Courtesy of Peter Freyne's column in Seven Days, I learn about a video interview with our own Senator Sanders in The Washington Post. I'm surprised to learn that he keeps up with the latest news and knows all about the latest problems of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. And he rants about the giant media conspiracy that requires us to keep up with their latest escapades at the expense of more important issues...
....like a worker losing his job to someone in China. I'll ignore the issue of the benefits of a job to someone in China who earns a tiny fraction of the income of an American--and for whom that job means the difference between living in abject poverty and having the opportunity to earn enough to be able to eat 2,000 calories a day, not to mention educate their children.
Let's look at the statistics. Senator Sanders thinks a job loss to China is newsworthy. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, between 2000 and 2005, about 1 million workers have been certified as having lost their jobs due to foreign competition (from China, Canada, or anywhere). If each of those warranted a news story, there wouldn't be much time to report on Paris Hilton's latest doings, or anything else.
But that 1 million worker job loss pales in comparison to the 158 million U.S. workers who have lost their jobs (total private job losses) over that same time period. Why are their job losses also not newsworthy? Should we not be as concerned about that loss as the losses of jobs to China?
Why hasn't the loss of 158 million jobs led to riots in the street? Or at least to the election of Socialists to Congress (whoops). Not to worry. There hasn't been rioting in the streets because the private sector has created 192 million new jobs (total private job gains). It is the dynamics of the U.S. economy that is its source of strength, constantly churning and destroying jobs and creating new ones (see Joseph A. Schumpeter on this process of creative destruction). Over the 2000 to 2006 period, the U.S. economy created 14 million net new jobs (payroll employment). Senator Sanders would like to have the creation part without the destruction part. But, unless you want to be like France, that's not a policy that enhances economic growth or promotes long term prosperity.
Our junior Senator thinks that each morning, the major networks, the New York Times, and the Washington Post get together to decide what news to feed the American people each day (I'm not making this up--watch the video). I guess the Free Press and Rutland Herald are not in on the conspiracy. He doesn't seem to realize that the media world has changed. Newspaper readership is declining and fewer and fewer people are watching network news shows. People get their news from radio, numerous TV stations, and especially the internet. It's hard to believe they're all in on the vast conspiracy to promote Paris Hilton's latest video and Britney Spears' latest CD.
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