Vero’s criticism of industry policy is sharp as usual. I would just like to note an observation that Tim Carney made at the Washington Examiner about another political problem that industrial policy faces.
Politicians are obsessed with “creating jobs.” Aside from the fact that politicians don’t actually create jobs, they have yet to realize that the U.S. economy right now is not in need of jobs. Carney writes:
Here is the most important fact about the labor market going forward:
The working-age population has flatlined, as the baby boomers retire, and as we have fewer new 15-year-olds each year. That latter part is because starting in 2008, Americans had fewer babies basically every year. Starting in 2026, the number of working-age adults will drop significantly every single year until at least the 2040s.
This means that anyone who has steel and concrete and land will be increasingly desperate for hands to build anything. It means every industry will be competing for workers. It means labor will increase its bargaining power each year. There are good and bad things tied up with all of that.
But it also means that public policy aimed at “creating jobs” is folly. This dampens the appeal of trickle-down Democrats such as Biden who like to hand money to corporations in the name of helping workers. It also means the industrial-policy NatCons are fighting the last war.