06.18.12
Government stimulus
Stimulus works. It creates jobs. One of the best examples is the explosion in hiring for homeland security, at the local level, for the last twelve years.
Coincidentally, following upon the weekend post which discussed parts of Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights, this new hire in Odessa, TX:
Ector County Commissioners approved the hiring of a bioterrorism technician at their meeting Monday, but the position covers more than just the threat of terrorist attacks.
Ector County Health Department Director Gino Solla said the position, part of the public health preparedness system, is part-time and assist with duties that involve dealing with disasters that range from manmade attacks to natural incidents.
“It could be radiological or even … a tornado,??? Solla said. “Any time people are hurt or killed, public health gets involved.???
Hired at a step five, or $13.36 an hour, Dillon Harris will be coming from Dwight, Ill., and is a student at Monmouth College. Studying to get into medical school while in college, Harris said he will be taking time off from his studies to get hands-on training before entering his field …
Bioterrorism technician. For this part of Texas. It’s an eye-rolling proposition.
There will never be a bioterror or any other kind of terror incident in this place. Still it is a job for someone who does not have one, which means money spent on the local economy. And — ultimately — all these jobs come from the federal government and grants from agencies like the Dept. of Homeland Security.
They are the equivalent of stimulus. Or, if you prefer, Keynsian jobs programs.
The funding, reads the newspaper, came from “the Bioterrorism Response Program after it was formed in 2003 in response to the Anthrax scares … a large part of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness budget has been issued through grants.”
The grants for the hire are scheduled through 2012 and 2013, it adds.
Readers know I’m a bioterrorism expert. They can easily understand the outrage that results when all domestic jobs which could theoretically be sustained or created by stimulus or thought of as bad.
Except in the cases of creating homeland security positions where there will never even be a theoretical need.
Having said that, creation of a new job in the Odessa area, whatever it may be, is a good thing.