Hilary’s Worrisome Economics

Hilary’s Worrisome Economics October 27, 2014

“Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” Hilary Clinton told a political rally in Massachusetts, reported by Mediaite (the post includes the video). “You know that old theory [pause] trickle down economics. That has been tried. It has failed. It has failed rather [pause] spectacularly.”

The second part is supposed to follow the first as evidence, but what the possible failure of “trickle down economics” has to do with the question of who creates jobs is unclear. One would have thought that it is employers create jobs because they’re the only ones who can say “We need some people to do this and we will pay them for it,” because they’re the ones who will say, “People seem to need or want this, so how can we supply it for them?” Government can help or hinder businesses, and the help would encourage the creation of jobs, but that’s not the same as being the agency that actually creates jobs.

Clinton apparently believes government creates jobs — these lines follow her declaration that her husband’s raising minimum wage created lots of jobs — while the policies she endorses are the hindering rather than helping sort. Coming from the probable Democratic presidential candidate, this does not encourage.

 


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