Stimulus Spending on Roads Doesn't Increase Employment

[zarus tathra]

link

[AllPurposeAtheist]

So I don't suppose all those gazillion fucking freeways in Texas have contributed to people having jobs. You're right..they really ought to be riding horses and buggies on dirt trails to get to work every day.

[josephpalazzo]

This is what happens when you put imbeciles in charge of a study. Roads affect global economies, the study was done on the "local" economies. No wonder they ended up with the wrong conclusions. Fucking morons.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Road contractors aren't generally locally based. They often travel long distances and put employees up in motels till the job is complete.  I guess the people designing the study assumes all roads are built AS IF they're still built by local labor with shovels and rakes like in the movie Cool Hand Luke.

[SGOS]

I think that claim sets the benchmark for "strange" at an unreachable level.  There will be nothing anyone could ever say from this point on that will surprise me.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Putting up stop signs doesn't create many jobs. Stop putting up stop signs.

[Johan]

Since when does AP conduct studies?

[aitm]

When I supervised the construction of an Amtrak Auto Train station a big deal was made out of how many jobs were "made" (actually zero of course) but what was not reported was how many jobs were lost due to companies going broke when the fucking  guvment took 120 days to pay the fucking draw. thanks alot Obama you fucking horse thief, vampire let looser, pilgrim hater and football misgiverer..er....ererer..

[stromboli]

A big misconception about creating jobs, because to do that you have to create or replenish the industries that supply them. The biggest potential job creator in the long term is new technology, or new products brought on line. Growing Hemp and creating products from it, for example.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Products gotta get to market. The product transport fairies all quit years ago.

[Plu]

The biggest potential job creator in the long term is new technology, or new products brought on line.

New technology more often seems to cost jobs than create them. There's a lot of industry dedicated to making machines that do things that humans normally do. Which is perfectly reasonable and makes sense, but the idea that new technology creates jobs is as often wrong as it is right.

[josephpalazzo]

Those road construction projects are not meant to create permanent jobs - once the road has been completed, those jobs are extinct. What they do is give temporary relief to those who have no jobs when the economy has taken a beating like in 2008- it's better than going on unemployment or social welfare handouts. At the same time, it allows the government to inject money into a falling economy -those temporary jobs will put money in the pockets of those temporary job holders so that they can spend and prevent other smaller companies like mom&pop shops in their communities from going under. The article in the OP is misleading as it creates the false impression that those spendings were a waste. It isn't the case if you happen to be one of those who got a temporary job in a difficult economic environment. And lastly, building roads will benefit everyone in the long run as goods will find their way to market more efficiently.