Every time the President promises to "create" more jobs it makes my blood
boil. Not because he's mislead us about the 2.3 million jobs that have
been "lost" since he started to lead us, but because the problem isn't jobs
"lost" or "created." In fact, it's not even about jobs.
A job is work that someone pays you to do. When someone looks after your
kids and you pay them, they're doing a job. When you stay home and look
after them yourself, that's not a job and you don't get paid.
The problem, as I said, isn't "lost" or "found" jobs. Except for the truly
incompetent, people don't lose jobs; they have them taken away. Or, more
correctly, the money to pay them is sent somewhere else. More often than
not, the work still needs to be done. It's just being done for nothing.
So, the problem is that there's not enough money, not enough dollars to pay
people for the work they do. And why is that? Where has the money gone?
Well, there's about twenty-five percent going into the federal government's
accounts. Of course, it doesn't just sit there. Under normal conditions
those dollars come right back out to pay road builders and harbor masters
and all those people who make us safe--the police, the teachers, the food
inspectors, and, yes, our soldiers.
But, suddenly, there's not enough to pay them either. Why? Because so
many of the dollars are being exported over-seas. Yes, even a big chuck of
the money the military spends is being spent in foreign lands--"creating"
jobs in other countries. "Creating" because the dollars are paying for
work many of us don't even want done.
And, oh yes, a good percentage of that is going into the pockets of the
middlemen, like Halliburton, who are in no hurry what-so-ever to bring
those dollars home. After all, being a big pooh-bah in the Persian Gulf is
so much more fun.