Throughout the campaign and regularly since his inauguration, now President Obama, has been telling us how “Green Jobs” will lead the way to prosperity in our economy. High pay, sustainability, friendly to the earth have all been arguments he’s made for the creation of “green jobs”. It appears he got at least a part of his promise right.
On Friday (how come they always announce these things when they think people are paying the least attention?) the White house announced $2.3 billion in tax credits to create ‘green jobs.” The plan is to create 17,000 green jobs. If they’re successful, those jobs will be worth over $135K each!
The median family income is around $50K/year. at $135K per job, the families that get this federal handout will earn better than 2X the average national income!
While I certainly favor tax credits as a means of market stimulation over direct government purchases, I don’t like credits that apply to specific industries or jobs. That folks, is thinking you know better than the market, where the money works best. As a second thought, at this level, one that is certainly not sustainable and highly subsidized, what will happen to these jobs in the second year when the tax credits cease? Who thinks these jobs are “sustainable” without lots of additional government help to sustain them?
I worked for a guy once who operated in a way that if he believed it to be true, it was. It didn’t matter what laws of physics or economics his “beliefs’ violated. He was not a well liked person and eventually failed as a result of his caustic, “nobody is as smart as me,” attitude. The only difference between he and President Obama is that President Obama can cause money to be generated to create the illusion that he’s right. In the end, he will be just as big a failure!
