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In the debates I have been having recently, this seems to be the core area of disagreement.
There are some who believe that the government can create jobs.
Others believe that the government can create jobs, but that they are jobs for the sake of being jobs…not that fundamentally help the economy.
- Jeff Jarvis talks about the “jobless future” and offers some thoughts on where/how the government should spend its money.
- Mark Cuban says “If you want to see more jobs created – change patent laws” and then offers up some ideas on how to do it.
- If you really want to get crazy, you can check out this thread from YCombinator.
It’s all well and good to talk about jobs, but frankly, I think our paradigm is outdated.
The Internet and social tools are creating an upheaval in the definition of work in the same way that James Watt’s steam engine brought people from rural to urban areas.
It’s that big…only bigger.
Along those lines, I think Rob Patterson has the best summary of it all.
What we can do is to stop worrying about the next Job.
It wont come anyway.
Start working instead on recreating an economy that is based on mobilizing all of us in networks to do the things that are useful.
Yes, there may be some “jobs,” but the idea of a 9-5 “show up and get paid” type job is going to be increasingly anachronistic and limited.
Mobile and internet technologies, social networks, globalization, digital measurement and automation…all of these will require us to focus on value creation…in one form or another.
The government can’t create these types of jobs..it can do things to help, but it can’t make the jobs happen.
Only people with the right skillsets and ability to identify the opportunities can.
I don’t have the answers, but I do believe that’s where we need to focus our energies, not on creating “jobs” just for jobs sake.
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