Bridge the Gap: Perdue, NCDOT Drop $450 Million

Amy
09/30 07:37 AM

I am confused by this.  didn’t Bev just lay off a bunch of NCDOT workers?

RaleighRob
09/30 10:28 AM

^ Well, Bev didn’t do it necessarily.  The budget passed by the general assembly did.

Rob E.
09/30 11:03 AM

That’s what I was thinking, Amy. I don’t know the answer to balancing the budget and creating jobs, but it seems strange to hear that job creation is a priority but that the state is laying people off. I have a friend who used to work for NCDOT. He thought he’d make the most of his unemployment by getting his masters, only to find that state cuts to higher ed. had pretty much eliminated the program he was applying for. If the goal is to save money, there’s one course of action. If the goal is to create jobs, there’s another. If you’re creating jobs in one sector while cutting employees in another, it’s going to be hard to make progress on either front.

But on this specific issue, I’ve been hearing about the poor state of our bridges for a while, so it’s good to see them become a priority before they become a major liability.

LB
10/12 10:37 AM

When will we stop believing in this Keynesian nonsense that government can somehow create a NET new job?

me
10/12 11:57 AM

LB - the answer to that question is “never”.  Instead of facing that very clear reality, we are instead now being told that the reason the government can’t work this sort of math magic is due to millionaires, billionaires, corporations, fat-cat CEOs, etc etc ad infinitum.

People really do believe that the government can somehow create jobs.  Moral hazard knows no bounds.