I tried to shake the sinking feeling, but I was having trouble doing it. I thought to myself, “What could Henry possibly come up with that could be a valid counter-argument to government spending ‘to provide employment’. I had to say something, so I said, “This better be good, Henry”.
Henry nodded and said, “Two arguments are put forward for the bridge, one of which is mainly heard before it is built, the other of which is mainly heard after it has been completed. The first argument is that it will provide employment. It will provide, say, 500 jobs for a year. The implication is that these are jobs that would not otherwise have come into existence.”
Exultant, I hooted, “Well, yeah, Henry! That’s what I’ve been saying. So, you really agree with me that government spending on the bridge provides jobs. That’s so easy to see. So, what’s the problem?”
“This is what is immediately seen”, said Henry. “But if we have trained ourselves to look beyond immediate to secondary consequences, and beyond those who are directly benefitted by a government project to others who are indirectly affected, a different picture presents itself”.
“Henry, this is not making sense to me,” I retorted. “C’mon, the bridge is being built and the workers are getting paid. So, what’s the rub, here?”
Henry took a long look at me, sighed, and said, “It is true that a particular group of bridge workers may receive more employment than otherwise. But the bridge has to be paid for out of taxes. For every dollar that is spent on the bridge a dollar will be taken away from taxpayers. If the bridge costs $1,000,000 the taxpayers will lose $1,000,000. They will have that much taken away from them which they would otherwise have spent on the things they needed most.”
Now, I am getting a little exasperated. It seems like, at first, Henry disagrees with me. Then he turns around and agrees with me. Then he wiggles around. So, I said, “And the bottom line is...”
Henry finished the sentence for me, “for every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else”.
“NO, Henry! Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute,” I protested. “Let me see if I can get this straight. You’re saying that there are only two categories of jobs—private and public, right?” Then, thinking aloud, I said, “Okay, now, if that’s so, how do you nail down who is working in which sector?” I looked at Henry and waited for his answer.
Henry nodded and said, “Two arguments are put forward for the bridge, one of which is mainly heard before it is built, the other of which is mainly heard after it has been completed. The first argument is that it will provide employment. It will provide, say, 500 jobs for a year. The implication is that these are jobs that would not otherwise have come into existence.”
Exultant, I hooted, “Well, yeah, Henry! That’s what I’ve been saying. So, you really agree with me that government spending on the bridge provides jobs. That’s so easy to see. So, what’s the problem?”
“This is what is immediately seen”, said Henry. “But if we have trained ourselves to look beyond immediate to secondary consequences, and beyond those who are directly benefitted by a government project to others who are indirectly affected, a different picture presents itself”.
“Henry, this is not making sense to me,” I retorted. “C’mon, the bridge is being built and the workers are getting paid. So, what’s the rub, here?”
Henry took a long look at me, sighed, and said, “It is true that a particular group of bridge workers may receive more employment than otherwise. But the bridge has to be paid for out of taxes. For every dollar that is spent on the bridge a dollar will be taken away from taxpayers. If the bridge costs $1,000,000 the taxpayers will lose $1,000,000. They will have that much taken away from them which they would otherwise have spent on the things they needed most.”
Now, I am getting a little exasperated. It seems like, at first, Henry disagrees with me. Then he turns around and agrees with me. Then he wiggles around. So, I said, “And the bottom line is...”
Henry finished the sentence for me, “for every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else”.
“NO, Henry! Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute,” I protested. “Let me see if I can get this straight. You’re saying that there are only two categories of jobs—private and public, right?” Then, thinking aloud, I said, “Okay, now, if that’s so, how do you nail down who is working in which sector?” I looked at Henry and waited for his answer.
Henry had an expectant look on his face. But, he remained silent.
As the silence became deafening, I scrambled to continue. “I guess the answer to that question is: we should follow the advice of Rod Tidwell.”
Henry gave me a blank stare.
“You know, Henry, he’s the character played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the movie, JERRY MAGUIRE. Remember, what Tidwell yelled over the telephone to Jerry? It was: ‘SHOW ME THE MONEY!’”
Henry nodded.
I continued, “If we do that, I mean, if we follow the money to its source, what that must mean is: if the source of the money for the project you are working on is not the government, you must be working in the private sector. If the source of the money for the project is the government, you must be working in the public sector.” Still analyzing, I said, “Henry, the confusing thing about this bridge situation is, when you first look at it, from the outside, it just doesn’t look like it. The government is hidden from view by the contractor.”
I looked again at Henry. Nothing.
Continuing my analysis, I said, “So, based on that, the bottom line must be: even if you are working for a private contractor building the bridge, if the money for the project is coming from the government, you are, in essence, a government employee and, therefore, you are working in the public sector. The bottom line of the bottom line is: you can’t be working in the private sector and the public sector simultaneously. And, if that is so, it must mean...Yikes. What did I just say?”
I snapped out of my thinking mode to notice that Henry was smiling broadly at me.
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