Jeff Madrick: Our Crisis of Bad Jobs

Moderate tax increases for the wealthy are an effective way to raise revenue to reduce the deficit: they do not reduce GDP very much because the well-off don’t tend to cut much of their spending and have enough money to keep going. But direct spending by the government can have a big impact on GDP due to what’s known as the multiplier effect. Money is spent, winds up in the hands of consumers, who save some and spend more, and so on in a virtuous circle. With more sales, business hires more workers. If growth speeds up, a higher proportion should be for better-paying jobs, though this is not altogether clear any longer.

Mein Blog befasst sich in einem umfassenden Sinn mit dem Verhältnis von Wissen, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft. Ein besonderes Augenmerk richte ich dabei auf die Aktivitäten des Medien- und Dienstleistungskonzern Bertelsmann und der Bertelsmann Stiftung.