Weekly jobless claims hit nine-month high.

[Torie]

I'm not pro-government; I'm pro-growth. But looking at the evidence, there seems to be no growth in the private sector (Where's the hiring, Fortune 500 companies?), and therefore the government should step in and take over. Meritocracy. We'll hire Mr. Private Sector first always, we'll give him Affirmative Action. But if he's not doing his job, we have no choice but to switch over to Mr. Government. The best argument against government is for the private sector to pick up the pace.

Ratcheting up the percentage of folks who work for the government is not a good long term strategy, if one wishes to see much of any real growth down the road. Nor can we afford it. It is not as if this country is way under-taxed. In fact, the US is taxed almost as heavily as many European countries now. As Reverend Wright said in another context far more entertainingly than this iteration will be, the chickens are coming home to roost, and crapping all over the place.

[Torie]

Hmmm.....maybe we need more govt?

Precisely.  The government is not creating jobs.  That is what we need it to do.

Government does not exist to create jobs, what its to do is create the environment for jobs to be created in the private sector.

I agree. This is why the government needs to create demand in the economy, so that companies will invest their cash into utilizing more capacity.

But Opebo told me we already had too much capacity. I am so confused now. I need to take a toke.