Economic Disconnect

As the President insisted that "the economy is getting stronger by the day," those of us outside the Obamadoration bubble took note of the fact that hiring by private employers plummeted.

Virtually all of the 431,000 increase came from the hiring of government census workers.

This unsettling piece of news comes after last month when much of the MSM -- like CNN -- attributed the increase in unemployment as evidence that "discouraged" workers were finally returning to the workforce. Well, now, not so much.

Remarkably, the President seems to think that the hiring of temporary census worker jobs by government is evidence of a strengthening economy. And the idea that a government job is just as beneficial as a private sector one is widespread throughout the left; in a recent column, the LA Times' George Skelton quoted California Assembly Leader John Perez:

And for those who hold a lower regard for jobs created by government than for jobs created by the private sector, the Democrat points out:

"If I'm a shop owner and you come in to make a purchase, I don't really care where you got the money."

What breathtaking ignorance. The difference is that creating a government job requires taking money by force from someone else -- the taxpayer -- who then himself has less money to buy things in a shop. Creating a government job simply means reallocating money -- from the taxpayer to the government -- or just reslicing the same little pie, so that more is taken by the state and less remains for those who actually produce.

In contrast, when private sector jobs are created, that means the pie itself -- the economy -- is growing. Then the guy with the new private sector job can buy something from the shop, other people who already have jobs in the private sector have extra income with which to buy something from the shop, and all this economic activity is even generating more tax money for the gaping maw of Big Government . . . so that the government can afford to add more workers (more's the pity) without sucking taxpayers dry.

In other words, however the President tries to spin it, all jobs are not created equal.