The Only Way to Bring Jobs Back to America

Ford President and CEO Mark Fields announced Tuesday that the Michigan-based car company is canceling plans to build a new electric car plant in Mexico.

Fields told CNN’s Poppy Harlow that the decision also means 700 new jobs will be created in America.

My response: So what?

A headline reads, “Ford cancels Mexico plant. Will create 700 U.S. jobs in ‘vote of confidence’ in Trump.” It’s not a vote of confidence in Trump that’s needed. It’s a vote of confidence in free market capitalism. Trump will deserve a vote of confidence only if he restores a free market economy in America.

Jobs are a healthy sign of economic growth and expansion. But the American economy has not been growing all that much, if at all, during the last decade. Yes, unemployment is lower in 2017 than it was in 2009, but that’s only if you stop counting the people who gave up on trying to find work. And even if you accept the government’s narrative that we’ve been in a “recovery,” it’s the weakest economic recovery, by those same government numbers, in all of American history.

Yes, I’m happy to see more jobs in America. But not because it’s America. I’m only happy to see more jobs in America if it’s an indication of real economic growth.

Economic growth happens when more and more people do productive and profitable things. Right now, the focus is taking jobs away from other countries and moving them to America. That may be well and good, but it’s not the real issue. The real issue is expanding economic growth and opportunity in America. As a result, we’ll have millions of more jobs not only on American soil, but overseas as well, if that suits the interests of companies.

When the economy grows again, we’ll see millions of more jobs in America, not just 700 jobs here or there. Economic growth will never happen due to government pressure or decree. It will only happen because it’s more profitable to do business at home once taxes have been cut by half (or more) and regulations have been cut by 80 percent (or more). After eight years of Obama’s relentless attacks on capitalism, our about-face in policy must be swift and massive.

The economy never grows because of what government does. The economy only grows because government stops interfering. The best economic policy is none at all, i.e., to get the hell out of the way. Government was never supposed to be about economic planning. It was supposed to be about punishing crime and fraud. Economic planning is best left to owners, entrepreneurs, innovators and – let’s not forget – customers, all of whom plan and make decisions on a daily basis. Unlike their political and bureaucratic overlords, they have skin in the game because they stand to profit or lose from their decisions.

Until most people understand this, we’ll never get a free market economy again. And until we have a free market economy again, you’re never going to see prosperity like we once did, and like there still might and ought to be.