We don’t pay workers to dig holes and fill them in for no reason. Government could do this to create jobs, but it would produce nothing of value at a cost to society.

Yet, we talk about jobs provided by competing sources of energy without much concern for the return on investment.

President Donald Trump and other advocates do this when defending the coal industry. They point to coal miners in Colorado and other states as justification for ending the war on coal. The coal mine, they tell us, supports households that patronize businesses. The little league coach works at the coal mine. The job is reason enough to continue with coal. It is a weak argument, at the expense of sounder economic logic.

Read more at The Colorado Springs Gazette.