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The importance of Jobs to jobs

It’s never easy to say goodbye to a visionary.  When Apple, Inc. announced Steve Jobs’ passing to the world, many felt a certain sense of loss.  Most of us  didn’t feel that way because we knew Jobs personally.  We felt that way because our generation doesn’t know many true American pioneers anymore, and Jobs was a modern version.  Frankly, if a man like him were president, our country – our world – would be a much, much better place.

Across the globe, Barack Obama has apologized for American exceptionalism.  He’s promised for the United States to be a more global nation, relying on the strength of good feelings to serve American interests instead of our own abilities.  Domestically, he is no different.  From the stimulus to Obamacare, his policy regimes have made one statement clear – Obama doesn’t believe Americans are capable of forging ahead in the same pioneering spirit.

American businesses are sitting on approximately $2 trillion in cash reserves, cash that can be used for capital improvements, workforce expansion, pay raises, or anything a private enterprise might think necessary to expand.  However “the worry is that corporate taxes may rise as governments try to fill the hole in their finances, and that non-bank firms will get caught up in a regulatory backlash.”  (Source:  The Economist)  In other words, uncertainly in heavy-handed government policies are causing private business to be risk averse by hoarding as much capital to weather the storm as possible.  The foundation of those government policies is Obama’s lack of belief in the market’s ability to produce prosperity.

Our economy will not grow without capital, and capital will not flow without private enterprise feeling comfortable about the risks involved.  So long as regulatory regimes prove way too burdensome, that risk-reward ratio will mean bad things for Georgia.  Our state’s economy still shows higher unemployment than the national average by a full point.  Our infrastructure needs investment, but that requires higher taxes on top of those already coming from the federal government, so citizens are loathe to pay more.

It’s time our president stop demanding we believe in him; we need a president that starts to believe in us.  Our diverse abilities and aspirations allow a free market economic system to flourish if given the chance.  We won’t always be right, but when we are – look out!

Consider this final point.  Steve Jobs was put up for adoption by his biological parents.  He co-founded Apple, but was eventually forced out of the company.  He started another successful company, bought Pixar, and eventually returned to Apple to spearhead its resurgence as a global technology leader.  He’s made the quality of life we live better with his products, and he did so because he loved doing it.  Steve Jobs created thousands of jobs because he took the initiative himself.  He didn’t need Uncle Same patting him on the back along the way.