Green jobs

My husband's architecture newsletters (via e-mail so they come to me) are so covered with ga-ga-green, I'm surprised they aren't moldy by the time I open them. All businesses are getting on this band wagon. Some of the ads are just ridiculous--"Great minds think green" Dow Chemical. (Librarians have 2.0, but architects have LEED v3) And if it were just business, I wouldn't care, but when the government is pushing it--look out--reeks of planned economy. Governments don't create--they take, and then send a little back to you in the form of block grants, subsidies, tax breaks, and civil service jobs. For real innovation whether it's in stem cell research or google, you need smart, young, know-it-alls who aren't afraid to ask questions and take risks.

Google was incorporated in September of 1998. By 2008, Google employed 20,000 people. It didn’t cost the American people anything to create these jobs. But the American people, and the rest of the world, have benefited greatly from Google’s excellent search engine and other innovative products like Google Maps, Google Earth, and Gmail.

Google shows us how jobs are created in a market economy. Without imposing on the American taxpayer, they made a superior product for consumers and 20,000 jobs have been created. As a result, humanity reaps the benefit of being able to use Google’s superior products. And as an added bonus to the government, Google pays millions in taxes each year.

Consider Exxon Mobil as another example. Even in these challenging economic times, Exxon Mobil earned billions in profits, employs 80,800 employees, and pays billions of dollars in taxes and fees to the government every year. Exxon Mobil makes money because people are willing to buy, without being forced by the government, Exxon Mobil’s gasoline and other products. When Exxon Mobil hires a new employee, it doesn’t receive money from the federal government to help create that new job, because Exxon Mobil sells a product people will voluntarily buy.

So if Google and Exxon Mobil can create jobs without Federal subsidies and payments, why do so-called “green jobs” need to cost the American taxpayer so much? President-elect Obama says his 5 million new green jobs will cost $30,000 taxpayer dollars per job. And Obama’s plan is far more optimistic than those of even his closest allies. It takes a lot of government green. . .