Why did Hillary Clinton say corporations don't create jobs, when Nancy Pelosi said we had to bail out GM to save the jobs it created?

Question

If GM didn't create any jobs, then why did we have to bail it out?

Why do Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton seem to disagree on this point?

Hillary Clinton spent 6 years on the Walmart board of directors. Shouldn't she know more about business than Nancy Pelosi?

Answer 1

She did not say that corporations cannot destroy jobs. She said they don't create jobs. The distinction is an important one.



What creates jobs is aggregate demand. No corporation hires anyone unless it anticipates enough profit to justify that hiring. Unless the aggregate income of workers in the economy is enough to create demand for the goods or services provided by a corporation, it will not hire anyone. It may get a bigger share of the market but the aggregate number of jobs created depends on the demand from consumer spending. So, the way to create jobs is to increase the aggregate income of the nation's workers. Setting up a shoe factory in a bare footed society will not create any jobs unless the bare footed population has the money to buy shoes that are offered. This is also precisely the reason we had to bail out GM to save jobs - not jobs it created but jobs that were already filled.



If all GM workers had suddenly lost their jobs, they would have drastically curtailed their spending. That would have meant that businesses who had formerly sold goods and services to these GM workers would no longer be able to do so and they would have to cut jobs. Their cuts would cause more former job holders to have to cut their spending and that would cause more businesses to make cuts because they could no longer sell to the workers who had lost their jobs. And, the downward spiral would continue.



As a matter of fact, this points up one major structural weakness in our economy. In the 1960s, when I was a young man, GM was the biggest employer in the American economy and, if adjusted to current value an average worker at GM made over fifty dollars an hour. Today, the largest employer in the economy is Walmart and its average worker makes around ten dollars an hour. So, the aggregate spending power of the employees of the largest employer has been reduced by about four fifths. This reduction in spending power is what retards job creation in our economy.

Answer 2

Two different things. I'm not sure what Clinton quote you're referring to, but in terms of broad economic policy, corporations do not create jobs. Corporations employee people to meet demand. It is demand that creates jobs. What the government should be doing to increase employment is to implement policies which increase demand, not ones that give more breaks to corporations. As for bailing out GM, if a company goes under then those jobs are obviously lost.

Answer 3

Context is important because in context its easy to see what she meant even if you don't agree with what she said.



CLINTON: Don't let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs. They always say that. I've been through this. My husband gave working families a raise in the 1990s. I voted to raise the minimum wage and guess what? Millions of jobs were created or paid better and more families were more secure. That's what we want to see here, and that's what we want to see across the country.



And don't let anybody tell you, that, you know, it's corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know, that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried. That has failed. That has failed rather spectacularly.



One of the things my husband says, when people say, what did you bring to Washington? He says, well I brought arithmetic. And part of it was he demonstrated why trickle down should be consigned to the trash bin of history. More tax cuts for the top and for companies that ship jobs over seas while taxpayers and voters are stuck paying the freight just doesn't add up. Now that kind of thinking might win you an award for outsourcing excellence, but Massachusetts can do better than that. Martha understands it. She knows you have to create jobs from everyone working together and taking the advantages of this great state and putting them to work.

Answer 4

Funny thing to come out of someone worth more than $100 million who sat on the board of Walmart for years.



She is just another Rich Democrat telling the stupid people what they want to hear, that she's down for the struggle right there with the working class and all that Bull



Her and her husband just want to steal more

Answer 5

Semantics. Technically, the people running the corporations are the ones who decide on how many jobs they havve

Answer 6

Because they are two different people. The red states have the most to lose from the GOP conspiracy. Since Republicans now pretend to be Christian, instead of the Mammon serving wealthy elites they used to be known as, they will cut off those who need help the most and send them to the church. Rural services will be cut back such as roads, rural schools, rural mail service (already being cut back where I live), Rural electric co-ops (co-op = socialism), veterans benefits, retired SS benefits (cost of living raise already decreased), Medicaid eligibility, etc, etc. It seems they can only harm the people they represent. Blue states are practically untouched because they are less dependent on the big government handout.

Answer 7

Put it in context, put it in context, say the Democrats. In context, it sounds even worse. Sarah Palin never said anything this stupid, yet the Dems keep beating that dead horse.

Answer 8

Because neither of these old , flatulent , incontinent Crustaceans knows what the HELL she`s talking about !!

Answer 9

she is trying to be as radical as obama



it will get her real far

Answer 10

oxymorons.