Creating Jobs, the Obama Way

I sometimes get a bit pessimistic about America’s future, especially when I see numbers showing record levels of dependency.

But sometimes looking at big-picture data doesn’t quite capture what’s really happening.

If you want a glaring sign of American decline, here’s part of a grim story from NBC in New York.

Economic woes have forced at least one city agency into a hiring spree — adding more workers to process the demand for food stamps and other assistance. The Human Resources Administration added more than 100 workers last July and plans to hire another 100 to serve the burgeoning number of New Yorkers applying for food stamps and rent assistance at their offices… About 1.8 million New Yorkers are now on food stamps, which marks nearly a 65 percent increase from four years ago, according to city records.

If this seems familiar, that’s probably because you know about game called Greece-o-rama. The rules are simple. The politicians buy votes by expanding the number of people who live off the government. In some cases, they’re bureaucrats administering programs. In some cases, they’re the folks getting handouts.

But they’re both part of the same crowd if you divide society into those riding in the wagon and those pulling the wagon – as this cartoon aptly demonstrates.

Speaking of cartoons, here’s one that mocks Obama by linking the poor jobs situation with his decision to block the Keystone pipeline.

Last but not least, this is a good opportunity to share the video from last year showing how the so-called War on Poverty has created a dependency trap. The chart at 3:15 is a stunningly powerful powerful piece of evidence.

This system is good for bureaucrats (Walter Williams calls them Poverty Pimps) and good for politicians, but it’s been bad news for poor people.