Why Job Growth Numbers Under Socialist Presidents Don’t Make Sense

Do you know who has the absolute best numbers in job growth of any American president? FDR. Jobs grew by a whopping 4.97 percent in his first term (not a war term, by the way—those are peace time numbers). That’s right—it was FDR, the greatest socialist president in American history, just barely ahead of Barack Obama—who was able to grow jobs at rates beyond any other president. And yet people were absolutely miserable.

Kind of feels like now, doesn’t it? Barack Obama, statistically speaking, has created more jobs than Bush did. Yet, our economy certainly felt stronger in the Bush years. I’ve lived and worked in both eras. Prices are higher now, taxes are higher, our debt is even more absurd, and the country is ready to crack. I can’t afford to buy a house on twice what I was making three years ago, and my grocery bill makes my stomach turn. But, hey! Job growth numbers look pretty good.

So what in the world does job growth mean? And why does it seem like socialists are the best people at producing it with no positive benefit to the country? Well, let’s look at another statistic to get some idea on this: jobs in the private sector. Those are actually the only jobs that matter.

Private sector jobs actually pay for everything the government does. Think about it. The government doesn’t generate money on its own. It borrows money it has to pay back, and it takes money from citizens. But that money has to come from somewhere. Now, socialist governments are pretty good at making jobs. They create public works projects, like all the TVA dams and the like. They give out public contracts. They create burgeoning bureaucracies overflowing with steady desk jobs. Yay!

But there’s just one problem with this. The person doing the job may be happy to have employment. But he actually isn’t contributing productively to the economy. In fact, as far as the economy is concerned, he is not much better than a welfare recipient (though his labor is no doubt more honorable).

Job growth doesn’t mean anything in a socialist country. Because government-created jobs are just an extra burden on the dwindling resources of the self-sufficient. We live in a country that is absurdly unbalanced in these terms.

A recent article makes a convincing statistical case that, aside from providing for themselves, about 86 million private sector employees are having to provide for nearly 148 million non-veteran benefit takers. That’s just crazy. But it’s not just the 148 million moochers we have to pay for. The same article mentions that there are 16,606,000 full-time, year-round employees of the civil government. Let’s not forget that the 86 million are actually paying their salaries as well. And it’s likely that those government employees get paid way more than the porch-step slouchers chain-smoking their way to their next welfare check. ((And it’s a dubious proposition that government workers are actually more productive, for that matter.))

So, next time you wonder how salaries could be up, jobs could be up, numbers of all kinds could be up, and yet at the same time, everything could feel and be so very down, just remember that nothing can come from nothing, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and government doesn’t create—it can only manage. And ours does a poor job.

98 responses

  1. 25 years ago it was 4 workers provide SS for one beneficiary. Now look. Its almost one worker for two takers. When will it stop and people get work ethic back in their hearts?

  2. I can explain how Barack HUSSEIN Obama is basically falsifying unemployment numbers. In best months, the ECONOMY has created ~200K jobs. Weekly new, first-time unemployment claims has exceeded 300K, equalling considerably more than 1 million newly unemployed every month Barack HUSSEIN Obama has been in office. So, please explain the math. How can we create 200K jobs in a month, have more than 1 million newly unemployed in the same month, but unemployed either stays the same or goes down? The only way is for Barack HUSSEIN Obama to falsify the numbers. My proof. MATH.

    • Of course the unemployment numbers are NOT Obama’s they are the Bureau of Labor Statistics that’s been keeping them for over 100 years.

      • And THAT is part of the Administration. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is part of the Department of Commerce. Just like how, for the first time in history, the non-partisan Census Bureau has been moved into the West Wing of the White House, allowing Barack HUSSEIN Obama to tilt questions to make it appear that Obama/Democrat Care has helped more people than in reality. Even the New York Slimes has call foul on this latest stunt.

        • No mater which party is out of power they ALWAYS claim that the unemployment figures are wrong & the party in power claims they are right. I’m sure when Dubya was in power you used The Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers but now that the dems are in power they are no good.

      • Tell me how unemployment goes down when more than 1 million people each month file first-time unemployment claims, less than 200K jobs are created each month, but unemployment goes down. Explain this!!! Simple math makes this impossible.

        • I wrote that wrong. I was attempting to be humorous using common cores attempt at math. I agree with your first post. Obama using funny math to create the illusion of creating a great economy. My apologies.

          • In your first response to Mark, I knew it was a joke when you wrote “you must be using common core math” … thought that was hilarious. Not sure why he didn’t??

  3. Yes, the people were miserable during FDR’s reign until WW2 saved his bacon. While the people were miserable though, you should have seen his mansion on Rte.9, south of Poughkeepsie, NY. FDR was all money. He owned all the land from Rte. 9 to the Hudson River, which was no short walk. Only in the Hollywood films were places more extravagant. And, about a mile south of there is the Vanderbilt property which made Roosevelt’s place look plain by comparison.

  4. As radical leftist turned conservative David Horowitz has said, the problem with Communists and Progressives is that none of them from Karl Marx to Hillary Clinton has ever written a single paper on how to create wealth (that breeds elitist class envy). They only know how to distribute other people’s wealth. That’s why socialist societies are always doomed to bankruptcy (including our own if we don’t win in 2014 and 2016.

        • A) Hoover was president when the stock market crashed sending this country into the great depression.
          B) Dubya was president when the financial system melted down sending this country into the worst recession since the great depression.

          • Bob, glad you’re back. When Hoover was president, the stock market started to ‘crash’. He set, in motion a series of events to get us out of the crash. Before he, or anyone else could see any results, we had a change of presidency. FDR continued with Hoovers programs and things didn’t get better. Instead of changing tactics FDR expanded programs plus added new worthless programs which delayed the recovery. Bottom line is, the Great Depression lasted 10+ years was due to FDRs bungling of the economy. FDR made a correctable economy much, much worse.
            Now, GW Bush, he was a big government Republican. I’ll give you that but when did things start going sour? Boehner and McConnell got the ball rolling but you also have to blame Pelosi and Reid. The famed 700,000 jobs lost per month happened under Democrat control of the House and Senate. Yea, Bush was prez and didn’t try to control spending but Pelosi was the Speaker at that time. The unemployment rate went up to 10% under Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. Don’t blame the Republicans. That doesn’t fly anymore.

          • Warren G Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, all Republicans were the Presidents during the decline and final crash of the stock market leading to the Great Depression. FDR did not become President until March of 1933 (being elected in November of 1932). To try to blame the Depression of FDR is a outright blatant attempt to rewrite history and/or just a flat out lie, depending on your motivation.

          • Sat back reading in amazement while you tried to defend your god-in-chief and his party. Sorry, but it ain’t gonna work on this site at this location!

            Fred, whatever “spin” you may try to put on history, it will not rewrite the ultimate outcome of the disastrous economic choices made in reverence to the socialist platform of many U.S. democratic presidents.

            If you steal money from those who have some and give it to those with less (also known as wealth redistribution) you can make some happy and you’ll appear to be a benevolent benefactor. But at some point, those who have money will run out if it and you’ll have to ask yourself “why didn’t I teach those people to fish, rather than just give them fish? ”

            Didn’t you ever take an economics class?

          • Take a couple political science courses to complement your econ classes.

            “Wealth distribution” is political salesmanship in the same vein as “Obamacare will bankrupt this country and ruin the best medical delivery system in the world” [John Boehner] is political salesmanship.

          • Everything I’ve read about that timeframe stated that, if nothing was done by our politicians, the market would have corrected itself in a year or two. Because FDR wanted to try his socialist ideas, it lasted far longer than it needed to. The same is going on right now. Obama is pursuing his socialist ideas and we’re the guinea pigs. You would think that after all those years of failure and actually seeing what success looks like (Reagan), you would give up on your socialistic ideas. Remember, reading Karl Marx, Socialism=Marxism=Communism. And let’s be clear, Hitler was a Socialist also.

          • Now, now. Let’s not get nasty. Otherwise I might say something like, get off the government teet.

          • There is no way you can’t understand what’s happening in this country you might like trying to destroy America but as most liberal fool’s you have no where else to go with that foolish ideaoligy

          • Right …. “cause you’re a judgmental psychic? The government teet. Jesus Christ.

          • Now I bet you would love to have the government tell you how to live you everyday life. Right? They will tell you what you can eat, wear, live, drive. They will tell you what medical procedure you can/can’t have. Think death panels.
            America wasn’t founded under Socialist/Communist policies. If that is what you want, I hear Europe is nice this time of year.

          • Thinking “death panels” is like thinking “Obama flew his dog Bo in his own separate jet to their Hawaii vacation”.

            In other words, Not Shred Of Truth.

          • If you can name and quote ONE respected non-partisan economist that labels Obama’s policies as Socialist/Communist ….? I’ll name and quote 10 respected non’partisan economists that never have.

            Fair enough?

          • How about the MSM. When Obama was first elected, the news wrote “we’re all socialist now”. That was announced on the radio.

          • Dubya was president for 8 LONG years. One could argue that there was plenty of blame to go around for the financial collapse (that happened on Dubya’s watch) but the reality is Dubya didn’t even see the financial tsunami coming let alone do ANYTHING about it! When you’re president you get the credit & you take the blame & no matter how hard you people try to rewrite history Dubya will go down in history as the president with the worst economic record since Hoover!

          • Well, like you just said…if you’re president you get the credit and/or the blame. Obama WAS president when the unemployment was at 10%. You can blame Obama for the rotten economy. Of course, Obama is still blaming Bush for this economy, even though he’s been prez for six years. And the MSM is happy to go along with this farce. True unemployment is between 11-13% now. Obama just doesn’t count the ones that gave up trying to look for a job. There are more people NOT WORKING now than when Obama took office. That is a fact!

          • Just so I’m clear. Obama takes office & we’re in the middle of a complete financial meltdown & the worst recession since the great depression & it’s his fault?

          • Wait a minute! The MSM started telling the public that we were in a recession when the unemployment was at 5.5%. Bush’s worse unemployment number was around 7.5%. It has taken Obama six years, SIX YEARS to get the rate below 7.5% and to do that he had to fudge the numbers. GW, according to the Wall Street Journal stated that, under Bush, there was the greatest number of first time homebuyers in a number of years, it was the greatest number of minorities buying their first home, the greatest number of people that went from low income to middle class. And the media was telling us what a rotten economy it was…go figure.

          • No, but when did the meltdown happen? His last 2 years. Now what happened during his last two years? Hmmmm. Oh yea, Ms. Nancy became Speaker and Harry Reid became Senate leader. Now I got pissed at GW for allowing all the spending to happen.

          • Obamacare was SOME Republicans alternative. It was never the GOP’s official position.

          • You’re right. Never made the platform. Nothing made the GOP platform during the 8 years between 2 Presidents that risked enormous political capital to address the Healthcare Inflation against the GDP and irresponsible freeloaders that BK on a lousy $10,000 medical bill …… yet well taken care of.

          • The Heritage Foundation originally proposed ‘Obamacare’. They realized it wouldn’t work and took it off the table. Now the Dems with all their “Good Intentions” don’t think their problems through. They just “Feel Good” that they are doing something. When it goes bad, they usually just say we tried and we’re suppose to forgive them for the attempt.
            Here’s my thoughts, you want healthcare? You go get it and pay for it. Then you can get any kind of coverage you want and if it goes bad, only you’re to blame. You libs want everyone else to pay for your experiments and blame someone else when it goes bad.
            Obamacare is all Dems. The housing fiasco was a Dem brainchild. This economy, near depression, is all Obamas.
            BE PROUD OF YOUR CREATION!

          • They took it off the table? How ’bout that. I’ll check that comment out. Sounds like red zone overprotective ideology, but we’ll see.

          • Can’t be the fault of the 1st POTUS elected with an MBA.

            Remember how Bush spoke so eloquently of the global financial crisis during his final weeks:

            “I’ll tell ya what happen. Wall Street got drunk, that’s what happened”.

            George W. Bush (speaking off the record)

          • That’s kinda how it works, dummy!

            But, unlike Bill Clinton, look how poorly the Republican Party has treated W.
            Never invited to campaign for a GOP candidate, or to raise money for the RNC. Romney and McCain didn’t want him around during their campaigns.

            Pretty f…..g ungrateful party.

          • Hey Frankie, how many candidates are asking Our Selfie president to campaign with him NOW. Pretty much all are saying “NO THANKS!”.

          • You like to play moving target, huh?

            If you always want to be accurate ~ simply change the premise. Gore and Co. wanted nothing to do with Bill Clinton during Clinton’s lame duck years either. So, it proves your point.

            But the topic was “retired” POTUS.

          • I’m trying to keep you consistent in your ideas. You’re criticizing the GOP for distancing themselves from GWB, but I’m changing the target when I say that the Democrats are distancing themselves from Obama?
            Puleeeze!

          • I just wonder why other people even bother to talk to people like yourself when they could be solving problems people like you create!?

          • “It’s time you folks start blaming Obama for our rotten economy”.

            Hey,
            It’s time you read Hank Paulson’s book. And stop talking political analysis like an old school sports fan.

            Read Paulson’s account. He was sorta THERE! It’ll turn your ideological headache into a splitting migrane.

          • In The Creature From Jekyll Island, the author includes a statement from FDRs main finance guy who lamented that after all the money and energy put into government stimulating the economy for over a decade, we had very little if anything to really show for it.

          • “Dubya” served his final two years with a democrat VETO PROOF majority in the house AND senate.

          • It’s one thing to be to stupid or uneducated to know the truth but’s it’s another thing to just make things up & believe them to be true. Facts are meaningless to these people!!!!

          • 1st of all …. i think you’re wrong about the Majority.

            More importantly, it’s typical these days with these damn AM Radio Conservative talk show hosts to assign political blame if one party doesn’t stop the other party in their tracks with Majority power.

            Common ground = Progress.

          • If blame is to be placed on anyone let’s go back to the beginning. It was Woodrow Wilson a democrat that signed the 16th amendment creating the Federal Reserve allowing them to print our money/ fiat currency and giving conergress intrest free loans on that money for 15 years, that’s what fuled the roaring 20’s. When the bill came due we couldn’t pay and wall street crashed. Soooo it was a democrat that started this mess, even Wilson later regretted enacting the 16th amendment.to parphrase ” I think I’ve just enslaved the entire nation”. Thanks Woodie typical liberal not thing things through.

          • Oh, you better Cut and Save that perfect little nugget for later!

            Then drop and Paste his political gem the way you’d draw a gun and cock the trigger ~ on some lame ignorant Libtard . . . to shut his Socialist/Communist mouth for good.

          • Nothing un-typical for another politically irrational American blaming essentially EVERYTHING on one of two Parties ~ over a Constitutional Amendment 100 years ago.

            “No! Obviously it was the 3rd fumble in the 2nd quarter that cost us the Super Bowl, you idiot”.

            Yes. Only in the world’s most powerful nation, most important economy and most successful sacrifices made by its military, covert intelligence agencies, and others ~ providing relative peace & freedom at home, and petroleum security abroad ~
            Only here, can its fat and happy citizens encapsulate one event in an entire century and blame the POTUS for not vetoing a Constitutionally passed Amendment.

            Then blame that President’s Party affiliation for 100 YEARS!

            “Typical [American] not thinking things through”.

      • “Dubya” served his final two years with a democrat majority VETO PROOF in the house AND senate. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy.

        • At no time did President Bush have a “veto proof” Democratic majority in the House or Senate. The Senate had 49 Democrats, 2 Independents (controlled by the Democrats) and 49 Republicans. The House had 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans. To be veto proof you have to have 67 members of the Senate and 292 members in the House. If you look at Bush’s veto record, he vetoed more bill in his last two years than he did during his first 6 years.

      • It’s going to be hard for conservatives to win when the Dems vote 2,3,4,7 times. It was reported that, in North Carolina, there were somewhere around 1-200,000 more votes, for Obama, than registered voters. Even dead people voted for Obama. Why do you think we conservatives want voter ID.
        Oops, I said a funny. I gave you credit as a thinking person. I guess I should have said FEEEEEEEL!

  5. No wonder I am so tired all the time – I am working to support at least 2 other people (outside my family that I am happy and supposed to support).

    Odd how I am working harder and not gaining anything and those others I work to support aren’t either.

    There is something so wrong with this picture

    Perhaps it is time to try something “radical” like cutting the size and scope of government!

    • How about because wages have been stagnant for 40 years?

      Don’t let these failed capitalistic sissies get you thinking the Government is at fault. What? Taxes? Taxes?

      There were a couple of years my Fed and State tax bill combined was over $150,000. Trust me, YOU WANT A $150,000 TAX BILL~ EVERY YEAR! Every single year.

      Used to sit there and listen to a few of my clients bitch … bitch … bitch …. about paying $1,000,000 or more a year in taxes.

      Yeah, what a shame. Only in America.

  6. What’s interesting is the two WORST presidents in American history (both republicans) Herbert Hoover & Dubya destroyed the economy. Hoover led us into the great depression (which FDR got us out of) & Dubya led us into the worst recession since the great depression (which Obama got us out of)

  7. What’s interesting is the two WORST presidents in America (both democrats)
    Jimmy Carter and Barrack Obama destroyed the economy, national defense, and the livelihood of our capitalist economy.

    Carter led us into the great inflation of the ’70s (which Reagan got us out of) & Obama has led us into the worst depression of my life (my doctor won’t prescribe anymore Prozac for this depression… bummer!)

      • Why are you playing the race card?
        Because you know in my case, that is unfair and untrue.
        Just tryin’ to yank my chain…

        Bob, you can spin the words any way you like but the facts remain:
        Barrack Obama is a socialist president of a capitalist country trying to mesmerize a group of unhappy, poor citizens who have come to believe their only “hope for change” is through a witchhunt of politicians (republicans) who could provide real change through greater opportunity, not government welfare if given a chance.

        But Barrack Obama has the bully pulpit right now so he will continue the witchhunt and keep exorcising any republican who threatens him in hopes of expelling any demons.

        Problem is he’s exorcising the wrong people.

        • Why would a socialist surround himself with Wall Street oligarchs? Whatever Obama is, a socialist he’s not. I do admit, I do like to “yank your chain”! 😉

          • The richest precincts in the country are democratic strongholds. (SanFran) and the poorest. (Detroit ). That is the democrat plantation. Why else a socialist surround himself with Wall Street oligarchs? Great question troll.

          • Anyone who thinks States are all red or blue is being simple minded. There is no state where everyone votes all Republican or all Democrats. You call California a blue state yet it has elected more Republican governors than Democratic ones since 1966. You call Georgia a red state yet ignore the heavily Democratic leaning city of Atlanta( where a lot of people get welfare). It is more complicated than you think.

        • Clearly, you do not read the Wall Street Journal. Or Foreign Policy. Or The Economist.

          Nor do you have serious money in the stock market. But what’s the difference? The man who’s made more billions in the last 5 years ~ Sheldon Adelson ~ spent $100 million trying to defeat Obama last time, the ungrateful sonofabitch.

          Why? Because of HIS business interests. Period. This POTUS, your socialist president, has left the Wall Street criminals of the past decade alone, hasn’t he? ….nobody got sent to jail …. because they can destroy him. They destroyed the Global economy AND made money. They rebuilt it ….AND made money by getting FREE money from the Fed. FREE money from the Fed. Hmmm…. Now there’s a hint of Socialism. Get it? They are the Masters Of The Universe.

          Newt Gingrich whores out his brain for the narcissistic attention he craves ~ and smiles while hustling the conservative dimwits: “This President is the most successful food stamp president in history”. If you really that …. and believe that Newt believes that? Then you’re a small time drug addict getting high on your own hypocrisy of how things need to be … for you. Newt’s always known how to feed drug addicts.

          You know, I don’t blame you for being convinced ~ because that’s what you are ~ convinced, not informed ~ of this socialism BS rant for 5 years. I blame the AM Radio rating whores who have ZERO political dogs in the fight and ZERO accountability for what they say. They run with the Talk Radio / Cable News business model and suck on their ratings success like a crack pipe.

          You read serious political analysis? ~ too boring, right? The people in these Circle Jerk forums are all masturbating to the same low grade political porn that just happens to fit the market share guide lines. Imposed by the sales department. It’s a GAME. And as the billionaire Alpha-males of the world love to say:

          “If you’re not sitting at the table, you’re on the menu”.

          Best quote by Rupert Murdoch ~ when asked what business he’s in:

          “I’m in the eyeball business”. Get the picture?

    • don’t forget the first progressive teddy roosevelt, his cousin fdr and woodrow wilson. they set the socialist ball into motion.

    • Maybe your doctor is fed up with your lack of thinking skills. He has no pill that will create the comprehension skills you’re desperately in need of. Is education so frightening? Look up Critical Thinking Skills ~ fuc**ing LEARN THE SKILLS.

  8. What socialist presidents? All presidents have been of, for, and by the 1% – that’s why today’s working Americans have less free time than the medieval peasants in the dark ages, which BTW were dark only for the ruling plutocrats.

  9. There is no job growth. There are fewer people working today then when Obama took office. All those jobs he said he made didn’t even make up for the people who left the job market.

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