Study: 60 percent of 2014 job growth caused by expiration of unemployment benefits

– Jason Russell, The Washington Examiner

Sixty percent of job creation in 2014 was caused by the expiration of unemployment benefits, according to a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research…

In late 2013, a standoff between Republicans and Democrats led to the abrupt expiration of long-term unemployment benefits. Democrats warned that the expiration would have disastrous ramifications, but Republicans had long argued that allowing Americans to collect unemployment benefits for an indefinite period of time provided a disincentive for them to work.

The new working paper found that the expiration of benefits was responsible for the creation of over 1.8 million jobs. Nearly 1 million of those jobs were created by workers who would have otherwise stayed out of the labor force if unemployment benefits had been extended…

“The negative effects of unemployment benefit extensions on employment far outweigh the potential stimulative effects often ascribed to this policy,” the study said…

We Respond & Your Comments

Here, again, is an iron rule of economics: “If you want more of something, subsidize it.”

Driven by false compassion, Liberals subsidized unemployment by sending checks to the unemployed. What did they get? More unemployment. When payments for not working stopped, people found jobs.

We would bet the farm that you could show these facts to 100 Liberals and 98 of them would deny them. That’s because Liberals are driven not by facts, but by what sounds and feels good. And it feels good to take money from you and us and give it to someone who isn’t working.

That’s because of another Liberal guideline: “There just ain’t no end to the good you can do with other people’s money.” Even if you’re really doing harm.

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