McCain's EBay Model For Jobs Finds Few Buyers Among Economists

Bloomberg:

John McCain's model for ginning up the economy isn't Keynesian or Milton Friedmanite. It's EBay Inc.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee regularly asserts that 1.3 million people worldwide ``make a living off EBay.'' He holds up the figure as evidence the world's largest Internet auctioneer is a model for job and economic growth.

McCain, seeking to address voter anxiety about the economy, uses EBay to signal that he is ``fundamentally optimistic about the capacity of the U.S. economy to innovate, for that innovation to give new opportunities for jobs,'' said Doug Holtz-Eakin, the candidate's senior economic adviser. ``We shouldn't be obsessed with looking backwards all the time, and saying, `Gee, where did those jobs go?'''

This affection for EBay as an engine for job creation, however, confounds economists such as Betsey Stevenson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia.

``In terms of jobs, there's no net increase in GDP that comes from trading stuff that's already made,'' said Stevenson, author of a study on the Internet and employment levels. ``New people selling stuff out of their closet on EBay isn't growing the economy.''

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[metzenberg]

What John McCain fails to understand about EBay is that a substantial portion of what sells on EBay is stolen and counterfeit merchandise. EBay has created new markets for professional shoplifters, new outlets for employee theft.

Perhaps John McCain never saw the program "Business Nation" on CNBC. Here is a brief description of the feature CNBC ran in 2007 on E-Fencing, by CNBC Senior Correspondent Scott Cohn:

"Pawnshops have long been the place for burglars to sell their stolen goods. Not any more. Now, a major source of stolen property in the country is eBay - the world's largest on-line auction site.."

Since John McCain is so enthusiastic for the Internet, perhaps he can use Google News to search for articles like this one, which show how cybercriminals ranging from individuals to organized criminal theft rings are using EBay to sell billions of dollars in stolen merchandise:

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jun/21/shoplifting-rise-sw-florida-economic-woes-linger/

John McCain, won't you please go to Google News and try some of the following searches:

EBay shoplifting
EBay stolen merchandise
EBay theft

No law enforcement agency has jurisdiction to investigate sellers who use EBay as a cloak of anonymity. And how much of that EBay income does John McCain think is really reported? Do EBay sellers pay the same sales taxes as bricks-and-mortar merchants?

[lvdragonlady]

Did no one told him that for this to work, people out there need to have the extra money to buy things. Between gas, food and rent/mortgage, NO ONE is buy unnecessary ****.

[PollyTics]

It is clear that both John McCain and this author are not familiar with life on
eBay, before and after Bush's trashing of our economy. I remember when Dick
Cheney went on poetically about how wonderful eBay was for people and how you
could make a good living by selling on eBay.

Also a sign of not understanding the eBay marketplace is the statement that it
is a place for selling "used junk", whereas the truth is that now most are
selling NEW merchandise at a significant discount over brick and mortar stores.

Well I am a longtime eBay POWERSELLER and can tell you directly that you are not
only unable to live off of what you make on eBay, but it has become too costly
to even list items on the site. We may be "selling" on eBay, but we are hardly
making a living on eBay. With changing economic ides coupled with new leadership
(if you can call it that) at eBay, the fees for listing and the lack of buyers
have now made what was once an OK source of extra cash into a black hole of
debt.

Frankly, when writing such an article, it would help credibility if writers and pundits knew a bit more of the subject at hand before penning an article on same. eBay has been making peoples
hopes and finances crash into working for 24/7 making but a few dollars in the
end, as it is their own greediness that devastates.

[jukesgrrl]

Thanks for taking the time to post. Unless people like you -- who have actually TRIED to make a living on e-Bay -- speak up, these ridiculous assertions made by McCain, Cheney, and others, go unchallenged and shape public opinion. Please keep speaking out, Powerseller!

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

This is the invariable tendency among conservatives. The belief that we can all get to prosperity selling stuff to each other out of our basements. We don't need social services or unemployement insurance, or policies that return genuinely productive jobs. Small scale business will meet all our needs. This is another variation on the now defunct 'information economy'. It's nothing more than the mythical Irish village where all the men stay drunk and all the women support their families by taking in each others laundry.

One of the little remarked facts was that during the rise of Ebay the percentage of people actually self supporting DECLINED. Retail has been concentrating faster than most secotrws of the economy. Just ask all the small Mom and Pop stores put of business by Walmart whether this is a viable model.

[Pogopaws]

Once again McCain shows his total ignorance of economics.

[WIpatriot]

He admitted it and proves it almost daily. How does ANYBODY fall for this line of crap? Oh, wait, they bought houses with no income....