Sorry, I have this truly bizarre habit of trying to account for both the benefits and the costs of a given policy.
It's a fast way to Total Political Unpopularity, believe me! But alas, I'm an engineer at heart.
Creating jobs is trivial. It's not even remotely interesting. Creating net jobs is the interesting question. And you can't prove you've created net jobs until you look on both sides of the ledger. It's a bizarre, crazy, foreign idea, I know, but it also has the virtue of corresponding to reality much better.
If more politicians (and dare I say, even economists) did this more often we'd be in a lot less trouble right now.
And yes, you seem to have totally missed my point.
I agree, but the OP's point is a false dichotomy: That investment in entrepreneurship is a net benefit, but any investment in public works is a net loss.
Using roads as an example for public works not providing a net gain isn't very convincing... considering our entire society is now predicated on their existence.
It's a fast way to Total Political Unpopularity, believe me! But alas, I'm an engineer at heart.
Creating jobs is trivial. It's not even remotely interesting. Creating net jobs is the interesting question. And you can't prove you've created net jobs until you look on both sides of the ledger. It's a bizarre, crazy, foreign idea, I know, but it also has the virtue of corresponding to reality much better.
If more politicians (and dare I say, even economists) did this more often we'd be in a lot less trouble right now.
And yes, you seem to have totally missed my point.