Ed Rutledge for Lieutenant Governor

By Ed Rutledge

Politicians love to talk about “creating jobs,” but they are not so open about whose property was or will be used to create these jobs. They will certainly not talk about whether it is better to have the property forcibly taken by bureaucrats or put to voluntary use by its legitimate owner. And they will not mention that any jobs that they “create” are the political equivalent of jobs “created” to clean up after a hurricane, reallocating resources from where they should have gone into projects that were not previously needed or desired.

Bureaucratic politicians have absolutely no ability to “create” jobs other than by taking resources from private employers who do create jobs and expanding the government bureaucracy. If bureaucrats really could create jobs, then the USSR, East Germany, Cuba, and North Korea would be economic powerhouses. China only began making strides toward economic prosperity by adopting (albeit on a still limited basis) free market ideas.

When bureaucratic politicians take resources from private employers, they limit the capacity of those companies to hire new employees and force prospective employees to turn to the freshly expanded government for help.

The way government really can create jobs is by simply getting out of the way.

Let companies keep more of their earnings, and they will be able to hire more employees.

Let employees keep more of what they earn, and they can become employers.

Let the entrepreneurial spirit flourish. But take away too much of our employers’ resources, and they will leave Illinois or go out of business altogether – and we will all end up looking for a new job.

We need to reduce the impact of government on private enterprise in Illinois, so businesses, and the jobs they bring, will thrive in our state.

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