Dear Reader,
Salon:
“DOGE’s mass layoffs spark fears of broader economic ripple effect.”
The devil Trump and demon Musk are visiting evil upon the nation’s saintly public servants.
Under satanic onslaught, some 85,000 worthies of the federal labor force confront unemployment — we are informed.
As they are thrown upon the unemployment queue… horror would succeed horror in fantastic cascades… and all species of calamity would ensue.
Goods will wallow upon shelves. Factory orders will wither. Unemployment will fan and fan in expanding circles.
Thus a certain Jesse Rothstein, professor of economics at the University of California, shrieks:
- It seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep recession. Just based on 200k+ federal firings and pullback of contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and 2020.
Just so. Yet we must first consider the essence of a government “job.”
Government Is a Parasite
We must first realize that government lacks all resources.
Imagine a parasite with its fangs sunk into a host. You have just imagined a government.
Productive society is its host.
This parasite may serve certain useful functions, I even concede in generous moments.
An army is society’s parasite — though during armed conflict a useful and necessary parasite.
The host/parasite relationship nonetheless obtains.
Before the United States government can fill the pockets of any of its employees… it must first empty the pockets of its taxpayers.
How many private wants have gone ungratified in consequence?
How many automobiles have gone unpurchased… how many homes… how many vacations… because Uncle Samuel transferred the contents of one set of pockets to another set of pockets?
Indeed… how much wealthier would society be — absent the pocket-raids?
I do not know. Yet I hazard the beneficiaries of the transfer would rather you not know.
Again: I concede that certain employees of the United States government execute useful functions.
I concede further that their total exceeds — though slightly perhaps — single digits.
The rest, I believe, represent drains upon American society.
Federal Government “Productivity”
This Rothstein fellow continues:
- Even greater damage will be done by the loss of federal government productivity. The workers who are losing their jobs were worth more than they were being paid! We are all poorer when roads, planes and food are unsafe, when parks are closed.
- Their absence is going to make the government run less, not more, efficiently.
Federal government productivity? I would class the expression with government efficiency.
Please recall the parasite/host dynamic.
I nonetheless agree that we are all poorer when roads, planes and food are unsafe.
Yet I wager that these terminations will not erode the safety of roads, planes and food.
I believe the author of the claim is attempting to raise your hair — and your blood.
He would have you rage against the reckless president and his heartless special government employee, Musk.
He would have you place all road, plane and food mishappenings around their necks.
You’re Fired!
“What did you do last week?,” Mr. Musk asked federal employees, requesting justification for their services.
Came the subsequent dialogues:
“I filled 639 potholes, making transportation safer and saving Americans from costly automotive repairs.”
“You’re fired!”
“I prevented eight mid-air collisions in crowded airspace, saving the lives of thousands of Americans and saving the airlines millions of dollars.”
“You’re fired!”
“I prevented the mass outbreaks of mad cow disease and salmonella, preserving the health of countless Americans and saving millions in medical expenses.”
“You’re fired!”
Many examples abound.
The “Seen” and the “Unseen”
I concede it at once: I lack a doctoral degree in the economic arts and sciences.
Yet I allege that the good professor Rothstein fails a fundamental task of sound economists — to distinguish between the “seen” and the “unseen.”
From the very late Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson:
- This is the persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups…
- The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond… The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.
Professor Rothstein sees only what immediately strikes the eye.
He sees only the effect of a given policy on one particular group — the unemployed federal employee.
He does not see the effect of the policy on all groups. That is, he does not see the effect of the policy on the American taxpayer who must keep the government employee in funds.
He does not see what the American taxpayer might have otherwise done with his monies.
He does not see the products never purchased, the services never purchased.
He does not see the lost savings that never saw a man through the rainy day, the investments in tomorrow never made.
He sees only the poor bureaucrat and his visible woes.
Thus he is not a good economist. He is a bad economist.
I Sympathize for the Displaced Federal Workers
Despite all available evidence, my thoracic cavity houses a heart.
There it beats, pumping warm human blood.
Ice cannot form there.
Thus I express sympathy for many of the federally unemployed.
Many will struggle to secure fresh, productive employment.
Some may never secure fresh, productive employment.
And as a fellow human sufferer wading his way across this sorrowful vale of tears… I do not rejoice in it.
Yet no one is entitled to employment at public expense.
Might a substantial culling of the federal bureaucracy sink us in recession?
Perhaps it might. I will not deny it.
Yet its long-term benefits would far outbalance whatever short-term hells it spawns.
Recall the seen versus the unseen.
The United States government has unseen far too much.
It is high time to open its eyes.
Regards,
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
