TW: Some conservative and/or lazy commentators are making hay out of suggestions (by a respected economic blogger, Greg Mankiw, but who made a very simplistic calculation) that the Obama stimulus package would cost $280K/job created. Mark Thoma does the calculations and comes up with a much more likely accurate and smaller figure per job created. Thoma comes up with a figure of $60K+ created. The calculation is not particularly complicated but it is lengthly so read the attached article if you are so interested. The point is Obama, despite protestations to the contrary that you will likely hear on shows such as Hannity etc., is not an idiot.
From Thoma:
"Some people are claiming that Obama's job package will cost $280,000 per job. The actual cost is not trivial, but I don't think that figure is correct (it simply divides a proposed stimulus amount, $700 billion, by the stated job goal of 2.5 million). I've also seen the claim that the $700 billion number is simply pulled out of a hat, but that's not right either, it's based upon transparent calculations...."
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/11/how-much-does-i.html
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