Thursday’s Fayetteville Observer published my article summarizing the report released by the Civitas Institute discussing the North Carolina jobs that will be lost due to the federal stimulus. A sample:
A study by the consulting firm Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics and released by Raleigh’s Civitas Institute concludes that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will actually cause North Carolina to lose up to 67,000 jobs over the next two years. (Study available at www.nccivitas.org.) In spite of our state lawmakers’ vision of federal stimulus funds simply falling like manna from heaven, this study makes clear federal government spending does indeed come with a cost.
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Real economic recovery requires a replenishment of capital and other resources available for productive investment. Government spending, whether financed by higher taxes or borrowing, always reduces the available stock of these necessities.
Indeed, it is plausible that for every job “created” by government spending, more than one job in the private sector is lost because of the inefficient manner in which politicians spend other people’s money. As Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education stated, “Government spending is not guided by market signals and the search for profitable ventures; rather it’s directed by political considerations, such as the satisfaction of special interests in order to assure reelection.”
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