Come on guys, really? You can’t have one without the other. This is getting ridiculous, and it gets even more ridiculous when I tell you where I got these figures from.
Straight from Fox News, one of their polls indicates the majority of those polled are optimistic on the economy. Cool, great, think whatever you want to think. The figure is up nine points compared to the same poll conducted last year. Eleven percent say things will “stay the same”, while thirty-seven percent say things will get worse. However, forty-eight percent of poll-takers believe that the condition of the job market will get worse. Thirty-six percent say the job market will get better while sixteen percent are unaccounted for. I’m assuming that percentage checked the “will stay the same” button.
Think about that for a minute, then read on.
Keeping in mind the fact that this is how people feel and not what is really going on, how does an economy get better when the job market gets worse? Dependence on the government could be an answer, but be prepared for the inevitable let-down. Since most of the money the government makes comes from an income tax, income generates money for the government. Government employees don’t get taxed, as a matter of fact; it’s the complete opposite. So, you have a mass amount of people working for the government getting money from the taxed private job market. Just as resources; employees are commodities. There is a limited amount of them. So, since the government is grabbing from the same pool of people the taxed private job market is, there will be an inevitable majority and minority. Since the taxes are shifted to government employees (among other things), that’s less money put into the economy; making the economy the thing to be pessimistic about. Of course, as more people begin to work for the government; the laws of supply and demand dictate that since there are fewer private workers, they can make more money; which the government can then tax, supporting more government workers, or higher wages for the current government workers.
But let’s flip the issue. How can you have an increased sense of optimism about an economy that has a crappy job market? Open your eyes people! Like I said in the last paragraph, dependence doesn’t last forever. The job of the job market is to give people money to spend! If the number of jobs goes down, the amount of money circulating in that economy completely through private means goes down. Please note that income redistribution through taxes and welfare programs have a well-known history of paling in comparison to private wealth and monetary circulation. Even if the statistics look the same on paper, the population of socialized healthcare systems often complain of high taxes. Anyway, if the money supply shrinks, then the economy shrinks. Simple math people! This is what bewilders me the most about the results of this poll.