“Job creation” is the worst reason for supporting an activity. If the demand for camps completely collapses, which it won’t, the demand for camp employment will collapse, too. But if consumers switch away from one kind of spending to another, the total number of jobs in the economy doesn’t fall, though people in the declining industry will have trouble — and ought to have trouble — staying employed there. We give them employment insurance if they’ve been at it long enough. Do they really have a basic human right to keep the job even if consumers no longer want what they’re selling? What happens to the economy if over time more and more people are “employed” in such sinecures?
