Posted by
Andrews on Monday, November 02, 2009 6:05:41 PM
If you were to hear people arguing about whether the pixie population had increased 10% or 15%, you would think it the biggest waste of time imaginable, as there is no such thing a pixies. So why on earth do we take seriously debates between state authorities and Obama administration wonks over how many jobs were "saved or created" a a result of the stimulus? First, there is no way on earth to count a job a "saved". The method is, I suppose, to guesstimate how many jobs you would have lost,t hen how many you have, and attribute the difference as "saved or created", but, as you can tell, that is a pure fiction, based to nothing but guesswork. Second, even if you just stick with jobs created, counting the jobs you have this month you didn't last month, you can't tell if ti was due to the stimulus.
In other words, you might as well debate the number of pixies or the increase in dragon population. It is just as real as the Obama job figures.