{"id":1205,"date":"2009-02-09T12:10:53","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T18:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2009-02-09T12:28:23","modified_gmt":"2009-02-09T18:28:23","slug":"snow-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=1205","title":{"rendered":"Snow Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Puzzling reflections on the definition of employment from Michael Steele<\/a>, the new leader of the Republican Party:<\/p>\n

\n

STEELE: Well, no — you know, with all due respect to the governor, I understand where he's coming from. Having been a state official, I know what it means to get those dollars when you're in tight times. <\/p>\n

But you've got to look at the entire package. You've got to look at what's going to create sustainable jobs. <\/p>\n

What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job. <\/p>\n

STEELE: No, it's not a job.<\/strong> A job is something that — that a business owner creates.<\/strong> It's going to be long term. What he's creating… <\/p>\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn't count if it's a government job? <\/p>\n

(CROSSTALK) <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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… <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On the face of it, this is just dumb.  But when one looks in more depth, it's even dumberer.  But first, to be charitable,what Steele means is that private industry (like, say, Blackwater or Raytheon) is uniquely capable of creating sustainable jobs, while the government can only make up short term work.  The only way this makes sense, I think, is to suggest that the stimulus package (anyone want to make jokes about this name?) is an end in itself, rather than a means to the end of stimulating private job sector growth.  Few other than maybe some devout communists, think the government should simply create and sustain all future job growth.  The fact that Steele thinks this shows the extent to which Rush Limbaugh owns his mind.  So even the premise of the charitable version of his remark is silly. <\/p>\n

On the face of it, of course, it's silly to make a distinction between work and jobs, as Steele does, with the government creating "work" but not "jobs."  The government creates jobs all of the time by directly making them (e.g., mine–I'm a professor at a state institution), indirectly contracting them with private industry (Blackwater), or indirectly causing them to be created (the people who sell body armor to Blackwater)–and more, of course.  All of those people who use our system of roads, trains, etc., to get their goods to market, for instance, do so with their jobs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Puzzling reflections on the definition of employment from Michael Steele, the new leader of the Republican Party: STEELE: Well, no — you know, with all due respect to the governor, I understand where he's coming from. Having been a state official, I know what it means to get those dollars when you're in tight times. … Continue reading Snow Jobs<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equivocation","category-politicians","category-things-that-are-false"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}