Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


JOB CREATION….As word of Barack Obama’s stimulus package starts making the rounds, conservatives are reviving one of their favorite tropes: that’s sure an expensive way to put people to work! Basically, they divide $700 billion by 2.5 million jobs and announce that the cost of the plan is $280,000 per job, a whopping figure in anyone’s book. But Mark Thoma does the actual math, and it turns out that the numbers at hand are actually $490 billion and 5.4 million jobs:

If we actually get the 5 million jobs the estimates say we will get, what is the cost per job? It is $490 billion divided by 5,425,000, or $90,323. (Note that by targeting spending to places that have a high employment rate per dollar spent, we may be able to do even better than this.)

But this is GDP per job, it includes wages, rent, interest, and profit, it’s not the amount labor takes home. About 70 percent of income goes to labor….If we take 70% of $90,323, we get about $63,000 (actually, $63,226). That’s less than a quarter of the $280,000 figure.

Read the whole thing for more. I’m just presenting this as a public service, since this talking point is almost certain to get extensive play on Fox News and elsewhere. Forewarned is forearmed.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate