Liberal Make-Work Policies Don't Make Sense

I completely agree with blogger Matthew Yglesias, a Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and holder of a BA in Philosophy from Harvard University.  We should not make work for the sake of making jobs.  And when the government does create a job, it should be scrutinized to make sure that it is competitive and required.  I think the government should strive to run as efficiently as possible.  The money being spent comes from the taxpayer and, therefore, should benefit the taxpayer to its highest degree.

As Yglesias tries to convey to the American public, it is correct to question whether the money being spent will impact the public in an important way.  If the answer is no, then the money should be either not be spent or be spent somewhere else.  He gives the example of firefighter’s pensions.  He contends that the lack of a pension wouldn’t affect the public safety.  That being the case, should taxpayer money go toward funding that pension?  Yglesias makes the great point, “…the point of our local transit agency is to provide transportation services, not to improve the living standards of bus drivers…”  And this logic can be extended to all our public agencies.

If there is no value in a job, it seems like it would be the same as paying the individual to do nothing.  Or it may equate better to a low-wage job being subsidized to a higher paying job for no reason.  I doubt any private business would opt to run that way and would suffer in the marketplace for doing so.  I think the government should adopt policies and practices much closer to what businesses use for job creation and hiring.  It would do all of us good.