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67 Comments
- markgl, on 11/11/2009, -9/+61Lies, lies, lies. That is all I see when I read reports of jobs saved or created.
- eastwood24, on 11/11/2009, -5/+47What's next, the Dept. of Labor using misleading methodologies when reporting the national unemployment figures. I need to be reassured that the figure really is 10.2%.
- mnocket, on 11/11/2009, -3/+44In recent weeks we have heard the same story from California, New York and Colorado. I'm guessing the only reason we haven't heard similar stories from other states is that the media there isn't asking questions. This is a huge $787B government fraud and our "watchdog" press is largely absent.
- UheardItHear, on 11/11/2009, -4/+33Wow... 10 main points from the article:
1) With $2.7 million in rental subsidies for its affordable housing developments in Waltham, Susan Kelly, director of property management for Boston Land Co., said, "There were no jobs created. It was just shuffling around of the funds."
2) The Beachmont School received $485,500 in stimulus funds ...to install solar panels on the roof. Revere’s job count? 64.
3) The City of Waltham said a $630,500 solar panel installation on the roof of City Hall created 10 jobs - even though the work had yet to begin.
4) The community action agency based in Greenfield received $245,000 for its preschool Head Start program. The agency said it used the money to give roughly 150 staffers cost-of-living raises.
5) Several other Head Start agencies also reported using stimulus funds for pay raises and claimed jobs for it.
6) At Bridgewater State, Baldwin said the college mistakenly counted part-time student jobs as full time.
7) The Greater Lawrence Family Health Center reported 30 construction jobs “have been created,’’ even though it hadn’t begun construction on a $1.5 million renovation and expansion.
8) Massachusetts property owners received $75.5 million in rental subsidies from the stimulus bill, for a reported total of 437 jobs. Recipients of 27 of the 87 contracts reported zero jobs. The others, meanwhile, simply reported the number of employees working at the property. If they received two contracts, for a larger property, they reported the employee figure twice.
9) Plumley Village East in Worcester listed 23 jobs for each of its two contracts for a total of 46 jobs, even though it has only 23 employees working throughout the complex.
10) Robert Ercolini manages a 201-unit affordable housing development in Plymouth. After being notified his annual rental subsidies [for more than $1 million] were classified as stimulus spending, Ercolini said, "It’s really funny to find out in September that I’ve been receiving stimulus funds all along and they want to know how many jobs we’ve saved or created." By his count, the answer is: "No jobs." - rthakidn, on 11/11/2009, -17/+43This just in- Boston Globe no longer considered "legitimate" new agency. Editor-in-Chief a racist!
- juankovo, on 11/12/2009, -7/+31Government has nothing which it has not already taken from someone else. Any job that the government 'saves' or 'creates' it has already destroyed elsewhere.
- URnotheonly1, on 11/11/2009, -8/+24Still funny how they set this stuff up, the democrats. They do this by accusing someone of doing the very thing they intend on doing because it makes the public tired and confused.
- Skywise, on 11/12/2009, -4/+20Wasn't recovery.gov supposed to help us keep track of this sort of shenanigans?
Oh yeah, Obama was also going to have all the major bills posted for 72 hours before voting so we could see and comment on them... - inboxnews, on 11/11/2009, -9/+24More like 17.5%.
- funkedup, on 11/12/2009, -3/+16People don't understand this simple concept. It applies to money as well.
- jsffive, on 11/12/2009, -5/+17Of course it's wildly exaggerated. That's what government does: they wildly exaggerate their efficacy, and when things go wrong, they blame ANYONE but themselves. We shouldn't be surprised by this. What bothers me is that, every election cycle, they put different faces in power, and expect us to buy the SAME EXACT *****. And why wouldn't they expect it? After all, we're so busy rooting for "our guy", and decrying the "other guy", that we're too distracted to notice that NONE of them are "our guy".
Red or blue, what's the difference?
Are any of you naive enough to think their "solutions" would be ANY different if "the other guy" was in charge?
Keep voting for Democrats and Republicans. You'll get what you've got coming to you. They're two sides of the same scratched-up coin. - rebrad, on 11/12/2009, -1/+13It just one big Chicago style Ponzi scheme, or the redistribution of the public's taxes to Friends of Obama (FOO). Where are the Foo Fighters when you need them?
- MyKillK, on 11/12/2009, -5/+16Yet the Obama administration proudly proclaims that 640,000 jobs have been saved as if it is cold, hard fact
It's so obvious that it's a BS made-up number, yet everyone believes their messiah - kaelyiesta, on 11/12/2009, -5/+16What bothers me is how hard this is for many to accept. Some have no trouble being cautious of businesses because the word profit has been turned into an evil word(understandable, given how our economy works these days), but they don't see that governments have the very same incentives.
Of course those who received our money are going to say it's helping. They were the ones most closely connected to the federal government politicians that gave them the money and if they have any brains at all, they will say it works to stay in favor and get more money, not to mention help keep the current politicians in power by improving their popularity.
Only some strong indoctrination would blind people to such obvious tendencies. - boogerthecat, on 11/12/2009, -4/+15Lies, Propaganda and big money changing hands... the change that it was time for looks a lot like the same old *****.
- BESTenemy, on 11/12/2009, -7/+17The US economic stimulus program has directly created or saved 640,000 jobs so far, the White House said on Friday (Nov 6, 2009) as it battled to find ways to show that its $787bn package was working, despite persistently high unemployment.
Funds paid out so far - $207.3 billion.
$207,300,000,000 / 640,329 = $323,739.83 per job created
The congress is so busy advertising their stimulus campaign - they forgot to do the math. - rogerdonaldson, on 11/12/2009, -11/+20Once again, anything that makes Obama look bad gets tons of Diggs, but never sees the front page. That's what Obama supporters have to resort to now: censorship. Which makes them douches.
- methdwman3, on 11/12/2009, -0/+9Anyone who didn't see this coming is a delusional Obama worshiper.
- Waiting2awake, on 11/11/2009, -13/+22Never going to see front page.
- dutchguilder2, on 11/12/2009, -0/+8How about inflation? Officially the govt says that consumer prices have risen by less than 3% per year for the past 7 years - but only if you don't count housing, energy, or food.
- PeppermintPig, on 11/12/2009, -0/+8It's hard to prove a job has been 'saved'.
- Kombaiyashii, on 11/12/2009, -0/+8Well he's creating many jobs for the lobbyists.
- ChoosyMother, on 11/12/2009, -13/+202010 can't come soon enough.
- kaelyiesta, on 11/12/2009, -1/+81. Rational economic calculation correctly 'stimulates' present and future economy, not central mandates through forceful coercion that cannot accurately determine the value each of us places on any given good or service.
2. A cost of living raise is not a stimulus any more than a thief taking your money to give himself a 'cost of living' raise is a stimulus.
3. No he won't. He will publicly denounce these findings as they come up but he will take no significant action against anyone unless they are minor players in politics and he is being pressured by public opinion to do so.
4. They were reported as jobs created. Past tense. Stop playing word games.
5. Productivity is likely to be inaccurately measured. Unless of course the actual work done is doubled, in which case I would agree.
Optimism based on facts is good. Misinformation only serves to further distort economic incentives and create further malinvestment. The stock market is a good example of that, where value is now defined as the worth of the potential of the stock itself rather than the productivity of the company. That claim you made is the foundation of many of our economic problems. The housing bubble wasn't just a crash because the variable rates hurt people who couldn't afford them, it crashed because people began buying them for the value they would raise to rather than the value of the house itself. People THINK these programs create wealth from nothing and that such things are sustainable. They aren't. In fact these programs based on denying reality are exactly the problem. Dealing with how things really are isn't pessimistic, it's rational. - Barackalypse, on 11/12/2009, -3/+10The problem is that these statistics are self-reported by agencies/companies that receive stimulus funds, and just like the TARP bailout funds, there is little in the way of oversight or documented methodology to reporting them, so you're basically getting whatever the person filling out the form guesses (some cases it might be exactly right, other times you get the case where raises given to employees were counted as jobs). In short, this is as poorly administered and poorly performing as you would expect from the Government.
- ghengiskhan1, on 11/12/2009, -0/+7Obama thinks the he saves EVERY job in the economy every month except the jobs that are lost. Why, just last month he saved ever job in the country EXCEPT 170,000.
Remember folks, Obama's feces does not offend your olfactory senses and he does nothing wrong. If something goes wrong, its Fox News' fault. - nomarxist, on 11/11/2009, -7/+14Truth is there no longer seems to be any truth you can trust!
- MyKillK, on 11/12/2009, -2/+9Wouldn't surprise me considering how they skewered Edmunds for their report on cash for clunkers
- BESTenemy, on 11/12/2009, -0/+7 The number doesn't illustrate the salary or the total income of each person whose job got created or saved, but rather the cost to the taxpayer. Many of the jobs were low paying short-term infrastructure and construction positions. Which means, for example, hiring of a contractor to do bridge repairs over the course of 1 year for $50,000 in total, with the rest of the money going to the bureaucracy involved in running the project.
If the money was going to salaries, it would only be half bad. The sad reality is that the funds are getting wasted.
Quite often, in order to qualify for the federal stimulus a state has to propose infrastructure repair plans. Just to get the money, they list anything they can come up with, including fixing things that do not need fixing, just to get the cash. Some states are expanding their airports in spite of the falling air traffic and looming airline bankruptcies. They generate low paying jobs in the progress and pocket the change.
There is an unlimited demand for "free" cash. Most of what is spent ends up in the wrong hands. The debts generated in the process last for decades and generate more unemployment through private sector taxation than they have "saved" initially. - UheardItHear, on 11/12/2009, -4/+10Haha! You certainly are a joker aren't you? Very funny!
I love your "logic," each and every "For" statement that you mentioned was even funnier than the previous. Haha! Especially when you ended it with, "For 9, if the people are working on two projects, what's wrong with saying that's two jobs?"
...It's the unemployment rate, stupid. Wow...
You funny guy.... - Gareth321, on 11/12/2009, -1/+7How about you both quit bitching and PICK ANOTHER ***** PARTY ALREADY.
- PeppermintPig, on 11/12/2009, -0/+5Sound like some sweet, sweet cush jobs!
- PeppermintPig, on 11/12/2009, -0/+5Voting isn't enough. Stop feeding the beast.
- MyKillK, on 11/12/2009, -1/+5i'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but there are definitely misleading methodologies being used for unemployment numbers. The Birth-Death model is a prime example. Even the BLS admits that it overestimated job rolls by 824,000. We might see the first million-jobs-lost number ever in January when they make the revision...
- digitalArtform, on 11/12/2009, -0/+4I like turtles.
- juankovo, on 11/12/2009, -2/+6Keep treading water there, buddy.
- Ebacherville, on 11/12/2009, -0/+4haha and the sheeple thing that having the government in there health care will be a good thing.. You think thing little deal is bad wait till they can tell you what kind of health care you can get and cant get.
- PeppermintPig, on 11/12/2009, -0/+4"If the money was going to salaries, it would only be half bad. The sad reality is that the funds are getting wasted."
Without a doubt, it is a waste. Because these positions are protected and funded through monopoly and monopoly privilege, it's not possible to argue that it isn't a waste either. - Charlotte_Web, on 11/12/2009, -3/+7The whole "Jobs Saved" category is a total fraud.
- gradient01, on 11/12/2009, -1/+4Well played sir ...
- TruckStuff, on 11/12/2009, -0/+3Don't forget Illinois: http://digg.com/politics/Obama_Stimulus_Aid_Claims ...
Also, do you have links to the other states? I'd like to read those articles as well. - inactive, on 11/12/2009, -2/+5Uh huh, so are you saying that $77,181 to Bridgewater State College WOULD have produced 160 full-time work-study jobs for students. I'm no mathemetician, but . . .
- TheUngod, on 11/12/2009, -0/+2Unemployment rate != number of unemployed people. However, the unemployment rate has been calculated the same way for a long time. So it can be compared to itself perfectly fine. It's the Dow Jones of employment statistics.
- appleseed1234, on 11/12/2009, -2/+4Hahahaha, and the Republicans have never done this. Not once.
- inactive, on 11/12/2009, -0/+2Good. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you.
- clbw, on 11/12/2009, -0/+2I think it was changed back in 2001 or at least the way they calculated Job growth.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200803 ...
I'm not trying to be political here because the way unemployment is calculated by the government really does not give us an actual number that is accurate. - allisonV12, on 11/12/2009, -1/+3I don't think anyone actually believed any of Obama & Team promises when the stimulus was shoved down the American throats.
It all was about fear,if you don't do this... we face the Great Depression
The government plays the the American public like scared sheep,gather them into a scared mob and then deal with the isolated protest and complaining afterwords.
Is this like the 3rd or 4th time that crises has been turned into criminal opportunity for government officials in the last decade. - Rethcir, on 11/12/2009, -0/+2You out of staters trying to say that this is a bunch of lies probably have no idea how corrupt the MA political landscape really is. I am a liberal and I recognize this. You have to realize that probably the majority of the commonwealth's public sector workers are patronage jobs - friends of powerful people, etc. It was less than 15 years ago that the president of the MA state legislature was the brother of James "Whitey" Bulger. Yup, the same Whitey Bulger that the jack nicholson character in The Departed is based on. You can wiki that if you don't believe me.
- relvlix, on 11/12/2009, -1/+3I don't understand why this is being dugg down. It was clever.
yeah,bury me too -
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