Reply #2: I've run into this argument before

[ewagner]

It's a favorite of the neocons.....

First, government creates jobs by creating the environment in which jobs can be created...through tax policy, public/private initatives etc. When I was a Mayor, we wanted to redevelop the downtown, so we used government funds to acquire derelict buildings, demolished them and sold the land to a developer for $1 for a new hotel. It created about 35 or 50 new jobs and the spin-off jobs from additional retail sails skyrocketed.

Government also translates a vision of the future which can either put an end to outmoded industries and create new ones. Example: Eisenhower virtually destroyed the railroads and built the trucking industry with creation of the national interstate system. Another example was the Space zProgram of the '60s. It created a Space Industry which had so many spin-offs that we can't even count them all.

And then there was the internet. Originally set up for defense communications but look at what it has become today because government backed it and allowed it to flourish.

Hope some of this helps