Written by Armando Chapelliquen   

Throughout contemporary political discourse, there has been a consistent fascination with the goal of creating jobs. As most recently argued by an obscure political party of no major consequence, the opening of offshore drill sites, the building of the Keystone pipeline, the opening up of mountain top removal mining (fracking), and the reduction of taxes on the wealthiest Americans (“job creators”) would all be enormous boons to the struggling American economy. Why is it that such actions, most of which clearly have detrimental effects on the environment as well as on the health and safety of millions of Americans, are beneficial to the overall American economy?

While I do not claim to be any sort of mathematical expert, there seems to be a prevailing formula to understand the significance with jobs in relation to other political issues in the United States:

The Jobs Argument

Jobs > x

Where x can equal any other political issue.

Stronger environmental protections? Such protections reduce the freedoms of the private sector.
Stopping the Keystone pipeline? That stops the hiring of the many who would work there.
Preventing the spread of fracking in Appalachia for its detrimental effects on surrounding neighborhoods? Same as the Keystone pipeline (it kills jobs).
Tax hikes for just the wealthiest Americans? That’s money that would be better spent creating jobs.

This rhetoric is hardly hypothetical. It is the language of contemporary American political debate. It seems any variety of political concerns are inferior to the all-important issue of jobs.

However, to reduce everything to the vernacular of jobs is to make an absurdly enormous assumption about people’s lives. From my own experiences, I have always been told that the purpose of life is to be happy. A career, a family, and a safe community are all important; but they are important because they yield happiness. Having a job, among other things, is therefore a means to a greater end: the state of being happy. By contrast, the above formula considers the purpose of Americans to be nothing more than to work. After all, if all discourse will be considered through the language of jobs, then all that truly matters is if one is working or not.

Therefore, it does not matter if the quality of the air or water in your community is hazardous to your health; you have a job. It does not matter if the Keystone pipeline only further increases our dependence on non-renewable energy resources; you have a job. It does not matter that the natural beauty of this country will be irreversibly destroyed by the hand of humanity; you have a job. Finally, it really does not matter that the kinds of jobs you are working are either low-skill, low-wage, or low-quality; you have a job. According to this advanced formula, having a job is the ultimate endpoint. Your primary objective is to work, not necessarily to be happy. If you are happy at your job, that is more coincidence than anything else.

However, some may argue that my approach to the Jobs argument is a bit heavy-handed. We are, after all, in a recession and millions of Americans, myself included, are looking for work. Many see a job as a light at the end of the tunnel. This being said, the above approach is hardly the only way to have jobs.

The above approach boils down to nothing more than holding jobs at ransom in exchange for absurd deregulations of the environment and economy. Furthermore, the above formula, which essentially encapsulates the position of one of the major political parties, immediately makes the creation of jobs diametrically opposed to any other policy issue. In other words, you can not have your cake and eat it too. It’s either going to be jobs or x, never both (and during a recession, jobs should always win). It is a very clever campaign strategy to employ, but as one should come to expect from contemporary political discourse, it is hardly honest or in the public’s best interest.

Health, safety, environmental concerns, and economic justice do not need to be diametrically opposed to the prospect of job creation. There are a multitude of programs and incentives that can provide for both the creation of jobs and any of the other political issues that should be addressed to ensure the happiness of citizens. Rebuild aging American infrastructure. Reallocate funds from the military industrial complex to job training programs, social safety net programs, technical schools, and public universities. Rather than let public schools collapse while private schools are built, rescue the public school system through a renewed influx of funding. Develop a high-speed rail jobs program to connect the United States on the level of other industrialized nations. Create a Kennedy-type imperative to reduce carbon emissions and develop affordable and renewable energy resources.

What we are experiencing in our current political debate is a false framing of the issue by both parties. One pontificates the catastrophically erroneous jobs argument while the other is incapable of finding its own imaginary backbone while it bathes in the pocket of business.

The only real solution is for individuals to stop considering the smoke and mirrors presented on either side of the Jobs argument and to collectively demand an alternative.

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Armando Chapelliquen is a recent graduate of Moravian College, where he graduated summa cum laude and received Honors in Political Science and Philosophy for his undergraduate thesis, "Huntington, Impact, and Occupy: The Makings of a New Global Paradigm". His current work revolves heavily around running UnSilentMajority.Org, a site committed to bringing new voices and perspectives to the larger political discourse in the United States and around the world.