How Do You "Create" A Job?

cre-ate, v.t. [CREATED, CREATING], 1. to cause to come into existence; bring into being; make for the first time; originate.


Politicians love to talk about "creating jobs." I've even been guilty of it myself. But can a job really be "created"?

I suppose it can, if we're talking about a brand-new, never-been-done-before product or service. Jobs to make that product or deliver that service would indeed be "created", since those jobs never existed before. Examples might be ultra-high tech nano manufacturing, or internet services like Facebook or Groupon.

And some jobs can be destroyed, killed, lost and gone forever, when the need no longer exists. We're not manufacturing button-hooks or cathode-ray TV tubes anymore. The milkman and the iceman are history.

But so much of what's of called job creation is actually job-shifting, just moving an activity from one location to another. Yes, one man's loss is another one's gain, but it's still a zero-sum game.

Our own Gov. John Katshit, uh, Kasich is busy patting himself on the back for convincing drug distributor Omnicare to move its corporate HQ from Covington, Ky. to Cincinnati. (Fun fact: Omnicare paid the State of Michigan $52 million to settle a Medicaid fraud case.) Kasich and the City of Cincinnati persuaded the company with $8 million in tax breaks. Now, just like former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer once did, Omnicare will do its bidness over the river.

This is not job creation. It's acquiescing to corporate pimping and blackmail. "Hey Covington, we're taking our income and payroll taxes to Ohio unless you pay up, suckers!" "Hey Cincinnati, you lookin' for a date? We're available right now, sweetheart. We'll let you do us for, say, $8 million? Deal?" We've seen the same sort of civic extortion in the world of pro sports -- "Build us a new stadium, give us a deal, or we're moving to Greensboro/Baltimore/wherever."

You say, Buster, it's just business. You're right, it is. It's the part of "just business" that just sucks!

For its part, Kentucky threw money at Omnicare and tried hard to keep them from leaving. In vain. But one of these days, I'd love to hear a city or state say to one these corporate blackmailers, "We refuse to pay your ransom. If you want to leave, get the fuck out!"