Monday, February 22, 2010

Stimulus Fact Pwns Stimulus Opinion

When you've got a GOP spokesman mocking the stimulus because more people believe Elvis is alive than believe the stimulus created jobs, and a Media Matters guy who responds citing CBO statistics according to which the stimulus created a number of jobs probably in the low seven digits, the Media Matters guy wins the debate.

If you care about the economy, you care about actually existing jobs, not opinions about jobs. The former pay better than the latter and are more likely to come with health benefits. As a piece of career advice, I'd recommend that you strive for having a job, rather than giving people the opinion that you have a job. Real jobs are what matter in evaluating the stimulus, and that's what the guy at Media Matters is talking about.

I hope that's the thought Glenn Thrush's readers left with when they saw his post reporting the two quotes. If not, philosophy professors like me have a lot of work to do.

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