ThinkCivics News
An educated citizenry is a vital requisite
for our survival as a free people.
Join ThinkCivics+
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
Join ThinkCivics+
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
Join TC+
Home US News

An Ivy League Analysis Just Destroyed Biden’s Biggest Argument for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

FEE.org by FEE.org
August 9, 2021
in US News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
0
An Ivy League Analysis Just Destroyed Biden’s Biggest Argument for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

The bipartisan infrastructure legislation moving through Congress could end up on President Biden’s desk before we know it. The $1 trillion bill has reportedly cleared major hurdles in the Senate and will soon land before the House of Representatives. The president would almost certainly sign the bill, which has his support, and its bipartisan passage would represent a political victory for the Biden administration. 

At least, at first.

The promised long-term economic benefits from the sweeping $1 trillion expenditure will likely never materialize, according to a new Ivy League analysis. This runs directly against the president’s promises that it would create jobs and stimulate the economy. Indeed, Biden has insisted that the government spending plan will “create millions of good-paying jobs.”

“This bill makes key investments to put people to work all across the country,” the president said. “It’s going to put Americans to work in good-paying union jobs building and repairing our roads, bridges, ports, airports.” 

He additionally claimed that the plan is a “blue-collar blueprint” for economic opportunity because, supposedly, 90 percent of the jobs created “will not require a college degree.”

This rhetoric is likely to appeal to many Americans. But the aforementioned analysis, by the Wharton Business School, pours cold water on the president’s rosy promises. In stark contrast to “millions” of good jobs created, the Ivy League analysts project that the plan would have a net zero effect on employment, wages, and economic growth over both the medium-term (by 2031) and the long-term (by 2050).  

Despite these meager results, the legislation would still add a whopping $351 billion to the national debt. For context, that’s roughly $2,449 in new debt per federal taxpayer.

Image Credit: Penn-Wharton Budget Model

Why would the plan create zero net jobs?  

Well, as the analysts explain, it would indeed create some jobs via public works investment. This is what Biden and other advocates focus on. But there are also significant costs, since the resources invested in government infrastructure spending are ultimately not going toward private-sector investments that would otherwise have occurred. When the Wharton analysts compared the outcomes with these costs in mind, they found no actual net benefit. 

This revealing analysis reminds us of the timeless principle explained by Henry Hazlitt in his classic work Economics in One Lesson. The scholar explained why public works schemes are not inherently the job-creating programs that politicians claim. 

The politicians, like Biden in this case, focus on the tangible, seen benefits of their proposed spending, like the infrastructure jobs created. But they routinely overlook, downplay, and deny the unseen costs of such projects, misleading the public by only presenting them with half of the cost-benefit analysis. Hazlitt aptly explained this phenomenon with the example of a government bridge-building program. 

“For every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else,” he wrote. “We can see the men employed on the bridge. We can watch them at work. The employment argument of the government spenders becomes vivid, and probably for most people convincing. But there are other things that we do not see, because, alas, they have never been permitted to come into existence.”

“They are the jobs destroyed by the [money] taken from the taxpayers,” Hazlitt continues. “All that has happened, at best, is that there has been a diversion of jobs because of the project. More bridge builders; fewer automobile workers, radio technicians, clothing workers, farmers.”

Of course, this debate over job creation exists as just one part of the infrastructure debate. Biden is still free to argue that his proposed spending is otherwise necessary. But modern Ivy League analysis and timeless economic principles alike debunk the president’s argument that the bipartisan infrastructure bill will create millions of jobs.

WATCH: Why the CDC’s Eviction Moratorium is INSANE (and Illegal!)

[embedded content]

Like this story? Click here to sign up for the FEE Daily and get free-market news and analysis like this from Policy Correspondent Brad Polumbo in your inbox every weekday.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

FEE.org

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is a 501(c)3 educational foundation and has been trusted by parents and teachers since 1946 to captivate and inspire tomorrow’s leaders with sound economic principles and the entrepreneurial spirit with free online courses, top-rated in-person seminars, free books for classrooms, as well as relevant and worldly daily online content.

fee.org

Related Posts

To Fight Racial Injustice, the US Army Will Rename Nine Historic Bases

To Fight Racial Injustice, the US Army Will Rename Nine Historic Bases

May 26, 2022
Witnesses: Police Refused to Enter School as Uvalde Shooter Rampaged, Subdued Parents Begging Them to Act

Witnesses: Police Refused to Enter School as Uvalde Shooter Rampaged, Subdued Parents Begging Them to Act

May 26, 2022

Mike Rowe Says Feds Revoked His Filming Permit, Received Call Claiming It Was Pulled For His ‘Personal Politics’

May 25, 2022

Candace Owens SCORCHES Bias Media for Labeling Her a Russian Propagandist

May 25, 2022
Load More
Next Post
#DontKillCrypto: The Infrastructure Bill Contains a Poison Pill for Crypto: Senators Wyden, Lummis, and Toomey Try to Stop It

#DontKillCrypto: The Infrastructure Bill Contains a Poison Pill for Crypto: Senators Wyden, Lummis, and Toomey Try to Stop It

Biden’s Six Months In Office Have Us On The Road To Communism

Biden’s Six Months In Office Have Us On The Road To Communism

Founder of Time’s Up legal foundation resigns following alleged effort to discredit Cuomo victim

Founder of Time's Up legal foundation resigns following alleged effort to discredit Cuomo victim

TODAY'S TOP STORIES

  • FBI Agent at Sussmann Trial Just Dropped a Bomb About an Ongoing Investigation

    FBI Agent at Sussmann Trial Just Dropped a Bomb About an Ongoing Investigation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • BREAKING: State Farm Exec Apologizes to Angry Agents, Says ‘We Made a Mistake With Our Involvement’ With GenderCool

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Reporter Shuts Down Blue Checkmark Leftist ‘Hack’ Distorting His Coverage of Texas School Shooting

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Punks Attempt Another Smash and Grab, Pick Jewelry Store Where Employees Were Itching For A Fight

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Bill Maher Notices Something Odd About These Transgender Kids

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Handwritten Notes From 2017 Show FBI Agents Mislead DOJ On The Trump-Russia Investigation

by The Federalist
May 19, 2022
0
Handwritten Notes From 2017 Show FBI Agents Mislead DOJ On The Trump-Russia Investigation
National Security

Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is currently on trial for lying to the FBI about his role in pushing...

Read more

Jankowicz Got The Boot, But Biden’s ‘Ministry Of Truth’ Hired Replacements Are WORST

by ThinkCivics Newswire
May 19, 2022
0
Jankowicz Got The Boot, But Biden’s ‘Ministry Of Truth’ Hired Replacements Are WORST
National Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hired the co-author of the PATRIOT Act, arguably the harshest crackdown on civil liberties...

Read more

MSNBC Guests Want GOP Labeled ‘Domestic Terror Party,’ Jail Time For Having The Wrong Opinions

by The Political Insider
May 19, 2022
0
MSNBC Guests Want GOP Labeled ‘Domestic Terror Party,’ Jail Time For Having The Wrong Opinions
National Security

We all know that Democrats and the left love to operate on the premise of “never let a good crisis...

Read more

Incredible Video: George W. Bush Accidentally Condemns ‘Unjustified and Brutal Invasion of Iraq’

by The Political Insider
May 19, 2022
0
Incredible Video: George W. Bush Accidentally Condemns ‘Unjustified and Brutal Invasion of Iraq’
National Security

George W. Bush committed a Freudian slip so brutal they may have to rename the phenomenon after him. The former...

Read more
Watch: Davos Elites Warn “Painful Global Transition” Should Not Be Resisted By Nation-States
Economy

Watch: Davos Elites Warn “Painful Global Transition” Should Not Be Resisted By Nation-States

by Zero Hedge
May 24, 2022
0

As World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab proclaimed that “the future is built by us” at the opening of the...

Read more
This Year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Is as Disturbing as You’d Expect
Economy

This Year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Is as Disturbing as You’d Expect

by RedState
May 23, 2022
0

It’s the time of year again when thousands of the world’s most powerful and wealthy people gather in Davos, Switzerland...

Read more
Is Trump A Modern Day Nostradamus? Watch His Prediction Of What Would Happen If Biden Won
Economy

Is Trump A Modern Day Nostradamus? Watch His Prediction Of What Would Happen If Biden Won

by The Political Insider
May 23, 2022
0

President Trump is many things, to friend and foe alike. Is being a modern day Nostradamus among them? At least...

Read more
U.S. economy may outpace China’s this year for the first time in nearly 50 years
Economy

U.S. economy may outpace China’s this year for the first time in nearly 50 years

by Just the News
May 21, 2022
0

The growth of the U.S. economy is set to outpace that of China's for the first time in nearly five...

Read more
Facebook Twitter RSS

Brilliantly

SAFE!

thinkcivics.com

Content & Links

Verified by Sur.ly

2022

Recent News

  • To Fight Racial Injustice, the US Army Will Rename Nine Historic Bases
  • Witnesses: Police Refused to Enter School as Uvalde Shooter Rampaged, Subdued Parents Begging Them to Act
  • Mike Rowe Says Feds Revoked His Filming Permit, Received Call Claiming It Was Pulled For His ‘Personal Politics’

Category

  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Editorials
  • Education
  • Elections
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Faith
  • Health
  • Immigration
  • Military
  • National Security
  • Politics
  • Science & Tech
  • US News
  • Videos
  • World News

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

  • Login
  • Sign Up
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • Join
  • Contribute

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

OR

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.