNcracked.com and AFTexposed.com.
That’s funny, they’re all government employee unions. And they funded a study calling for government jobs to be created.
And Krugman takes EPI at face value.
What is the bigger lesson here, Krugman’s penchant for being a shill for proponents of bigger government or EPI producing “research” that will benefit its funders? Both are an unpleasant reality for them.
If the Obama administration and liberals in general were interested in actually helping the economy, they would promote solutions based on free-market principles. Instead, growing government is their solution to the problem.
Isn’t it telling that both SEIU and AFT attended the Obama jobs summit, according to Fox News.
But back to Krugman. He admits creating a million government jobs would have consequences:
All of this would cost money, probably several hundred billion dollars, and raise the budget deficit in the short run. But this has to be weighed against the high cost of inaction in the face of a social and economic emergency.
But as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” And sadly, the solution is invariably bigger government.
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Krugman is a bimbo Like this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww&fe...
As an economist, I can say Krugman is pathetic. His sloppy political agend is all he offers.
Someone needs to tell Krugman that WE ARE BROKE.
ny times sucks it.
You are taking Money away from the GDP to create government jobs. This is complete crap as it requires tax dollars from the working to put these people to work. Obama and his union crooks are creating another great depression with the same crap ideas that extended the first great depression beyond when we should have recovered.
Lets see if I follow this, Krugman, a columnist for an ailing and failing MSM print conglomerate that is on the cutting edge of the A Team to receive a Federal Bailout to preserve their deteriorating business model, is calling for the Government to drop the stigmatized "stimulus" word, and provide a second program that wont work. Did I sum that up correctly? Whether they call it Cash for Contractors or Shekels for Socialists, it won't work any better than the last failed program.
Paul Krugman is a dangerous man, and understands nothing about real world private industry or job creation. None of these people do. They are all theorists and statisticians. I have created more jobs in the last thirty five years, than all of these azzholes combined……….
It's amazing. Didn't this Krugman character win a Nobel in Economics? And, nobody has told him that the Government produces nothing. That it 'generates' NO revenue? That is not a self sustaining 'business'?
Where will the money come from to pay for this million jobs in the future? Taxes? Really? Where will the businesses come from to PAY the taxes?
This is all a joke.
We need to burn DC down and start over.
Nobel winning economists pretending that the way to cure a recession is to create a million tax supported jobs. Good God. This whole thing is a joke.
It's been said: "it's a recession if the guy across the street is laid off, but it's a depression if you are." I would truly like to hear Krugman call it a depression.
I think I read that over 90% of Obama's appointees and czars have never held private sector jobs.
There is no hope.
I guess they all came up through ACORN and understand 'business' as being government funded.
Shouldn't someone take a moment to explain where the money the government gets through tax revenue comes from? Seems like they all think there is a magic 'revenue' fairy running around filling everyone's bank account.
Keynesians all, look for the to double down on stupid. I’ve heard Krugman state the reason the New Deal didn’t work is because FDR didn’t spend enough money, …sheesh! The good news the Marxist are fully exposed, and it’ll be their ass starting in 2010.
The more I read Krugman the more I lose respect for the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Peace prize has been a joke for a long time but I always thought the prize for the sciences (even the dismal ones) had some merit.
Good one.
Krugman has so little knowledge of our economy as to be laughable. How he manages to write about it with any credibility is a wonder. Every one of his articles is full of fallacy and so bereft of basic economic theory that all I can do is chuckle.
Krugman never wonders what would happen if the government were to get out of the way and allow the private sector to solve our problems. This idea is noticably absent from every single one of his articles.
Dave, your post was thought provoking, and made me reflect back to another day and time. My kids think I am a dinosaur, an antique. I remember getting running water in the house at six years old, and electri lights at eight years old. I remember watching the moon landing on a fuzzy black and white TV with rabbit ears for an antennae and being mesmerized. Today, kids eight years old have cell phones, we got a hardline phone when I was thirteen. Perhaps it was your revenue fairy comment that made me think. I understand small business and economic models, and economies of scale. When I was a boy, once a month we would go to town. At that time, town was seventy five miles. Today it is fifty, and i live in the same place. How is that possible? The town grew outward. As kids, we were in awe, and always were admonished not to get in trouble and to mind our manners.
[...] quotes union study to support government jobs plan. At this point, Krugman has about the same degree of credibility as Andrew Sullivan. Posted by [...]
I read Krugman in the paper from time to time. He reminds me of Kramer on Seinfeld. There is one episode where Kramer accidentally starts working in a firm where he prepares business reports. His boss looks at them and says these make absolutely no sense and it's as if Kramer has no business training whatsoever.
I being a MBA graduate read Krugman and think "he makes absolutely no sense and it's as if he has no business training whatsoever".
When in town, I remember some of the places: A saddle and leather shop run by a Mexican immigrant, a cobbbler shop run by an Italian immigrant, a ladies dress shop run by a Czech immigrant, a laudnry run by a Hungarian immigrant, a bakery run by German Immigrants. These people all had a couple things in common: the spoke very limited, broken English, but they tried, to the best of their abilities, and they were all proud. Proud to be Americans, and proud to be contributing members of society, and they were all patriotic and voted. They all flew the flag on the 4th of July, all closed their shops and showed up for the parade. When the flag went by, all the men took their hats off, and everybody placed their hands over their heart.
Dave,
Funny, we had free health care too. I can still hear the words whenever we were kids and would fall down, or get bucked off a horse or stomped: "Get up, you ain't hurt". "If you cry, I'll really give you something to cty about". Living 75 miles from town, if you broke an arm or leg, the old man would set it and splint it. if you got cut and needed stitches, the old man would sew you up with a horse needle. I am from the generation that was too busy working to get sick. What I described here in these couple little paragrpahs, was not a Norman Rockwell type of existence. It was pretty harsh, pretty Western, but it was America. As I look at it now, I have three questions: What the #### happened to my country? Who stole it? Where did it go?
Paul Krugman was on George Stephanopolous show ( Nov 29th ) and said it would be okay if the debt was 100% of GDP. What a dolt !!
I was just link to this other great piece from one of the other many site I peruse regularly – lonestartimes.com
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/06/government-...
"One way to compare and contrast those two world views is to consider what they think about socialism. Materialists look at history since Marx and point out that socialism has been tried many times, in many nations, in various forms, and it has always failed. In places where it was fully implemented the result was decline and economic collapse. When it was only partially implemented you got slower decline. It often looks like it’s working in the early stages, but in the longer term it has never succeeded.
So to materialists, it’s apparent that socialism is a nice idea, but one that doesn’t work and shouldn’t be adopted.
To teleologists, none of that matters. What matters is the fact that it’s a beautiful idea. It’s how things should be. In a world in which socialism was implemented and which worked the way the teleologists think it should work, you really would have a utopia. The fact that it’s invariably failed when used doesn’t change any of that. (When asked to explain all the failures, usually the answer is, “They didn’t do it right.” But for teleologists, a long string of failures doesn’t matter because fundamentally teleologists don’t believe things like that make any difference.)"
SEIU actually LIKES high employment:
Universal health care, widespread unionization, stronger regulations on business, profit-sharing for employees, higher taxes — all that sounds like Western Europe. Mr. Stern considers that a worthy model. "I think Western Europe as much as we used to make fun of it has made different trade-offs which may have ended up with a little more unemployment but a lot more equality."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12285224436748431...
Just more proof that the Nobel Prize suffers from the three I's……ideological, irrelevant and illegitimate.
This guy needs to get over himself and come back into the real world.
Thumper,
Remember Pennypacker, Varnsen and Vandelay Industries?
Now those were the days when "real" robber barons and industrialists made the world spin……….
After seeing "NY Times' Paul Krugman" I knew I could stop reading right there, nothing good would come of it. Strangely enough, I was perfectly right.
It's already a government jobs program. See this coup parody: Government Celebrates Takeover of Stimulus Bill http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/11/government-ce...
"That’s funny, they’re all government employee unions. And they funded a study calling for government jobs to be created."
This was funny 10 years ago. Today. It is probably the reason the 2010 revolution won't be peaceful.
What do I have to do so that I never see a picture a Krugman again?
"…spending $40 billion over 3 years could create about a million “public-service” jobs."
I'm just a dumb hick from Alabama and economics is not one of my strong points but may I ask a question?
If these 'about a million "public-service” jobs' don't exist now, then it would kinda indicate to me these million jobs are not necessary. It looks like this guy wants to create these jobs simply to be able to fill the positions.
Also, isn't high unemployment bad for the government because the unemployed people are not paying any taxes? It seems that by creating make-work and paying people to do unnecessary work is the exact opposite direction you would want to go.
Am I missing something here?
Thanks in advance for any reply. I'll just sit here in my trailer and cling to my guns and religion and hope someone can educate me.
Why are we still listening to anyone from the Times?
They have been proven they are in bed with liberals and don't know $hit.
We need Private sector JOBS and an environment for them to prosper!
We DO NOT need more government jobs that do little for the economy and add long term costs to already burdened budgets!
GREAT POINT!
If he has never seen a government stimulus that he didn't like, then maybe he secretly works for the government. Like the shills at the back of a business conference that run up to buy the product. Perhaps Paul Krugman should be investigated to determine if he is an agent of the state?
Krugman is another Nobel Prize winning fraud, just like Al Gore.
$40,000,000,000 to create UNION government jobs [1 million]. That translates to 1 millon votes for Big Government democrats. Smaller government means less goverment jobs, so their base shrinks. This just another plan to distribute wealth, hold on to power, and "enslave" the population.
"A socialist is someone who has nothing and wants to divide it up equaly among everyone"
George Bernard Shaw
Oh that's brilliant. Create jobs that are supported by the private sector tax base at a time when the private sector tax base is shrinking.
No worries just fire up the printing presses, we have lots and lots of paper left, so money is not a problem
The Obama administration is a "failure" to say the least. They have no clue how to get out of a recession except to blame the other administration and give taxpayers moeny to pay their bills for the month.
http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuek...
Look at the union $$ going into the Economic Policy Institute:
In the "Payee" field type in – Econonic
http://kcerds.dol-esa.gov/query/getPayerPayeeQry….
What happened to your country? Well, those that are 'smarter' and better 'educated' than you are in the process now of 'bettering' your country. You don't realize it. You aren't smart or well educated enough to understand. Realities aren't what we can touch and feel. Realities are what we want them to be. For instance, poor people. The reason they are poor isn't because of i) bad luck, they were born into it ii) unfortunate event, got hurt or sick and can't work iii) bad parents, the never learned the necessary skills to be self sufficient iv) bad attitude, they don't have a work ethic. No, these aren't realities. The reality of why some people are poor is: because others are successful. And those that are successful, are only successful because they have taken advantage of others or because the government has provided them the situation/environment to succeed. Therefore, successful people owe those that aren't successful; since their success was built on the backs of the unsuccessful. Don't you understand?
Correction – in the Name field type in – Economic.
Who stole it? Corporations and the rich stole it. The Obama Administration, SEIU and ACORN are currently in the process of reclaiming it for the working class. Aren't you aware that any successful country is driven by the working class? Where do you think entrepreneurship, innovation and scientific advancement originates? Anything good that has been produced, developed or implemented in this country came through the hard work of a a union member of some sort. And, if we want this country to be the best, we all need to be in a union. Don't you understand?
Krugman is a hack. He simply is unethical in my opinion. He has proven time and time again, that he will abandon principle or just plain obfuscate the truth in order to make a political point. He should study up on Von Mises instead of the Keynsian take on economics, but that would mean he would have to examine his long held dogmatic beleifs and actually objectively study the data.
How dare you even insinuate that Economics is any way shape or form a science. Tarot card reading is more scientific.
So, basically a teleologist is the equivalent of a Cleveland Browns fan?
Krugman is a Leftist HACK and a Communist A**hole! Anyone who takes his advice is CLUELESS! Are you listening, Obummer? 2010 and 2012 is coming! YOU ARE DONE, DUDE!!
You don't get it.
By creating those jobs, we can get people that aren't working a job. We can get them behind a desk. Get them a phone extension. Get them a government email account. Get them a job title. Imagine how their self esteem will rise? Why get caught up in your implications of productivity? There is more to a 'job' than producing something or filling a market need. Sometimes a job needs to be about filling the WORKER's need.
Union money into EPI 08 & 09:
AFL-CIO Nat'l Hdquarters – File#000-016 $262.5K and $150K
Carpenters – File# 000-085 – $50K
CWA – File#000-018 – $65K
Firefighters – File#000-317 – $10K
Food & Commerical Wks-File#000-056 – $68K
Government EEs-File#500-002 – $5K
NEA – File#000-342 – $250K
There is more too!!
"The trouble with Socialism is eventually you run out of other peoples money"
Margaret Thatcher
Let's say it was mandated that you had to declare your self a liberal or conservative on your income tax return. It was then mandated that if you declared yourself a liberal, you had to pay 80% to 90% of your income to the government for redistribution. If you declare yourself a conservative, you would pay the current tax rate based on your income. What percentage of liberals would actually declare themselves? How many would vote liberal in the next elections?
Imagine how real economists like Thomas Sowell feel when they read this nonsense! I don't know how they can stand it w/o going insane from hearing all this endless dribble about gov't programs and rescues and bailout and stimulus….
What does Mr. Krugman…I'm sorry, nobel laureate Krugman propose we do when the bill comes due and our creditors demand payment for all this debt we're piling up? Maybe he doesn't care about that since it will only be a burden we impose on our children and grandchildren and he'll be dead and gone by then. Typical liberal, spend other people's money and leave someone else to clean up the mess.
Our government has been a party to many hugely immoral undertakings and this generational theft we are currently practicing ranks right up there with the best of them.
Wake up America. Go to http://www.GrassRootsNation.com and get involved in one of the many grassroots movements sweeping the country in a bold attempt to reclaim it from the socialists currently in power.
What a douche!
Thanks.
Now I'm an educated hick.
I wonder how much of his own invention Alfred Nobel would use on the Institution that carries his name?
When I am discussing taxes and rates with someone who tries the "If you make that much you should pay a higher rate" argument, I simply ask them how much the volunteer to send in. The tax code NOW allows you to send in more if you choose to. For some odd reason not one of them is willing to do so….
He's just another Hi-browed, Hi-minded Hebe Philosopher who pontificates from on high. In his life, I'd bet he's never hand washed his own car, cleaned his own house, worked with a pick or shovel or did one thing that was manuel labor. That is beneath the ruling class. That is how "they" provide jobs for "us", those in the servant class.
Krugman is an acolyte of the church of macroeconomics, within the Keynsian denomination. He thinks that he can conjure jobs by taking money from one person's pocket and paying the salary for some useless hole-digger.
Hayek has a great quote about macro-economists (people who use statistics and mathematical models to proscribe economic cures.) He describes macro-economics as a "delusion ecouraged by its extensive use of mathematics, which must always impress politicians lacking any mathematical education, and which is really the nearest thing to the practice of magic that occurs among professional economics."
AFT (Teachers union) file #000-012 – $750K and $350K and $7K
Krugman's ignorance is becoming legendary!
If jobs and government spending will solve the problem, the Soviet Union would have been the wealthiest nation ever. Jobs are nothing with wealth and production, Paul, You award winning dumbars!
LOL!
-a Raven's fan.
This needs to be on the AFT Exposed site! But, get a screen shot first. You know it might disappear.
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/07/whos-funding...
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/donate/spon...
Where did it go? Well, it's there. It's just hidden. Hidden behind a haze of harmful CO2 emission. But, luckily, we have social scientists who are well heeled in the art of finite mathematics and they are currently in the process of rediscovering America thru a whole new version of the scientific method. And, if all goes well, your country will be found after the Copenhagen meetings. Or, at the very least, it will be found when the EPA begins to oversee CO2 emissions. Where did it go? It's right here! Work your way through all the CO2 that is ever more quickly destroying us, and you'll see it. Don't you understand?
All of this money went into EPI in 08 & 09 from a variety of unions:
SEIU – File #542-272- $8K
Bricklayers – File #000-034 – $5K
NEA-File#513-989 – $5K
SEIU-File#000-137- $12.5K and $62.5K
State/Munic -File#000-289 – $25K
Boilermakers – File#000-074 – 5K
And there is more
Well, they do call it the Dismal Science…so it could be the Tarot Card reading of the sciences.
He also wrote a column not long ago advocating for a target unemployment rate to remain in the 8-9% range, permanently…like the social-democracies of Europe – France and Germany.
I guess PhD doesn't mean what it once did…
Math isn't his strong suit, or these "jobs" suck. $40B/3 years/1M jobs = salary of $13,000.
Cut my taxes!
Nice post, very well information shared here, thanks for the post and for sharing the post here.
[...] been in the government. Building the bureaucracy or rather the bureau crazy. See this. Or this. Or this which shows that the impetus for additional jobs has a push besides the politicians. [...]