I’ve read and heard a number of figures of the cost per job via the Obama Stimulus (Recovery Act) disaster.
Many are making the mistake of dividing the 640,000 jobs into either the “funds announced” or the “funds available” instead of the more meaningful “funds paid out”, which is the amount of government money that is in the hands of the various recipients nationwide.
So how much has been paid out?
Roughly $105 billion has been “paid out” so far.
So lets do the math:
I know the left will claim that I’m using a right wing calculator (that would news to Cupertino). I know the left will claim that I’m using wingnut math (but then again, they claim AGW is science). But the fact is, Team Obama has spent $165025 per job created or saved!
That’s efficiency? That’s money wisely spent? Or is it more of a case of being penny wise, pound foolish?
I wonder what a corresponding cutting of taxes would have yielded in economic growth?
But I guess it would have been too difficult for Team Obama’s economic geniuses to have researched the Kennedy, Reagan, Bush tax cuts…. I guess they only use a liberal search engine which eschews mainstream economic theory.
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Tags: 000, 640, jobs created or saved, stimulus
One Comment to “Obama’s $640,000 Jobs Cost How Much?”
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Okay, let’s use the $165,025 per job created or saved as the starting point without any debate. I’m willing to do that.
Though I don’t know the answers myself, I do wonder what sort of domino, even multiplier, effects there might be from that $165k.
Presumably, the direct beneficiary — the one whose job was saved or created — will increase his/her spending in a number of cases. That implies benefits to others as a result as the “pond ripple” effect.
It’s also possible that some taxing agencies might benefit from increased tax revenues (which itself would have further ripple effects, I imagine).
My point is that the benefits derived from a $165,025 investment might, in aggregate, make the investment worthwhile.
And I’ve not even addressed matters such as reduced demands on unemployment benefits.
Again, these musings are speculative. But I do think they’re worth a passing thought or two.