We Don’t Need to Create Jobs – We Need to Create Value

An influential left-wing think tank has called for the government to create millions of jobs for those without a college degree, leading to headlines like The Nation’s declaration that ‘It’s Time for the Government to Give Everyone a Job.’
One fatal flaw of such a plan was exposed in the comments section of that article, when a commentator named Ira Dember pointed out the perverse incentives that would result if the government guaranteed jobs to only those without a college degree.
Namely, that there is little incentive to undertake the expense of going to college in the hopes of finding employment, when the government will guarantee employment to only those who choose to eschew higher education!
But the underlying notion of this proposal – that the government can solve poverty by creating jobs for those unable to find work – is riddled with economic fallacies.
The logic underpinning a government-jobs program was best epitomized by an advocate who declared that, ‘The goal in and of itself is job creation. You create the job to fit the person.’

This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on May 30, 2017.