The Great Leap Forward in Green Jobs
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here. Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]
First, let’s look at the micro level, shall we? At Right Scoop they have audio from the Mark Levin show. Yes, I grit my teeth at the thought of promoting the guy, but I have to admit he did well, here, getting a person who worked on constructing the Solyndra plant to speak on the show and tell us this:
While we were out there, while we were building it – cause it is a half a billion dollar plant – everyone already knew that China had developed a more inexpensive way to manufacture these solar panels. Everyone knew that the plant wouldn’t work. But they still did it. They still built it.
As Right Scoop notes:
She then emphasized that she isn’t even that high on the totem pole and she knew this stuff. So there’s no doubt in her mind that Obama and the White House knew that it wasn’t feasible.
And then on the same day, we learn this, on the macro level:
A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began, government records show.
The program — designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans — has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy tallies.
So do the math, okay? Since it says “almost half” let’s round down the amount to $19 billion. So if you divide that by 3,545, that comes out to $5,359,661.5, or a little more than $5 million per job. It would literally be cheaper to just pay each of these people $200K a year for five years.
In Right Scoop’s Levin clip, he likens all of this to the Potemkin Village, but I think of another story from Communism: China’s Great Leap Forward. I won’t recount the full sad history of this chapter in Chinese history except to say that China thought that they could will themselves into greater agricultural production. Soon local officials in rural China began to report ridiculous levels of production, so much so that people reporting normal levels of production were considered suspicious and likely enemies of the state. China had always been barely able to feed its people, so moderation was necessary, but based on those false reports, the government began to tell people to eat like as if there was plenty, and quickly what little food was there was depleted.
And one particular story that leapt out at me when studying this was how sometimes people would come to inspect the fields, and the local officials would quickly transfer three to five fields worth of crops into one field, and show the inspector that field, alleging it to be typical. After the inspector left, however, the transferred crops would quickly die, further reducing the supply of food.
The result of all of this was famine, resulting in death on the scale of the holocaust.
And that is what we are doing today. Obama is taking what little productivity there is left, and pouring it down into giant holes. Like those local officials transferring crops, they are taking a bad situation and actively making it worse, in the name of appearances.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
When jamming their nose in Industry, Government does not pick winners, Government picks favorites.
Comment by S. Carter aka J-Z — 9/15/2011 @ 7:24 pm
This started under Bush, so it is his fault.
Comment by JD — 9/15/2011 @ 7:34 pm
Who knew that GWB had such awesome power to impact so many things…and this administration has so little power?
Comment by Simon Jester — 9/15/2011 @ 7:37 pm
Obama should tax the heck out of these $5 million green jobs, cuz that’s where it sounds like all the money is.
Comment by daleyrocks — 9/15/2011 @ 7:50 pm
You have been reported to attackwatch, Daley.
Comment by JD — 9/15/2011 @ 8:01 pm
Solyndra would have succeeded had Bush approved their stupid business plan! Obama inherited a situation where his hands were completely tied except for that part about not pressuring the OMB to provide a photo op for more money than the average American would earn in ten thousand years.
Comment by Dustin — 9/15/2011 @ 8:36 pm
_________________________________________
China’s Great Leap Forward.
One doesn’t have to go even that far — time-wise, geographically and politically — to see the folly, hubris and foolishness of it all.
Comment by Mark — 9/15/2011 @ 8:44 pm
The link I posted on the previous thread, shows
that Goldman Sachs, was the investment advisor:
And in tangential news, attached is the just filed engagement letter with which a bankrupt Solyndra will retain Imperial Capital at the cost of $150,000 per month (this is cash that is immediately leaving the estate, thus minimizing recoveries to US taxpayers), a $1 million confirmation fee, a $1 million sale fee (the two are not exclusive), a 1%/3%/5% financing fee (i.e., Imperial arranges follow through financing, although good luck with that), and so on. In other news, should this bankruptcy stretch for more than the usual 1 year period from filing to emergence, US taxpayers will be on the hook for another roughly $3 million, in order to hire a banker whose ultimate value added will be an “orderly” liquidation of the company. What is amusing is that $150k/month was the going rate when bankruptcy firms still had business, and it was a competitive field, unlike now, when even a $10 million debt side assignment gets pitchbooks from Greenhill, Lazard, Rothshild and Blackstone. Perhaps the judge on the case will be so kind to show some fiduciary responsibility when it comes to disbursing taxpayer capital to retain a useless advisor…. even more so that Imperial somehow believes that it should not even be subject to an expense “(including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees, travel, lodging and meal expenses, messenger services, duplicating services and other customary expenditures)” cap: gotta love using those G-VI jets on the taxpayer’s dime.
Comment by ian cormac — 9/15/2011 @ 8:51 pm
Solyndra green jobs is people!
Well . . . it’s people’s tax money going down the drain, anyway.
Comment by Icy Texan — 9/15/2011 @ 9:32 pm
FIFY
Comment by ras — 9/15/2011 @ 9:40 pm
i told you so.
Comment by redc1c4 — 9/15/2011 @ 9:57 pm
Every time Barack Obama shows his face in public he should be met with overwhelming demands for his resignation. He’s proved he’s unfit to lead the nation over and over again. Obama is bad for America! Demand his immediate resignation.
Comment by ropelight — 9/16/2011 @ 5:35 am
No, it’s worse. Obama is saddling our children with debt to those same Chinese. Our children will be their slaves.
Comment by Amphipolis — 9/16/2011 @ 5:38 am
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaah S.Carter you said cronyism………..Aaaaaaaaaaargh m-my head is about ot explode.+
Comment by DohBiden — 9/16/2011 @ 7:07 am
to*
Comment by DohBiden — 9/16/2011 @ 7:11 am
In 1958, the Great Leap Forward was Mao’s plan to collectivize agrarian economy and move directly into forced industrialization. Before that time, China had been an exporter of rice. The Soviets also played an advisory role.
The goal was to make China a major steel producer, equal to Great Britain, in fifteen years, by purchasing small mills and diverting farm labor.
To feed the population, remaining workers were organized into collective farms where the state provided child care, food and housing. Russian “experts” advocated dual planting, at the surface and 6 feet underground, wasting both seed and labor. With farm labor diverted to the cities, collective farms were unable to harvest all the crops. What they did, was shipped to the cities. They depended on good weather; they got bad.
Crop failures were blamed on sparrows eating seed. Crowds of thousands took sticks and chased the birds until, exhausted, they had to land and were beaten to death. With natural predators exterminated, China had a plague of locusts.
Industrialization was equally disastrous. The little mills were inefficient and required lots of fuel. Also, they lacked iron ore. Central Planning Committee had assigned quotas in advance and they refused to accept any excuses. Party members cut down trees for fuel and scavenged for pots and pans to melt down. The output was a poor grade pig iron. When the monsoon came, there were no trees left to absorb the runoff, causing floods and mudslides.
In this Orwellian nightmare, between 23 and 46 million Chinese died.
Comment by Arch — 9/16/2011 @ 8:10 am
On top of all that Arch, the pig-iron was of so poor quality, that it was (for the most part) unusable, and was dumped; and IIRC many of the operators of the “back-yard smelters” were executed for “anti-state activities/sabotage”.
Ain’t Central Planning wonderful?
Comment by Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks ! — 9/16/2011 @ 10:14 am
On top of all that Arch, the pig-iron was of so poor quality, that it was (for the most part) unusable, and was dumped; and IIRC many of the operators of the “back-yard smelters” were executed for “anti-state activities/sabotage”.
I remember reading about when Mao would do his tours of these “mini-smelters,” ChiCom officials would transport Russian-made steel rails to the villages ahead of time to make it seem like they had been made locally. Mao would do the tour, praise the workers, and then leave, and the whole kabuki show was repeated in the next village.
What also helped lead to the famine was that a lot of farmers were forced to melt down their farming implements, and as AD pointed out, the resulting pig iron was worthless. So even when they were able to grow crops, they couldn’t harvest them and the crops rotted in the fields.
Comment by Another Chris — 9/16/2011 @ 1:00 pm
If you want to stack up the 20th century mass murderers Hitler is third behind Stalin who trailed Mao. Sick, evil people all.
Comment by Arch — 9/16/2011 @ 1:34 pm
stealing that post from Spain to use IRL on some pie in they sky green idiots i know.
Comment by redc1c4 — 9/16/2011 @ 2:54 pm
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/09/12/obama-officials-enron-solyndra/
Comment by ian cormac — 9/16/2011 @ 4:02 pm
Tsk Tsk Tsk.
Comment by DohBiden — 9/16/2011 @ 4:03 pm
China thought that they could will themselves into greater agricultural production.
It would be more correct to write that
Mao thought he could will China into greater agricultural production.
Comment by Rich Rostrom — 9/16/2011 @ 4:23 pm
Delete previous comment with unclosed tag.
China thought that they could will themselves into greater agricultural production.
It would be more correct to write that
Mao thought he could will China into greater agricultural production.
Comment by Rich Rostrom — 9/16/2011 @ 4:24 pm
Bachmann is an idiot what proof does she have of Perry signing into law a healthcare plan similar to Romneys?
Comment by DohBiden — 9/16/2011 @ 4:34 pm
The enviromental movement has always wanted to emulate Mao.
Comment by DohBiden — 9/16/2011 @ 4:35 pm
Where are the far-left to slander the MSM as being paid off by Palin because they dared to defend her?
Comment by DohBiden — 9/16/2011 @ 4:36 pm
the “MSM” is starting to realize that Sarah Palin may be their only chance of keeping Obama in office I think
Comment by happyfeet — 9/16/2011 @ 4:47 pm
The Environmental Movement needs to be sent to “Re-Education Camps”.
Comment by Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! — 9/16/2011 @ 6:46 pm
She is now at the FCC regulating SkyTerra/Light Squared
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SatelliteI
Comment by ian cormac — 9/17/2011 @ 6:49 am
From the man, who should get a Pulitzer, if it meant anything anymore
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0918-20110918,0,3951633.column
Comment by ian cormac — 9/17/2011 @ 6:57 am
Those damn environmentalists are trying to kill us all.
http://www.israel21c.org/briefs/study-links-led-light-and-cancer
If it’s not mercury in CFC light bults, cancerous gas additive MTBE thru the ground water, or now .. LED light suppressing the production of melatonin which adjusts our biological clock and is known for its anti-oxidant and anti-cancerous properties.
Next, we will find out that “heavy metals” from solar panels are leaching into the ground water.
Comment by A. Weiner — 9/17/2011 @ 8:43 am
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/182213-fury-over-solyndra-loan-threatens-to-sunset-solar-investments
Comment by ian cormac — 9/19/2011 @ 5:17 am