MattPerman.com

  • Contact
  • About
  • Speaking
  • Books
  • Video Highlights
  • Resources
You are here: Home / 5 Liberal Arts / Politics / Obama's Unmeasurable Metric

Obama's Unmeasurable Metric

June 9, 2009 by mattperman

The Wall Street Journal has a good editorial on Obama’s claim that his stimulus has “saved or created” 150,000 jobs so far, and that he will ramp up spending to create another 600,000 more this summer.

The problem is that it is impossible to measure the number of jobs “saved.” Economist Gregory Mankiw calls this an “unmeasurable metric.” Agencies like the Labor Department and Bureau of Labor Statistics measure the number of jobs lost or created, but none of them track the number of jobs “saved” because there is no way to know.

Which means that talking in terms of “jobs saved” creates a very convenient situation for Obama:

“You created a situation where you cannot be wrong,” said the Montana Democrat. “If the economy loses two million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would’ve lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs. You’ve given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct.”

Now, something’s wrong when the president invokes a formula that makes it impossible for him to be wrong and it goes largely unchallenged. It’s true that almost any government spending will create some jobs and save others. But as Milton Friedman once pointed out, that doesn’t tell you much: The government, after all, can create jobs by hiring people to dig holes and fill them in.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Evernote

Related

Filed Under: Politics

Feedback to the Author

  • If you would like a response, please include your email address. While I unfortunately cannot respond to everything, I will do my best.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

About Matt Perman

 

I am the director of career development at The King’s College NYC, co-founder of What’s Best Next, and the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done. This is my personal website where I blog on four of my favorite topics: theology, apologetics, culture, and living in New York City.

Learn more.

Books

See all of my books and publications.

Follow

Twitter | Facebook

Posts by Date

Posts by Topic

Search Whatsbestnext.com

Copyright © 2025 - What's Best Next. All Rights Reserved. Contact Us.