If you need a job and want a job but don't have one, you surely would like to hear any reasonable proposal for creating some good job opportunities.
It is no solution for the federal government just to tax everybody who does have a job, and then use some of the money to create more government jobs or to subsidize "make-work" private jobs.
We want real jobs producing goods and services that meet real market demand -- and that are beneficial not only to the job holder, but also to the company for which he works and to our economy and people as a whole.
So some recent proposals by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to create jobs deserve attention.
The Chamber says that if, among other measures, the United States cut tax rates on the profits that multinational corporations earn overseas, that would help persuade them to bring as much as $1.2 trillion into the U.S. economy -- and would create more than 6 million jobs within two years!
Here are some of the Chamber's other recommendations:
Temporarily reduce the tax rate companies pay when they sell capital assets.
Pass long-delayed trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama.
Increase oil and gas exploration to the levels that prevailed before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill restricted offshore drilling permits.
Approve a $7 billion oil pipeline from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.
Relax a variety of unreasonable regulations and rules that hinder the economy and employment.
Anytime we want more of something -- jobs, investment or anything else -- it's a good idea to reduce restrictions and regulations, cut taxes on those things and then just "get out of the way."
That lets enterprising people find ways to create jobs, and it boosts government revenue by expanding the tax base.
Shouldn't we at least begin to try that, rather than follow the failed policies of more government borrowing and spending? Haven't we learned that government-planned economies just don't work?