Listening to Obama recently complain about all the money that large corporations were holding when they should be using it to create jobs, I was reminded of something I heard many years ago.
I live in the Detroit area and can compare the national discussion about jobs, to what Detroit experienced. When businesses fled the crime and unskilled labor in the 70’s and 80’s many Detroit leaders claimed it was due to racism. I heard Susan Watson, a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, speak to a largely sympathetic suburban community where I recall her blaming those in the audience for moving businesses to the suburbs. She blamed large auto companies for not creating enough jobs. She complained about having to drive to the suburbs to shop for clothes and other products.
I realized at that time that she (like Obama and many in his administration now) clearly don’t understand how jobs come about in the first place – which is important knowledge if you are responsible for increasing employment.
Did she really think that people who worked their whole lives building a small business would go through all the expense and trouble of moving it elsewhere if they were safe, felt their investment was secure, and were profitable — because they were racist?
Did she really think that big corporations are there to create jobs and not make profits?
Did she think jobs just fall out of the sky?
I remember wondering if she knew that stores are created because someone thought there was a need in the area for a store, and then worked hard to invest and build their business. I wondered if she really believed her neighborhood needed more shops and she thought it was such a secure investment, why she or her neighbors didn’t take the risk instead of attacking those of us in the audience.
I ended up concluding that she didn’t understand our economic system, how and why businesses develop, and thus how jobs are created. Specifically, to create jobs governments have to create a safe environment, an educated population, and taxes and regulations that will encourage investment.
Similarly, when I hear the President and people in his party complain about how others are not investing their money to create jobs, I’m convinced they don’t understand it either. How ironic and sad that the leader of the country with the strongest capitalistic free market economy in the world doesn’t know how it works. Maybe the solution is for all those complaining about how others are investing their money to just hire someone themselves.
