New jobs don’t just miraculously appear out of thin air. An employer—any employer—needs a compelling justification—and adequate funds--to hire an additional person.

                But where does this justification—and this money—come from?

                To answer this very basic core question, let me quickly toss out a few common-sense bullet-points:

What creates new jobs?

• Most employers, by far, are private businesses. They sell products and services to customers who want to buy them. They price their products and services high enough to cover the costs to produce them (but not so high as to exceed customer willingness-to-pay or competitor prices); and they try to generate a little bit more than that to repay their investors and shareholders, and to reinvest in developing newer and better products and services. (This is how we get advances in technology, cures for life-threatening diseases, cool new products like the iPhone, and other inventions and new developments that make life better for everyone.)
• This ‘profit’ amount can range from -20% to +20%, but the median profit margin is typically only about 2%…with the lower amounts (and even substantial losses) regularly occurring in difficult economic years, and the higher amounts occurring only in much more robust economic times. When sales are weak (as they are now), businesses are unable to give raises or hire additional people…and, in fact, often have to lay-off or furlough some of their existing workforce. Only when sales are strong—and profits are higher--do businesses have the funds to increase pay and hire more people.
• Unfortunately, these common-sense limitations do not seem to apply to government leaders and politicians. They think that they can spend ‘government’ funds to stimulate the economy or to hire more people (but, of course, they can only hire people in government jobs…where there are no products or services to sell, and none of the downside consequences and risks that exist in the private sector).
• But the truth is that the source of the funds that the government uses to spend in this way…is taxes that they collect from current employees and businesses. Government jobs are always subsidized by the private sector. As government grows, and the private sector shrinks (which is what’s happening now), the pool of tax funds available to support government is also, by definition, shrinking. And even (or especially) if the Administration raises tax rates to ‘compensate for declining revenue,’ in time, this will be an unsustainable situation. Eventually, we’ll run out of employees and businesses to tax; and we’ll wind up with a Soviet-style empty shell of a nation…with everybody ‘employed’ by government…but with bread (along with cars, healthcare, energy, and everything else) having to be rationed. Paraphrasing Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that, eventually, you run out of other people’s money.”
• Without growth in sales, there is no profit. And without profit, there is no ‘surplus’ available to increase wages and hire more people. The creation of jobs requires a growing private-sector economy. While the flipside of that equation—increased government taxation and spending—will most assuredly always result in the opposite of its noble intention.
• Just look around. Almost all of the current Administration’s new jobs are government jobs…and they are created solely by taking money (in the form of taxes) away from profit-generating private-sector employees and employers, and giving it to non-profit-generating government employees. (As an aside, isn’t it interesting to note that some of the best benefit packages and the highest union memberships are now among non-producing government employees who don’t need to rely on profitability to justify those benefits…while the rest of us have to sink-or-swim in the free-market private-sector arena, while still having our taxes used to give these better than average benefits to government employees whose only source of revenue is our taxes?)

So what kinds of businesses are in a position to hire more people?

• Given this background, the only businesses that are in a position to hire more people are those that are growing—in both sales revenue and profits.

But what makes businesses grow?

• Businesses ‘grow’ by 1) selling products and services that people want; and  2) by having customers that have money to spend on them.

And what allows customers to have more money to spend?

• For most people, the starting point for having money to spend…is having a job.
• And for those who already have a job, the quickest way for them to have more money to spend is to reduce their taxes…thus allowing them to immediately have more disposable cash available to buy products and services from businesses, who will then have more sales revenue and make more profits…thus allowing them to hire more people (…and so on, and so on).
• The truth (which has been proven over and over again), is that lower tax rates on more businesses that are successful--and on people who are employed--generates more revenue for the government than do higher tax rates on fewer (less successful) businesses and on a smaller pool of employed taxpayers. And the path of ‘growth’ driven by lower taxes will continue to generate ever more prosperity (for individuals, businesses, and government), as more businesses succeed and more people are employed; whereas the path of higher taxes--which always kills growth--inevitably leads to economic hardships, recession, and collapse. This is free-market economics vs. controlled-market economics; this is capitalism vs. socialism; this is prosperity vs. despair. It either spirals up…or spirals down. By letting people keep more of the money they earn (through lower taxes), they spend more on products and services, which in turn allows for the creation of more new jobs.

                Continued growth in the private sector is always the solution to both creating jobs…and to funding government. This is so because lower taxes generate growth…and growth generates greater tax revenues to governments (even with lower rates).

The harsh reality is that the current Administration’s focus on trying to create jobs through vast new spending programs (stimulus, bailouts, et al) is a prescription for catastrophe. And it is playing a most dangerous game. Once government employees outnumber private-sector employees, they, of course, will always vote for more taxes on the ‘other’ guys (us)…to fund more benefits and entitlements for themselves and others dependent upon government largess (i.e., criminals, rather than the victims of crime; illegal immigrants, rather than those who wait in line for their turn; and welfare recipients, rather than the private businesses that can give them jobs).

Furthermore, all of the focus on ‘Green’ jobs or ‘Clean’ energy is merely a ruse to shift voter understanding and support from off of the economic benefits of a free-market private-sector economy…onto a ‘Big Brother’ government-controlled economy which claims to have our ‘best’ interests at heart, but which is undercutting the engine of America’s prosperity and freedom. I know they believe in their ideology…but I also know that their ideology has failed everywhere it’s been tried; and this time, it may even take America down with it.

                Keep in mind this irrefutable truth (which is never mentioned by the mainstream media): ‘Clean’ energy will be 2 to 10-times more expensive than current energy (which, here in the West, is already really clean…especially compared to most 3^rd-world countries). Therefore, because no one will be willing (or able) to pay this much higher cost for such ‘clean’ energy…why do we think more jobs will be created? For the president to tout creating more ‘Green’ jobs is a sleight-of-hand ‘Times-Square-hustler’ move. ‘Clean’ energy and ‘Green’ jobs are politically-correct adjectives that make it sound like he’s interested in energy and jobs…when the reality is that he’s using these descriptors to hide the fact that he’s against coal jobs, against nuclear jobs, and against oil jobs. He’s the Pied Piper luring us down a seemingly rose-colored path that—if we would just take off the rose-colored glasses—we would never choose to go down.

© W. F. Walker Johanson--2010

                  It never ceases to amaze me how readily undecided voters—and moderates in both parties—are so willing to be swayed by personalities, by talking points, by 30-second ads, by last-minute program inducements (like Democrats promising to reduce taxes), and by their own knee-jerk reactions to imminent crises…rather than to their core underlying principles and beliefs.

                This election is not a choice between “personalities.” And it should not be determined by perceived differences in style, age, attractiveness, or on whether or not it’s ‘time’ for us to show the world that we’re willing to put a Black Man in the White House.

                Unlike in the past, when candidates differed little on substance, but significantly on approach…we’re now at a point when our two candidates have seismically different views of America.

                On the one hand, Barack Obama is a true wolf in sheep’s clothing. On the outside, he’s nice, pleasant, handsome, well-spoken, has cute little kids, dresses well…looks like someone we’d all like to know. But underneath, he’s an anti-American Marxist who believes the following:

§         That Democrats have the answer to the current economic crisis. (Have Democrats ever had the answer to any economic crisis? The very Fannie Mae leaders who took $90+ million in personal bonuses over the past few years—while causing the sub-prime mortgage crisis—are on Obama’s team.)

§         That murdering innocent babies—through Abortion--is an inalienable ‘right.’ (I think Hitler supported this same position.)

§         That Marriage should be redefined to include homosexual relationships. (Inner-city poverty rates correlate with no father in the home…imagine what it will be with no mother in the home.)

§         That Government knows--better than you do--how to spend your money. (Just compare the lines and personalities at the Post Office and the DMV…with those at Wendy’s.)

§         That it’s more important to protect ‘wetlands’ than it is to protect your family and America’s industrial might.

§         That ‘Global Warming’ is a bigger threat than crime, drugs, pornography, unwed mothers, and immorality at all levels.

§         That non-citizens—including millions of illegal immigrants—should be allowed to vote in our elections. (You can be sure that France, Russia, or Cuba would never allow non-citizens to vote in their elections. And would you expect to be allowed to vote if you entered England illegally?)

§         That Christians are more dangerous than Islamic fundamentalists.

§         That America deserved being attacked on 9-11.

§         That we torture our prisoners of war…but that our enemies don’t. (We don’t torture our prisoners…unless you consider playing profanity-laced Rap music really loud to be torture; and making enemy combatants wear underwear on their heads is merely how some college-age frat boys normally behave.)

§         That the UN is a better form of government than our own. (And that we should even care what the opinions are among the 75% of UN member-countries who do not have democratically-elected governments…and are smaller than some of our National Parks.)

§         That we should elect Obama because he’s the first Black man to run. (But that it would be ignorant and indefensible for anyone to support Sarah Palin because she’s the first woman to run…considering her position on the issues).

§         That Appeasement to our enemies is a winnable foreign policy.

§         That Surrender—ever—is in our best interests.

§         That it’s racist and discriminatory to require voters to ‘prove’ that they are legally entitled to vote. (On October 10th, I saw Susan Estrich on TV claiming that while concerns about voter fraud should probably be investigated…it’s not important during this election, because Obama is obviously so far ahead, that it wouldn’t make any difference in the outcome. Can you believe she really said this?!)

§         That ‘Education’ is the most important thing for our children. (And, of course, everyone believes this…but as we all know, the left has such a strangle-hold on our K-12 educational system and universities, that it’s just a pro-gay/anti-America breeding-ground for producing more Democrat voters.)

§         That he will appoint more socialist-leaning—“let’s change the Constitution”-- judges to the Supreme Court.

§         That we should not be allowed to drill for our own oil…on our own territory (i.e., ANWR in Alaska).

§         That his claims for Bipartisanship are only demands that Republicans compromise on their principles to side with Democrats. (Have you ever seen a Democrat compromise his/her values to show bi-partisanship with Republicans?)

§         That ‘Liberation Theology’ is a genuine religion. (When we all know that it is leftist ‘religious-speak’ for anti-American “Community Organizing” in 3^rd-world countries.)

§         That Jesus was a “Community Organizer” (like Obama), and that Pontius Pilate was a “Governor” (like Sarah Palin). (When we all know that Jesus is God…and Pilate was a dictator-appointed governor from Rome, not an elected official.)

                I could go on-and-on (and even list McCain’s positions on all of these same issues)…but the important point is that we’re not just choosing between two candidates—like we would chose a car, or a restaurant, or which college to attend—we’re choosing between the America we love and one we wouldn’t even recognize. We’re choosing between freedom and oppression; between hope and despair; between Democracy and Marxism; between good and evil; between life and death.

                Let’s not so blithely flush it all away because McCain is too old, or can’t use his arm normally, or because Palin didn’t go to Princeton or Harvard.

                Thank goodness we have a candidate with the wisdom, experience, and maturity of age.

                Thank goodness we have a candidate who was willing to have his arm tortured beyond repair in defense of America.

                And thank goodness we have a candidate who didn’t go to Princeton or Harvard (or Yale or Columbia).

                Just last week, I heard Barack Obama saying that “Now is not the time to focus on ideology.”

                Of course he would say that. That’s always what the wolf says when grandma notices what big teeth he has (…while he’s wearing sheep’s clothing).

                Now is the time to focus on ideology!

                And now is the time for everyone to vote-in the candidates who support our ideology…at all levels of government!

© W. F. Walker Johanson--2008

Walker Johanson is the Washington DC-based Managing Partner of The Northumberland Group. He is a happily married father of five, a successful business entrepreneur, an expert on marketing strategy, a published writer, and the author of the soon-to-be-syndicated “Walk…my way” column. He can be reached at walker.johanson@northumberlandgroup.com.