Bernie - Big Government vs Big Corporations

It is an indisputable fact that governments provide jobs. People are needed to man public bureaucracies. In fact, in 2013, more than 21 million people worked for the government (local, state, and federal--see HERE)

However, that same year the total work force was 144 million (see HERE), making government jobs only 15% of the total workforce. And, while the federal government grew once Obama became president (see HERE), federal employment remained fairly steady. (see HERE) The same holds true for local and state governments. (see HERE)

So, in this respect, big government isn't all that great for job creation as compared with big corporations.

Granted, government contracts and spending also may stimulate select businesses to create jobs. Even still, while government spending went up under Obama (see HERE), at its peak it was 40% of GDP. (ibid) So, in this respect big government hasn't been all that great for job creation as big corporations.

Besides, while some economic policies have positively impacted the job market, they tend to be small government policies. whereas big government policies have trended otherwise--recent misleading employment statistics notwithstanding. (see HERE and HERE)

Even still, some on the Left have cleverly produced graphs showing more private sector jobs have been created under Democrats than Republicans (see HERE)

While this is somewhat true in one respect, it fails to take into account that job creation tends to rise sharply following massive job loses from Democrat-induced depressions and recessions, and that job creation drops off during economic booms, particularly the close the country gets to full employment (jobs can't be created where there aren't workers to do the jobs), as was the case with Bush and others. (see HERE) Nor does it factor in declines in workforce participation rates, as in the case with the Obama administration. (see HERE)

And, even though big government can artificially inflate GDP, creating the illusion of economic stimulation (see HERE and HERE), it actually does the opposite. (see HERE and HERE and HERE) The notion of spending into prosperity, is no more true for governments than it is for companies and individuals.

see also: HERE and HERE and HERE