Outsourcing

Countries in the European Union as a whole have stronger job

protection laws than the United States -- and higher unemployment rates

because their rate of job creation is much slower.

On the other end of the spectrum, there has probably never been any

place with a more unrestricted labor market than Hong Kong when it was a

British colony. Unemployment rates of one or two percent were common in

Hong Kong then. After China took over Hong Kong, it created various new

benefits for workers -- and unemployment rates hit 7 percent, not high

by European standards, but a multiple of what it had been for years.

What all this says, in various ways, is that there is no free lunch --

not even during election years.

Senator John Kerry says that he would create 10 million jobs if he

were President. But Presidents don't create jobs.

The most a President can do is have policies that allow private

employers to create jobs. Foolish policies can destroy jobs and prolong

a recession or depression but Presidents cannot "grow the economy," no

matter what political rhetoric says.