Saturday, February 14, 2009
Monday, February 02, 2009
U.S. Aid To Israel Supports U.S. Jobs? NO! - Instablogs
The main pro-Israeli lobby in the United States, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, often likes to boost that U.S. military aid to Israel creates jobs in America. The U.S. provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, they argue, and then Israel uses that money to buy U.S. military gear that support defense industry jobs in the states.
AIPAC claims that Israeli purchases support 20,000 jobs directly and thousands more indirectly.
Unfortunately, they get away with such perverse logic in the media and on Capital Hill.
But this is a huge economic fallacy. No nation grows rich by handing out billions of dollars in free aid and then direct the recipient to spend the money in the country. No net jobs are created, but instead jobs are diverted from one industry to the next. Further, job losses probably occur because the taxes needed to be collected to hand out aid most likely undermined investment.
By their logic the United States should just hand out billions of dollars to every nation and then tell them to buy U.S. products because that will “get U.S. jobs.”
Does a grocery grow rich by handing out free money so that customers can then buy it’s stuff? No, of course. And as Adam Smith noted what is wise in private conduct cannot be folly in that of a nation.
U.S. aid to Israel does not create jobs anywhere but Israel.
Just another lie from the pro-Israel faction in America.
Labels: AIPAC, billions, government, Israel, jobs, media, military, money