Directly employing more aged care nurses or Centrelink staff would create more jobs per dollar spent than tax cuts or building bridges
What should Australia spend half a trillion dollars on over the next 10 years? After decades of being told we “can’t afford” to spend more to help the unemployed, the disabled or to reduce carbon emissions, the Morrison government is set to embark on the largest-ever spending program in our history. But what should they spend it on?
The idea that cutting taxes or building roads will create jobs is as banal as it is misleading. With about a million unemployed workers in Australia today, any tax cuts or new spending will create some jobs, but that’s like saying squirting a garden hose at a bushfire will make some difference. If the government was serious about creating the maximum number of jobs or maximising the long-run benefits of its spending, it would have mapped out a wide range of options and inquired into the relative benefits of each. But it hasn’t. The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, just told us that building things and giving tax cuts is “good for the economy”.
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