"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Jobs You Can’t Believe In

by Hal_10000

One paragraph of Obama’s big speech yesterday struck me:

To finally spark the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years.

Barack Obama, with his civil engineering degree from Georgia Tech and his degree in thermodynamics from MIT, can guarantee what physics and engineering will produce in the near future.

We will modernize more than 75% of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills. In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced - jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.

How do we know these jobs are going to pay well and not be outsourced?  Are we going to mandate this?  Most of this sounds like construction which is (a) not the kind of job most Americans want; (b) can’t be outsourced but can (and likely will) be given to illegal immigrants.  The other part—developing new technologies—can be outsourced and absolutely will be outsourced if we continue to crush American businesses under the heel of the federal government or hamstring it with stupid micromanagement.

I’m sure the NYT was shitting themselves how wonderful Obama’s speech was yesterday.  But the more I look at it, the more it seems like so much fluff.  No, I take that back.  It’s arrogant.  Only government can save us; only government can get the economy moving; only “investment” will keep us out of a perpetual downward cycle of despair, even if history says otherwise.  It may already be too late.  Forget last year’s stimulus package.  Forget TARP.  Just give us one more chance to spend a metric fuckton of borrowed cash and everything will be fine.

You are getting sleepy.  Very sleepy.  Make out the check to “Internal Revenue Service”.  Sign your grandchildren’s name.  We’ll be back to take it out of their hides in fifty years.

Comments

Posted by on 01/09/09 at 12:27 PM from

We aren’t really surprised by any of this are we? The bigger the crisis, the more leverage the D’s have in “fixing things.”

Posted by HARLEY on 01/09/09 at 05:34 PM from

Ammo, invest in Ammo…

Posted by on 01/09/09 at 08:32 PM from

My country is going to shit and it sucks....

Posted by on 01/10/09 at 01:06 PM from

Carter tried this same BS 30 years ago.  It was a disaster then, it will be a disaster now.

What will drive progress in these areas are economic realities and demands, not proclamations and speeches by politicians.

Posted by on 01/10/09 at 08:59 PM from

Carter tried this same BS 30 years ago.  It was a disaster then, it will be a disaster now.

And FDR tried this same BS in the 1930s.  The problem is he was lionized even though the New Deal made the Depression worse and last longer.  FDR was a great war leader and one of the worst domestic presidents.

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