What They Really Think
Mar 15th, 2010 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Policy MattersThe cup is half empty. The cup is half full.
The economy lost another 36,000 jobs in February. That’s a real improvement over a year ago, which makes it great news.
The economy lost another 36,000 jobs in February. That means people are still suffering more than we like, which makes it really bad news.
Perspective really is everything. I know you get tired of hearing me say that but you can’t deny that there’s plenty of fodder for that point of view in Washington.
Right now, I’ll confess, it does seem easier to get Democrats to admit that a loss of any jobs remains unacceptable than it is to get Republicans to admit that losing 36,000 jobs in a single month is nowhere near as bad as losing half a million jobs in a single month.
Then again, the same was true, in reverse, along about four years ago.
Interestingly, the only place where any of these folks appear to agree — although they agree only by their mutual silence — is on their inability to decide whether self- employment is a good thing or not.
On the one hand, everybody on Capitol Hill loves small businesses. Small businesses, any of them will tell you, will drag our collective chestnuts out of the recessionary fire and lead the way back to good times.
On the other hand, nobody on Capitol Hill seems to be willing to refer to the probable current surge in nonemployer businesses as a positive development. They know that “forced entrepreneurship” is happening. They view it as a sign of a poor economic environment.
After all, if all those people had jobs, then they wouldn’t need to … what? Become entrepreneurs?
How very dreadful!
And here I thought we’d decided that entrepreneurship was a good thing.
