Oh, I Get It! It's a Full-Employment Act!

IRS estimates approved by OMB say that we'll need 80 million man-hours a year to comply with Obamacare regulations -- as they stand. Naturally, new ones are coming out all the time.

All this time we've been criticizing the President for not having a plan to deal with unemployment. It turns out he's been shrugging off that issue to go to fundraisers because he's already taken care of it. This is going to create 2 million new jobs by itself: two-million full-time bureaucrats doing nothing but processing paperwork related to Obamacare.

Wait, you ask; how will the economy absorb the need to pay an additional two million full-time salaries, which add absolutely nothing to the actual productivity of said economy? Well, you know, shut up.

UPDATE: Actually, even more jobs are in the offing. Now that I think about it, those two million jobs are just what is necessary for compliance. But we'll also need even more new regulators whose job it is to ensure that the compliance we are paying for actually took place. So we'll need oversight, investigative officers, managerial positions... a whole new wing at every major regulatory agency.

No doubt the economy will be able to support all these new bureaucrats without any difficulty whatsoever. After all, it would be nice if it could.

UPDATE 2: Edward J. in the comments points out that I divided by hours/week instead of hours/year. Actually, it's only 40,000 new bureaucrats -- that won't make any serious damage to the unemployment rate. On the plus side, while it still doesn't add anything to the productivity of the nation's economy, it's a far smaller drag on it. So there's that, at least.

14 comments:

E Hines said...

Wait, you ask; how will the economy absorb the need to pay an additional two million full-time salaries, which add absolutely nothing to the actual productivity of said economy? Well, you know, shut up.

Nah--Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama will just have his good bud Big Ben Bernanke print up the money for those salaries.

Now, you can shut up.

Eric Hines

Cass said...

Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama will just have his good bud Big Ben Bernanke print up the money for those salaries.

Yep. And to keep the inflation monster at bay, the Fed will keep interest rates to near-zero (or they could even go negative!). To make an omelet, you have to break a few nest eggs...

bthun said...

To make an omelet, you have to break a few nest eggs...

Broken?! Damned weasels have eaten them. And that's no yoke!

bthun said...

Whoops! I hope no one was listening or that Black SUV in front of the hun hovel will have company. Not to mention another drone circling overhead.

Speaking of hovering overhead... Where the heck is Mr. Bill T.? I've not seen/heard from him in ages. I hope he's well.

Russ said...

Funny you should mention Bill. I was just thinking today, that I hadn't seen a post from him in a long time.

bthun said...

"Funny you should mention Bill. I was just thinking today, that I hadn't seen a post from him in a long time."

Yeah Russ. I drop in at Argghhh from time to time to read and have not seen Bill post in a long while.

bthun said...

Sorry 'bout the OT vector Grim. Just a thought that's been niggling with/at me lately.

Grim said...

No, I've wondered where he is, too. And it's not really off topic to ask after a member of the community.

Edward J said...

Grim,
You may want to check your division numbers. 80,000,000 man hours a year when divided by 2000 hours (the typical work year not work week) is only 40,000 jobs. Nowhere near the impact of 2,000,000 and about half the number of jobs added in July in the US.

Grim said...

Well, that's just a disappointment. Here I thought he had it all figured out, and it turns out it was just an error in my math.

E Hines said...

Here I thought he had it all figured out, and it turns out it was just an error in my math.

You closet Progressive, you....

Eric Hines

DL Sly said...

When last I heard from John of Argghhh!, Mr. DeBille was indeed still causing hate and discontent in his current job, but for reasons as yet unknown he has been incommunicado.
Just the only FYI I happen to have on that subject.
0>;~}

Eric Blair said...

Hey, the Fed keeping the interest rates at zero--don't you all know that collecting interest is a sin? No good Christian (or Muslim, for that matter) should be engaging in it.

Lookitthat; the govt looking after your soul.

bthun said...

Thanks for the update DL!


It's good to keep tabs on the Auld Buzzards population.

"the Fed keeping the interest rates at zero"
all while knocking the bottom out of the value of the dollar along with most savings/investments. Not to mention causing the cost of, well, everything to go up, so I won't mention that.