I was astonished by your editorial asking President Obama to create more jobs (“Mr. President, we need jobs to be your focus,” April 1). How can he or the government do that?? Isn’t it the job of the private sector to create jobs?

You say that “As a result of federal policies and economic trends,” the economy is struggling. The government caused the recession? Don’t you think your readers know that the bubble in housing, made much worse by uncontrolled subprime mortgage lending, started the recession?

Or that the recession spread to the banks, which stopped lending, causing the credit crisis and the collapse of three New York investment banks (Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch)? After all that, businesses couldn’t borrow money they needed to keep people working.

The recession was caused by unethical financial activities in the private sector. The government didn’t step in until it was necessary to prevent another Great Depression.

Some people, like your editorial writer, believe the government caused the problems that it only counteracted. That’s like blaming the doctor for your disease.

Government can only create jobs by borrowing money to stimulate the economy. But that means running huge deficits. Current deficits are already dangerously large. The government doesn’t have any good choices right now.

Americans have already realized they must spend less and save more. But it’s also true that we can’t go back to the economy we had. That was a bubble economy built on excessive credit. People are buying less, so there are fewer jobs that support consumption.

To have more jobs, the private sector must create new kinds of jobs. The president can’t do that. The government can’t do that. That requires innovation, which America is famous for. Does anyone think government can innovate for us?

 

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