This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 8, 2011 - Perhaps fittingly, the August jobs report was released on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. While those of us who are still employed prepared for a three-day respite from toil, we learned in round numbers how many jobs the U.S. economy added in the previous month. The figure cited was round indeed: zero.
Labor officials say the economy has to add about 125,000 jobs each month just to keep pace with people entering the workforce. To put a serious dent in the unemployment rate, it would have to gain two or more times that number. In the event, it added nothing.
If you're the type who sees the glass as half-full, I suppose you could take solace in the fact that there was no net loss. The private sector actually expanded by about 17,000 positions, but that gain was offset by a corresponding decline in public employment. To paraphrase Woody Allen, a shark has to move in order to breathe. What we got here is a dead shark...
The president will address a joint session of Congress tonight to unveil his latest jobs plan. As of this writing, I, of course, haven't heard his speech, but I'd bet that it will mention "rebuilding infrastructure," "stimulating tax cuts for small businesses" and "long-term job growth." In short, it should provide an excellent opportunity to prepare the bean dip for the Saints-Packers game that follows it.
I don't mean to dump on Mr. Obama. I voted for him and -- unlike Rush Limbaugh -- I'd honestly like him to succeed. Admittedly, he inherited a hell of a mess but thus far his efforts to right the ship of state have been uneven at best. While he did manage to whack bin Laden, unemployment continues to hover north of 9 percent.
Presidents tend to sink or swim depending on the prevailing economic currents, which is unfortunate because they have limited influence on the events by which they are judged. The economy is the one factor that directly affects virtually everybody, but private enterprise is just that -- private. The financial crisis of 2008 and the resultant Great Recession were brought to you courtesy of venture capitalism.
That said, the quality of public discourse would be improved if we could manage to divest ourselves of certain enduring economic myths. Toward that end, I offer a few observations on our current malaise:
There are limits to infrastructure
Liberals -- or "progressives" as they now prefer to be called -- are big on rebuilding our "crumbling infrastructure." While large public works projects can provide immediate employment, there limits on how many jobs a debt-ridden government can provide. And if highway construction in Missouri and Illinois is any indication, we may have reached them.
[Aside to Barrel Bob, the Smokey Bear of public service announcements that promote safe motoring in construction zones: Most people who drive do so to get some place. Drivers would probably be more inclined to obey reduced speed limits if they weren't mired in a labyrinth of orange cones every time they got behind the wheel. At present, the biggest impediment to continuous peaceable journey throughout the region seems to be the highway department.]
Maintenance of adequate public transportation venues is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for economic growth. Demand tends to create infrastructure rather than the other way around. Mid-America Airport sits unused in a cornfield because there's no demand for the services it could provide. Of the millions of jobs lost since 2008, nobody was laid off because the roads were too bad to get to work.
Tax cuts don't create jobs
Businesses exist to make money. If you give business owners a tax cut, they are not going to rush to hire employees they don't need. Instead, they will book their windfall into their ledgers as profits. After all, earning a profit is the whole point of the enterprise.
Conversely, employers will add to their payrolls when the additions increase their profit potential regardless of tax incentives. For a job to be sustainable, it has to both pay for itself and enhance the owner's bottom line. The only sure way to increase employment is to increase demand for the goods and services the employees produce.
The Chinese are not stealing our jobs
They don't have to because we're giving them away. When we allow corporations to treat labor as a commodity, we ensure that they will fill the need for that commodity in the cheapest markets available. This tendency boosts short-term profits but ultimately reduces consumer demand for corporate products by lowering the general standard of living.
Henry Ford believed a well paid workforce provided him with a stable consumer base. His workers could afford to buy the cars they made. Somehow, we've been brainwashed into accepting the notion that cheap labor promotes the common welfare.
Labor Day ain't what it used to be
When I was a kid, Labor Day was a big deal. The union guys did it up right with beer, barbecues and parades worth going to. It was considered a patriotic holiday for a country where everybody had a shot at the American Dream and people flew the flag as though it were the Fourth of July.
Back then, school let out for the summer on the Friday before Memorial Day and reconvened on the Tuesday after Labor Day. From the limited perspective of extreme youth, I used to eagerly await the commemoration of the nation's war dead but dreaded the celebration of American workers. The latter holiday's festivities were fun, but like the condemned man trying to enjoy his last meal, you couldn't help but think of what was coming next.
Now, my giddy anticipation of Memorial Day is long gone, replaced by humbling recognition of the sacrifice of others. Perceptions change as you get older. Yet even though times change, Labor Day still gives me the blues.
M.W. Guzy is a retired St. Louis cop who currently works for the city Sheriff's Department. His column appears weekly in the Beacon.