Quote of the Day: The Importance of Jobs
"The current economic malaise has made Americans doubt our ability to grow and prosper as the country always has. As long as we remember that the source of that prosperity comes not from government managers but from restless, relentless individuals like Steve Jobs, we will."
7 Comments:
"always have"?
someone who lived through the 30s' might beg to differ.
the parallels between the current period and the 30's are legion.
big increases in social programs and deficits (though then we were a creditor, now we begin such already deep in debt), a government determined to be activist in the economy, and a thicket of new regulations that freeze business.
i recommend amity schlae's excellent book on the economic history of the 30's "the forgotten man".
the parallels between then and now are more than a bit striking.
government cannot create prosperity, but it sure can screw it up.
An example why Democrats are great politicians is when they make way too many choices for you, force you to do too many things you don't want to do, spend the next two generations futures away, and you complain about it, you're labeled a racist.
Steve Jobs deserves a lot of credit. But let's recall that he made money by exploiting a technology developed by the government after decades or government funded R&D produced the technology that lead to computers. There is no Apple Computer without government funded R&D.
And I think if you really are interested in what happens when the government gets out of the way you need to look to the financials. The right wing likes to point to the innovators, the ones that actually generate value. But the bulk of the profits made in America are made by financial institutions that figure out how to develop complex products that skim a few cents off a transaction here and there. Over 40% of total profits made by American companies in recent years were made by financials. And yet it's not clear that they actually bring any value. In fact they may make things worse. So government getting out of the way produces a system that funnels all the profits into this virtually value-less industry, which ultimately brought the whole system near collapse to where it needed state bail out. Nearly preventing people like Jobs and other real innovators from operating. That's why government involvement is important.
I remember that many Keynesian economists were saying that the economy would be fractured with high unemployment and slow growth for decades while Jimmy Carter was in office.
Read Krugman during that time, and also what he said about Reagan after the new President made his articles look like those written by a piker.
"But the bulk of the profits made in America are made by financial institutions that figure out how to develop complex products that skim a few cents off a transaction here and there. Over 40% of total profits made by American companies in recent years were made by financials. "
While I've never thought of 40% as "the bulk", I'll assume that's sloppy writing, and just ask for a reference. what do you have?
Apple is going to go down the tubes, mark my words.
They'll blame it on a lack of Jobs, but, trust me, the problems that will lead to Apple's loss of leadership in multiple markets long predate their loss of Jobs.
Ergo, in my not so humble opinion, the Importance of Jobs is vastly overrated.
:oD
Here's a source on share of profits in finance.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1933210,00.html
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