Green Jobs and the Wishful Thinking of the Left

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Spain Tilts At Windmills And Pays Price: "The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating 'green jobs' in 'alternative energy' even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1% — more than double the European Union average — partly because of spending on such jobs?...

Calzada's report concludes that they [green jobs] often are temporary and have received $752,000 to $800,000 each in subsidies. Wind industry jobs cost even more, $1.4 million each. And each new job entails the loss of 2.2 other jobs that are either lost or not created in other industries because of the political allocation — sub-optimum in terms of economic efficiency — of capital."...

Calzada says the creation of jobs in alternative energy has subtracted about 110,000 jobs from elsewhere in Spain's economy.

Yet another example of the fallacies and myths behind Obama's policies. Cap and trade will "create" jobs? Perhaps, but he never tells you about the greater number of jobs it destroys. The last thing our nation needs during a very serious recession is to pass the largest tax hike in the history of the world. But Obama would have you believe it can be done without any cost to the society. He takes these mythical positions on virutally every issue:

- We can provide healthcare for all Americans and SAVE money - because of the efficiencies of electronic medical records and the mythical savings associated with disease prevention (see next post)

- We can SAVE money on healthcare without having to ration it

- We can divulge all of our interrogation techniques to our enemies and not make the country more vulnerable to terrorists

- We can triple the deficit in a matter of months, creating countless permanent new entitlements and not expect it to weight down our economy

- We can expect 5% of taxpayers to be willing and able to foot the bill for everyone else

- We can repeatedly raise taxes on the "rich" and not expect the taxes will change their economic behavior in any way

- We can cheat bondholders out of their money - and give it to our pals in the unions - and expect those bondholders to be willing to lend out their moeny to other industries that need it

- We can stand in the way of domestic energy production but actually become more energy independent

- We can cut the defense budget as we surge in Afghanistan, maintain the peace in Iraq, and face down lunatic nuclear regimes in North Korea and Iran

- We can close down Gitmo without having a plan for what to do with 250 incorrigible detainees that none of our "allies" want either

Nearly the entire agenda of this President is built upon wishful thinking and false promises.