The Post told readers this morning that critics of measures to limit global warming warn that legislation could be:"a job-killer in states dependent on manufacturing and natural resources." While the risk of job loss associated with measures to limit global warming have been frequently mentioned in the Post and elsewhere in the media, the same economic models that show job loss from these measures would show much larger job loss associated with the increases in defense spending that we have seen this decade. Nonetheless, there has been virtually no discussion of job loss associated with defense spending in the media. It is likely that the vast majority of the public -- probably even the vast majority of people in policy making positions -- do not realize that standard economic models show job loss from defense spending. This is the result of extraordinary negligence from the major news outlets.
--Dean Baker