Skeptic Project

Today the jobless report showed that the economy added 162,000 jobs. How will Austrians explain this away?

My guess is they will claim they were government jobs and their idiotic followers will eat it up. However even without the government jobs there are still over 120,000 new jobs created.

I've got one: What if the government wants to return the U.S. to the gold standard, so it uses inmates in FEMA camps as slave labor to mine gold for the new coinage?

If people would take just a brief moment to understand how the three branches of government function, it would show them how completely retarded the notion of a unified conspiracy is.

@ Edward:

Austrianists engage in human nature denialism about as much as the Zeitgeisters. Human males spontaneously form dominance hierarchies based on criteria other than economic rationality, which means that we'll just keep forming states, engaging in politics and finding ways to dump on low status people, no matter what utopians like Ron Paul or Jacque Fresco say.

@Matt,

I decided to ask an Austrian who was ranting about how the government doesn't create real jobs.

His Post: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/54940.html</p>

My question: "How do public sector jobs not add anything to the economy? If the government builds a bridge that companies use then doesn't that add to the economy. The New Deal allowed electricity and reduced flooding in my area which allowed companies to locate factories there. Without the Hoover Dam we wouldn't have Las Vegas."

His response: "You're new to LRC, aren't you?"

My reply: "Actually no, I read LRC fairly often. I know you guys have been saying the US is going to experience some kind of hyperinflationary collapse for not following your advice despite the fact that the economy has done just fine without it for generations. I know you have been claiming we would have no positive job growth in the private sector. I know you guys believe we are in a depression.

You all have been predicting this for decades. I found a Time Magazine article from 1981 where you all claimed the United States is going to collapse by 1983. You all make lots of money for predicting doom, but it never comes to pass."

His response: ?

"His response: "You're new to LRC, aren't you?""

Translation: LOL U NOOB

What a dbag.

His response: "May I ask how old you are?"

The growth of "jobs" in the servility sector (retail, hospitality, food service, etc.) probably drags down the whole economy. You can't sustain a middle class on the kinds of wages paid by Wal-Mart, now America's largest private employer. I think General Motors held that position in the 1950's, which shows how far into economic Opposite Land we've traveled.

>> Employment is hardly an accurate means of assessing how healthy and stable an economy is, especially in the long run.

That's true, consider in the eastern bloc countries employment was near 100%.