The American Spectator : Celebrating the Creation of a Single Job

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Special Report

Celebrating the Creation of a Single Job

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon does a job-creation victory dance.

Peripatetic Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says that he's fed up with "right-wing extremists." Does that include everyone who thinks that the Democratic governor should exit the "job creation" business? If so, Nixon must be the first to identify public radio as a hotbed of right-wing extremism.

Several weeks ago, Ira Glass opened his nationwide hour-long "This American Life" program with a satiric interview about one of the defining elements of Nixon's leadership: his whirlwind trips around Missouri to celebrate state-funded job creation schemes.

Glass said that Nixon had visited a plant that made fishing reels, "to announce not hundreds of jobs, or dozens of jobs, but eight jobs." "Eight!" he marveled. "He did a press event for eight jobs!"

At this point, Nixon chimed in, saying, "That's not the smallest we've been to, either. We actually did one in north Missouri where we created one job."

"And you showed up?" Glass asked, laughing in disbelief.

Nixon affirmed that he had. A program that he initiated had given a low-interest loan to a woman in Bethany. This enabled her to move her T-shirt printing business from her basement to a storefront, and to hire a single employee.

"This is what it's come to, America," Glass hooted. "You can hire your very first employee, and the governor shows up with TV cameras."

At the Show-Me Institute, we have pointed out the flawed thinking behind a wide variety of schemes intended to promote job creation and economic development -- ranging from big-budget Hollywood movies to plans for building an "Aerotropolis" in and around Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

A total of $4.5 million in tax credits were issued to the makers of the George Clooney film Up in the Air, as an enticement for filming a large part of the movie in the Saint Louis area. How much good did that do for job creation and the local economy? Almost none, it seems. According to the casting call, extras were compensated only $7.05 per hour before taxes, and they worked all of one day.

In the Missouri legislature, there is support from both parties for an enormous tax credit bill that would subsidize the construction of $300 million worth of new warehousing space in and around the Saint Louis airport, while doling out another $60 million in tax breaks for freight forwarders. Nixon has expressed tentative support for the proposed legislation, which may be raised at a special session of the legislature later this year.

Proponents say the extra warehousing space is needed for processing cargo going to and from China. However, as we pointed out, there are acres and acres of unused warehousing space in and around the airport. So, why are our lawmakers in a hurry to build more warehouses? Especially when there is no commitment from China to support the project?

Politicians will often argue that even one job created through tax credits or subsidies is better than none. To think in this way, however, is to engage in single-entry bookkeeping -- counting jobs gained but ignoring jobs lost because of higher taxes or the burden of increased public indebtedness. Add to that the misallocation of resources that always occurs when power-hungry or publicity-seeking politicians, rather than paying customers, decide what is to be produced and who should produce it.

Our state government is already straining to meet its current commitments. Every dollar that is given away in tax credits is a dollar that our state government must replace by increasing taxes or making cuts in current programs.

"Being governor of the state is not a theoretical job," Nixon said at a recent press conference. "It is a very practical job." Here, then, is some practical advice for our governor: Get out of the job-creation business. It's doing more harm than good.

About the Author

Andrew B. Wilson is a freelance writer living in St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment

casquette new era dc| 6.30.11 @ 6:32AM

amaziing so!

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As soon as the highspeed rail connections to the facility are built the jobs will come. It will just take a little more time and a teensy-weensy tax hike. (after all you have to believe it's a 'Field of Dreams' kind of thing.)

Michael Tomlinson| 6.30.11 @ 7:10AM

Hey, give Nixon a break, his creation of 8 jobs is more than Obama. He's going to have to find a job for himself and Claire McCaskill come next November.

Melvin| 6.30.11 @ 7:19AM

Peripatetic Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says that he's fed up with "right-wing extremists." Don't worry Jay, it's like gas, it'll pass, eat a little more fiber and you'll be as right as rain. You might even wake up with a smile on your face.

I live in North Carolina. Well the Democratic Governors (former) of Jim Hunt and the Federal Felon Mike Easley foisted upon the tax payers of a global boon dongle called the Global Trans Park. This massive air freight transportation hub was going to be the economic holy grail of jobs.
There was going to be so many jobs and so much demand of this transportation and warehousing facility that 747s would be stacked a hundred deep just waiting in the air to offload their foreign cargo, and reload with NC produced products.
A huge runway was built that could handle three space shuttles abreast landing there. Warehouses as big and deep as the Grand Canyon were built, and guess whaaaattttt people.
Nary a single 747 full of cargo has landed at this facility. Warehouses stand empty, and the people of NC are stuck with a really nice wide and long runway.
I would like to ask the former governor of North Carolina Jim Hunt, what happened and where did all the monies go that was pumped into this alleged jobs generator. Nah, I think I'll ask that question to the Federal Felon former Governor Mike Easley instead, at least I expect him to lie.

Dan Hirsch| 6.30.11 @ 8:33AM

And where did all the money to build all that come from? The undertaxed rich, who according to the our little President, need to pay more so He can build more runways to nowhere...

Sheesh! Only 17 months to the election! Come on November 2012!

Mike Hawk| 6.30.11 @ 8:45AM

Not to worry, let not your heart be troubled. As soon as the highspeed rail connections to the facility are built the jobs will come. It will just take a little more time and a teensy-weensy tax hike. (after all you have to believe it's a 'Field of Dreams' kind of thing.)

Purple Lips| 6.30.11 @ 9:23AM

Warehousing like data centers are a scam. In my hometown, dozens of firms built and operated warehouses only to leave when another city gives them a better deal. I've seen large firms like Amazon and Netflix setup and leave all within 3 years. And data centers are the same way. Large IT firms get a great deal from a city and scoot once the lease runs out. Fortune 500 firms love to set up in rural midwestern areas, where the labor is cheap. They might employ 20 or 30 server monkeys for $12-15 an hour. But when India or Scrubbush Idaho come a knocking they're gone in a flash.

Kurt| 6.30.11 @ 10:12AM

Great, another place to fly my rc airplanes! We have one of these abandoned multi million dollar air strips in Texas and it has served quiet well for our club's remote control airplanes!

Melvin| 6.30.11 @ 10:20AM

Hmm. do I sense a corrupt trend here of government building useless airports?

JP| 6.30.11 @ 1:13PM

If the runways are at least 5000 feet, you could use them for drag racing. Now, there's an idea! Buy the worthless piece of "shovel ready" real estate and use it to make a bundle.

play nice| 6.30.11 @ 2:17PM

Kurt -- oh how you drone on....

Occam's Tool| 6.30.11 @ 5:31PM

Play:

That was a cruel pun. Very, very, funny. But crewelll....

Patrick| 6.30.11 @ 7:32AM

You can't have Scott Walker. We have dibs.

Lost| 6.30.11 @ 1:00PM

You may have dibs but we already have him, thank god

Timothy L. Pennell| 6.30.11 @ 8:06AM

If it's all the same to you? I'm holding out to celebrate the END of a single job.
The Marxist Muslim's job, in the White House.

BackToBasics| 6.30.11 @ 8:23AM

It's good to be thankful but let's keep things in perspective and celebrate when we've created millions of jobs for those who are suffering homelessness and underemployment or being forced to live with relatives or friends as we write these posts.

Sort of reminds me of the "Victory Cigar" Bill Clinton smoked on the White House veranda after our forces rescued Captain Scott O' Grady in Serbia in 1995 5 days after he was downed. It was right to be thankful and most certainly so for O' Grady. But, it was another picture of the media hyping a Democrat president over a minor military success. Compared to the hard-fought battles and victories of our major wars, such hype does not do a superpower justice. Shades of getting Osama Bib Laden too. As Republican candidate Hermain Cain said, "One correct decision does not a make a great president."
Where is the sense of proportion for the world's still number one nation?

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.30.11 @ 8:37AM

I bet it cost more for his entourage to show up at that one job, then the job paid in one year.

rodeoamy| 6.30.11 @ 9:26AM

Not to mention the horrific carbon footprint!

Petronius| 6.30.11 @ 8:51AM

Jay wasn't bad as AG. He is also older and a bit wiser than the grand stander in chief, so he is not going to complain about jets. Boeing lives in Hazelwood. Jay's problem is Missouri's problem. Ford was across the street. Chrysler was on I44 where the south plant has been razed. The consumer level manufacturing which maintained this city and state has been run out of the country. Jay can blame corporate America all he wants, but politicians like him imposed the costs which made them leave. Until he looks into a mirror and realizes that the decline will continue.

hardcard| 6.30.11 @ 9:20AM

Hey Basics did that slickmeister "victory cigar" smell strange?

squalis| 6.30.11 @ 9:29AM

Anybody see the irony in George Clooney going where the tax breaks are?

squalis| 6.30.11 @ 9:30AM

By the way, Up in the Air was a fairly good movie.

Occam's Tool| 6.30.11 @ 5:32PM

Brilliantly put, Mr. Pennell

Smushley Ninganose| 6.30.11 @ 5:36PM

Nixon's the One!

jgo| 6.30.11 @ 9:51PM

Tata, a firm based in India, opened an office in Buffalo, NY, with much fanfare, including a speech by Hillary, and promises that they would soon be employing 1000 Americans at this new "North American Headquarters". A couple years later, the mayor leaked the news that they'd hired "maybe 10".

Then they pulled the same scam, getting about $19M in incentives from Ohio tax-victims, with promises to hire 1000 locals. After nearly 3 years they announced that they'd hired 300, and then a year later 400, from "colleges in the region"... but not a peep out of them about how many US citizens they've hired. With the federal government handing out hundreds of thousands of student visas it's quite easy for them to select only their countrymen.

But though the dust has yet to clear on that one, we read a few months back that they'd opened their third alleged "North American Headquarters" in Southfield, outside of Detroit.

Now, the Nielsen ratings people were persuaded to move their HQ in Florida for several millions in incentives. After only a couple years, they dumped most of the local employees and contracted the work out to... wait for it... Tata.

Meanwhile, media in India spilled the beans; worldwide they planned to hire almost exclusively Indian nationals.