By Manifesto Joe
Mitt Scumney lost Tuesday night's encounter with President Obama on points, and Obama showed more fire than he did in their lackluster first debate. Scumney, though, seemed prepared for a more spirited show from Obama and didn't do badly, on the whole. But one "point" he emphasized stuck in my mind because of how dead wrong he is on it.
"Government doesn't create jobs," Scumney said repeatedly, with passion and emphasis.
Scumney didn't live through World War II, nor did I. But if that war effort wasn't powerful, compelling proof that government can and does create jobs, there couldn't be anything more to demonstrate that. Suggesting otherwise has become part of the mindless nonhistory of contemporary America.
A mantra of Republicans in my younger days was that "The New Deal didn't get us out of the Depression; World War II did."
Yes, exactly. And here's why.
The New Deal was a bid to mobilize the U.S. against the Great Depression, but it was often blocked, with a reactionary Supreme Court striking down two of its centerpiece programs, the NRA in 1935 and the first AAA in 1936. Southern Democrats often sided with the Republican minority against the more far-reaching measures, and a double-dip in the business downturn followed FDR's moves toward austerity during 1937-38.
It wasn't until Dec. 7, 1941, when U.S. military forces suffered a direct and devastating attack, that the national government finally got a free hand. Defense industries flourished as direct recipients of government contracts. The Detroit auto industry was literally commandeered for national defense. No new civilian automobiles were built for four years, and the assembly lines became the source of tanks, Jeeps, and other military vehicles. Commodities such as meat and sugar were rationed.
And soon, the U.S. had full employment, with a jobless rate of about 3% in comparison to nearly 25% during the 1932-33 depths of the Depression.
It's a valid point that government isn't a long-term solution to joblessness. The Soviet Union and its imitators were proof of that. But World War II was vivid proof that it can work in the short term as a way of jolting an economy back into motion. The Obama stimulus plan didn't profoundly affect the American workforce, mainly because a stubborn right wing would never have let it go far enough.
Obama can't afford to contest that point too much, because the job-creation myth has become one of economics' sacred cows. He responded to Romney with his own soliloquy about the so-called free enterprise system. Since he's already being labeled a "socialist" by ignorant right-wingers who don't know what that word means, he's got to play it cool.
And the consensus was that he won Debate No. 2. Too bad he's still having to play the game according to "rules" that history belies.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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10 comments:
We disagree. Government does create jobs: trash handlers, road and bridge maintenance, roadway right-of-way acquisition, unemployment clerks, social services case workers, confinement officers, tax collectors, prosecutors, police officers, first responders, building inspectors, food & restaurant inspectors, firefighters, forest rangers, fish and game wardens, lock and dam masters, soldiers, sailors air men & women and marines, coast guard seamen, merchant mariners, air trafic controllers, gatekeepers and toll takers.
Just to name a few.
We disagree. Government does create jobs: trash handlers, road and bridge maintenance, roadway right-of-way acquisition, unemployment clerks, social services case workers, confinement officers, tax collectors, prosecutors, police officers, first responders, building inspectors, food & restaurant inspectors, firefighters, forest rangers, fish and game wardens, lock and dam masters, soldiers, sailors air men & women and marines, coast guard seamen, merchant mariners, air trafic controllers, gatekeepers and toll takers.
Just to name a few.
...
Well this appears twice, because I couldn't figure out how to kill the duplicate. But I'm stumped. With whom do you disagree?
Also, to wit the activity in WWII, it goes far beyond the occupations you've named. Government money generates far more than that, and always has. Just to name one thing, defense contractors would have nothing without it. Please elucinate.
Romney, Ryan, and all the other GOP frauds aew sumply trying to deny the FACT that employment and sevices can exist and be delivered more efficiently in a healthier, NON-profit driven system that isn't part of profit-hungry businesses
Sorry 'bout that. I think the dupe occurred because I couldn't read the challenge phrase, and my guess was accurate.
I disagree mostly with romney and slightly with you. Government creates many jobs and I tried only to scratch the surface with my samples.
I consider jobs in manfacturing reacting to wartime demand to be private sector. Our educational system and social valuation exalts private enterprise and belittles public sector employment.
Public employees are constantly charged with the mission of doing more 'things' for more people, with less staff, fewer resources and in less time. As great as they are at doing this, it is only because of a lack of respect for them that they have to do so. As citizens we should be up in arms about this mistreatment.
During hard times, Governments should have the flexibility to increase revenues, just like businesses do. We should support this effort.
Again - sorry for the dupe!
Scout, I'd say the wars we've seen over the past 11 years, with an "all-volunteer" military and many functions "outsourced" to private sector employers like our beloved Halliburton, comprise an example of what happens when the national government doesn't take direct control of a war effort, as our national government did in WWII. From what I've seen of the journalism of the 1942-45 era, private sectors declined to cooperate with the war effort pretty much at their own peril.
In case there's any doubt about the role that the federal government played during WWII, here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_home_front_during_World_War_II#Employment
From this article:
Nearly one million women worked as so called "government girls," taking jobs in the federal government, mainly in Washington, DC, that had previously been held by men or were newly created to deal with the war effort.
Speaking of government jobs, since Obama became president, there has been a slight increase in federal government jobs (but a much slower increase than under GWB).
However, overall government jobs under Obama (including state and local government jobs) has fallen by half a million.
I'll repeat that again: under Obama, America has LOST 500,000 government jobs.
So if Romney and the Repubs are opposed to government jobs, they ought to be congratulating Obama.
Does one really expect rational behavior from republi-can'ts?
To be fair, Obama didn't kill those jobs, mcconnell and the republi-can'ts did by killing the funding. In a twisted sort of way, it was brilliant planning and thinking: getting local and state governments reliant upon CDBG's for financing their expanding workforces necessary to respond to expanding populations. The local office-holders could respond to all this economic and social expansion without tax increases --- more police, more firefighters, more teachers, schools, sewers, roads, sidewalks and inspectors.
Then along came a Democrat who captured the minds of the people and the souls of the believers while defeating the ill-equipped republi-can'ts at their own game.
Cut off the CDBG's and the local government employees are gone and the Democratic Party is a shambles.
Might yet work.
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