Can we please put the "job creator" myth to bed now once and for all

[nichomachus]

There is no such thing as a "job creator."

Yes, there are people whose businesses create jobs, but that is not why they are in business. No one says, "I want to go into business so I can create jobs."

People go into business because (a) they want to make money and (b) they like what they do and they want to make money. If they can do that without creating any jobs for other people, then they make more money. Instead of paying people, they could keep it all for themselves.

Corporations don't like hiring people. They hate hiring people. If they could find a way to run the businesses and make as much money without people, they would do it this afternoon.

What they do like is having enough business so that it requires them to hire people, but while they like the increased business, they really don't like the hiring part.

For the past seven years, I've had a free-lance job in which I read and edit transcripts of interviews with high-level executives in large and medium-sized corporations. I have never once heard one of them say that their goal for next quarter or next year was to create new jobs. I have never heard them congratulate themselves or each other on hiring people.

Their short- and long-term goals are:

1. "Drive out cost" (get rid of people)

2. "Do more with less" (get rid of people)

3. "Reduce headcount" (get rid of people)

4. "Different sourcing" (get rid of people -- at least in the US)

The Holy Grail, especially in IT, is a "lights-out operation." That is an operation that has no regular on-site personnel and can be run remotely from anywhere in the world over the Internet.

People in the interviews repeatedly brag about how they've put people out of work. "Two years ago, we had 85 people working in this area. Now, we can do it with 12."

I can guarantee you that there has never been a board meeting in which the directors sat around trying to figure out how to create more jobs.

The people who create jobs are the middle class who patronize these business and spend most of their income to buy things. That makes business profitable and requires businesses to hire people.

[yellerpup]

1. Thanks for this insight.

You explained the job creator myth very well and the cynicism that drives profits.

[KurtNYC]

2. I started a business in 2007 to create jobs for myself and others

and I DID create jobs. I know several other people who did also. There is broad support among businesses and consumers for products which are made in America, and more recently for local (eg not imported) food.

Your post shows a lack of optimism and without optimism nothing gets done.

ETA: I am also involved with a cooperative business which has the specific goal of creating jobs in our area. Cooperative business structures are becoming more popular as they include social goals and community ownership. This video explains co-op business (albeit in a long winded way):

[Deny and Shred]

3. No lack of optimism

I think the post was an observation, and not pessimistic. Dispelling myths such as this is important, and the poster did a good job doing so.

Your organization sounds great, but I think the poster examines transcripts from companies' boards that are not in it for the same reasons as your organization.

I believe the idea is to pierce the image of corporate executives as America's altruistic, benevolent 'job creators'. People without whom we'd starve, whose opinion is indispensable, who must be coddled in these trying times in order for their link in the economic chain to function. The best and brightest of us whose eternal light we'd all do best to follow.

That is a myth that does need piercing.

[KurtNYC]

4. Editing transcripts of assholes tooting their own horns provides only limited

view of everything that goes on in businesses.

There is no such thing as a "job creator."

Yes there are. The term was coined as a marketing gimmick to be used to promote tax cuts and Mitt Romney and, based on the results of 11/6, I'm not sure that it need debunking. BS fought the truth and BS lost. But just because Mitt Romney and his peers "harvest businesses" and destroy jobs doesn't mean that EVERYONE does.

Yes, there are people whose businesses create jobs, but that is not why they are in business. No one says, "I want to go into business so I can create jobs."

This was the line that got me. 20% of all the commerce in the world now goes through cooperative businesses. Credit unions, food co-ops, and CSAs are the easy examples. This type of business is growing because the people who go into them and the customers that support them want to create jobs that stay in their area. And to be simplistic, everyone who goes into business is trying to create at least one job: their own. Many family owned businesses are trying to create jobs for everyone in their extended family who wants one.

People go into business because (a) they want to make money and (b) they like what they do and they want to make money. If they can do that without creating any jobs for other people, then they make more money. Instead of paying people, they could keep it all for themselves.

Some people go into business, or stay in it long after their fortune is made, because they love the game and they actually like having shit loads of employees. Plenty of owners and managers cry when they have to let good employees go.

Corporations don't like hiring people. They hate hiring people. If they could find a way to run the businesses and make as much money without people, they would do it this afternoon.

Not all corporations are publicly traded. Many of the most profitable are not public and therefore do not answer to shareholders. I have worked for at least one corporation that had as a goal, specifically to retain as many CPAs as their business could utilize (Mitchell Titus). They don't want to fire any of them "this afternoon" or any time soon.

I can guarantee you that there has never been a board meeting in which the directors sat around trying to figure out how to create more jobs.

I find this statement to be smugly cynical and just plain wrong. Again, this is what many cooperative and privately owned businesses do. I am on the board of one and we budget and figure out how to create and sustain jobs that pay a living wage and are satisfying. We also try to keep small local farmers in business by connecting them with customers who are also interested in sustaining local businesses.

The people who create jobs are the middle class who patronize these business and spend most of their income to buy things. That makes business profitable and requires businesses to hire people.

This statement ignores businesses to business spending (which is the biggest chunk of U.S. commerce in terms of sheer dollars), government spending, and casually insults low income Americans who buy many goods and services. Middle class families spend the biggest chunks of their income on taxes (30 to 45%), cars/insurance/gasoline and home mortgages.

Mitt Romney lost big running on the idea that he was going to transform himself into someone who creates "12 million jobs" for Americans. Almost nobody believed it so I don't think that use of "job creator" needs piercing.

But it is IMHO very cynical to think that EVERYONE who is in business is greedy, self-centered and soul-less. I hope that more people will look to cooperative business models and to cooperative businesses and help us continue to create the jobs that are so desperately needed in the U.S.

[nichomachus]

5. Well, what you should do

is go out tomorrow and hire 100 more people, whether you need them or not. That will make your business of creating jobs very successful.

[KurtNYC]

7. Sarcasm is the least efficient form of communication because it tells the reader only what

you DON'T believe is true.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Yes. Job creators are mainly the public who purchase goods and services

And anything that reduces most people's buying power will also reduce the market for such goods and services, so it's a vicious circle.

It is simply not true that public sector cuts will lead to more growth in the private sector. If the public sector is cut, especially at a time of recession, then the private sector is also threatened, both because public organizations usually give some contracts to private organizations and individuals, and because if public sector workers are out of jobs or afraid that they soon will be, then they won't be able to buy so many goods and services.

A related myth is that cutting the number of people employed, whether by a government organization or a private organization, will lead to greater 'efficiency'. It may make the organization cheaper to run - though often in practice such staff shortfalls must be made up by spending elsewhere - but it generally makes the organization less efficient from the point of view of providing a good service to its clients.

ETA: This is not saying that business owners never create jobs. Obviously they do. But I am not convinced that the richer the business owners/executives/shareholders are, the more jobs they're creating! Look at Mitt Romney, who owes some of his wealth to laying people off: 'I like to fire people!'