It's Not His Job to Create Jobs

Baseball coaches have a knack for inserting themselves into games at the worst times.  Something about their worldview causes them to wake up in the bottom of the ninth and decide their players are helpless without them.  Joe Girardi in the ALCS was a good example.  His decision to replace his pitcher in the 11th inning of game three cost the Yankees the win.  When the game winning hit was felled, Yankee fans couldn't help but miss their old coach Joe Torre, who wasn’t flashy but could be counted on to put his best players in the lineup, step out of the spotlight, and trust his players to win. 

Like Joe Torre, politicians should know their role.  The free market capitalist system has served this country well from the founding.  We have the most skilled workforce in the world and an economy that accounts for over one-fifth of the world’s GDP.  We are the equivalent of the Yankees in the world economy precisely because we have a free market, we believe in the individual, and we have a limited government tradition. Why, then, would we want to abandon our first principles just because our batting average is falling?

The simple answer is this: the politician, like a bad baseball coach, believes too strongly in himself. Just as he believes he can “save” the world with a climate treaty, he also believes he can “save” the economy with a stimulus.   What he forgets is that only God can save the earth and that only the private sector can save the economy.

Our government is intent, however, on interfering.  In response to the 10.2 percent unemployment rate, in December the Obama Administration plans to host a “jobs summit” in which business, community, and government leaders will meet to coordinate a plan to create jobs.  According to President Obama, though there are limits to what government can accomplish, in this difficult time his Administration has “an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step… to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country.” 

Sadly, our President believes it his job to create jobs.  And he’s not alone.  Big government cheerleaders of all stripes feign respect for the free market while claiming extraordinary circumstances demand government intervention.  In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Alan Blinder, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, took a similar approach. Claiming he would not in good economic times promote such a policy, Mr. Blinder went so far as to argue for an increase in direct public-service employment.  Mr. Blinders appeal was marked by the logic that desperate times call for desperate measures.  “In deep recessions,” he opined, “sensible governments do things they would never do at full employment.”  (emphasis added)

One might ask of Mr. Blinder: if a policy is insensible in good times, why is it then sensible in bad times? And why with high unemployment is it good policy to remove capital from the productive private sector to fund an unproductive and wasteful public sector. Failing to address these questions adequately Mr. Blinder chose instead to underscore the “political imperative for action” made more important by the worsening employment rate: “Hardship already abounds, and the current political atmosphere is ugly.”

It appears Mr. Blinder may be misreading the public’s angst.  Many of us are not asking government to act; we are asking it to settle down.  The stimulus is unpopular because it represents an out-of-control government attempting to do that which only the private sector can accomplish—that is; create sustainable growth and real employment.  So far, the government’s desperate activity has only confused creditors, manipulated demand, and left investors waiting for markets to normalize.

All this is not to make light of the real suffering of the unemployed or underemployed.  It’s easy to tout laissez faire capitalism when one has a job.  But a government’s duty is to resist emotional arguments and choose long-term stability over short-term stimulus. 

There is no time like the present for government to step aside, shrink its role, and let the economy work. We still have the most innovative and industrious people in the world—a people who thrive on individual responsibility and economic freedom.  Our government would be wise to remember that, though we are in a slump, we still have the best team on the field.