President Obama has held Spain up as an example of how to create so called green jobs many times over the last few years. Over the last week or so though, there have been reports in the new media about a study that claims that each new green job in Spain actually costs 2.2 other jobs. This has happened primarily due to increased electricity costs, but government subsidies and policies have also warped the allocation of capital into these green jobs and away from industry that would create other long-term jobs. The entire study is available here in pdf form.
Media in Spain are picking up the story now, but as of this morning I find no hint of it on the New York Times or the Washington Post, or any other major US media via google news search. As Congress debates energy legislation, you would think that the real world example of Spain would be a hot topic of discussion. Energy legislation will touch every aspect of the economy and proponents of a carbon tax hold out the promise of green jobs as a major way to mitigate the negative economic impacts that increasing the cost of energy will produce. But are those green jobs actually job killers for the rest of the economy? Do we want to create 3 million jobs at the cost of 6.4 million others?
I don't think so, but we should at least talk about it. I get the feeling though, that ideology has triumphed over reality and Congress is hurtling down the path anyway, facts be damned. I also have the sinking feeling that the major media in this country are going to ignore this story. Perhaps the scholars who produced the study are wrong and there is a rebuttal out there that makes more sense. If that's the case, shouldn't we hear about it instead of ignoring the issue entirely?
And perhaps this will be prominently covered in the coming days and my worries will be for naught. Then we can have a reasonable debate about the right path to take that moves us to a sensible and economically viable energy policy. Pardon my cynicism, but I have my doubts.
This is the sort of thing that is as divisive to our politics as anything else. As of today, we have two sides with different realities. You have one side reading Pajamas Media and processing the info about Spain, and then thinking, what the hell are we doing? You have the other side, readers in the Post/Times bubble, hurtling down a path all content, smug, and dismissive in their ignorance.
Now how can that not lead to divisive politics? We'll see how it plays out, but this sort of thing is what people are pissed about these days. Our political elites seem to be turning us into Bullshit Nation by choosing ideology over reality on issue after issue and assuring us that ideology will triumph.
Sorry, my bet is on reality. And when it finally wins, it's going to be a bitch.
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