Job creation: nobody’s duty

In his recent interview with Playboy magazine, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura once again acknowledged that nowhere in the US constitution does it say that the federal government has a responsibility to create jobs. On the contrary, he contends that job creation is the private sector’s primary responsibility.

“Am I right?” asks Ventura. “Have you read the Constitution? Does it say anything about government’s ability to create jobs?”

Mr. Ventura’s point is that he is “breaking away from” this reliance on government to create jobs. “Be an individual,” he enjoins. “Create your own job.”

Governor Ventura has a truly valid point, but he does not go nearly far enough in the direction of Libertarian freedom. While it is certainly true that government has no prima facie responsibility to create jobs, it does not necessarily follow that job creation then becomes the private sector’s primary duty, responsibility, or obligation.

It is not the private sector’s responsibility to create jobs. The private sector, as an extremely diverse collection of competing and cooperating private interests, has no such responsibility.

The capitalists engaged in the private business sector invariably create jobs. But the fact that they do it–and do it so well–does not in any way automatically obligate any businessman to create a job for any potential employee.

A businessman, for example, might have, say, $50 million. He could do a number of things with this kind of capital. He could put it in a regular passbook savings account at an FDIC insured bank. If he does this, he would still be creating jobs, since the bank will no doubt use his deposit for job-creating loans and investments.

Or, alternatively, he could create even more jobs by establishing a venture capital firm, investing in stocks, or opening up a series of profitable businesses. In each case, he would be creating jobs even though it was never his intention to do so; he was merely pursuing his own personal profit all along.

In any case, the businessman is under no moral obligation to maximize job creation. If he wanted to, he could stash the $50 million under his mattress, bury it in a hole, and create no jobs. That would be his prerogative–his liberty. It would be foolish, of course, but he would still have every right to do it.

In a truly free society founded on the principles of justice, there are no duties or obligations apart from those expressly agreed to by voluntary consent. In a truly free society, duties only come in two flavors: (1.) the natural law duty to conform to reason by not violating individual rights (e.g., harming others) and (2.) the duty to uphold promises or contracts not made under fraud or duress. Other than that, a man (or corporation) should be left completely free and unmolested to do as he pleases: to either idle or produce.