The Job Killing Giant

The Job Killing Giant

The main culprit responsible for eliminating most jobs or blocking their creation is – government. This is obvious in places like Cuba and Korea. These governments might call jobs not inspired and dominated by them “illegal profiteering.” However, whether through ignorance or by design these government know-it-alls fail to acknowledge that profit is nothing more and nothing less than extra labor created wealth over and above that which is needed to maintain the worker. Once this fact is realized then the folly of banning profit is seen clearly. What are socialist and communist economies hoping to accomplish? Apparently the hope is to create just enough wealth to maintain the workers but not one bit more. How stupid is that?

Extra wealth can be very useful. You might grow just enough wheat for you and your family’s consumption. If these were stone-aged times that might be all you could do. But in the modern world you can grow 1000 times more than your needs. In communist countries the government confiscates that extra food but offers you human “services.” Because you have no benefit from the extra wheat that you grow your incentive to produce more food drops to zero. Then your tractor breaks giving you an excellent reason for not growing more wheat. You continue to get your government services even though you now provide little food – perhaps even less than your personal requirements. But if you owned all of your labor you would get to keep all the profit. Besides maintaining your basic personal needs you would be able to fix the tractor and even better – be able to invest in more and more devices to permit you to generate even more food. Basic economics 101 states that as supply increases while demand remains flat the price has to decline. Hence, the freer the economy the cheaper the grub. The mathematical equation is:

Hours worked to earn enough to buy that chicken. In America it takes me 5 minutes work to earn a chicken. In Cuba it takes a day or more to earn a chicken.

Unfortunately, there are no truly free-market economies. Even in America the governments grab a larger and larger share of your labor. When they temporarily reduce your income tax to get the economy going again the government calls it a “subsidy.” Complicating things even more for society the government replete with lawyers, bankers and cops – oh my; lawyers, bankers and cops – oh my; lawyers, bankers and cops – oh my! They have set up a 21^st Century plantation where most people cannot own a space on the planet and those who do must pay an enormous and growing tax for the privilege of living in a house. This permits a class of people, lawyers, bankers and cops – oh my; who do not actually produce any wealth but transfer the wealth of other usually poorer individuals to themselves for their personal consumption. In addition our government uses inflation of the money supply as well as deficit spending to further tax us. Sadly, all this tax on our labor created wealth could have been used to become even more productive. We might have bought better tools, improved our businesses, gotten more educated, etc. All this job killing bad behavior by governments greatly reduces our wealth and blocks countless jobs. This does not even take into account the regulatory job killing aspect of government dominance over our labor output. Every hour spent filling out tax paperwork is an hour you could have been planting and harvesting potatoes.

So Cubanos! I have laid out the problems laborers have face for thousands of years at the hands of government so clearly that all but the most feeble can see these facts clearly. Wouldn’t it be a great time to implement rational economic policy that keeps Cubans busily occupying their time generating greater and greater amounts of wealth then enjoying the fruits of that labor? Cuba, being one of five remaining communist governments, will soon collapse under the weight of the above defined stupidity. You know it and they know it. We’re all just waiting for Fidel to die followed by Raul, Ricky and the rest to hit the road with the loot. Then we can go in and set up a new truly 21st Century economic model. Let's make the rest of the world envious of Cuba.

Tomás Estrada-Palma