John McCain's eBay economy
Republican presidential nominee John McCain recently asserted that 1.3 million people worldwide ``make a living off EBay.''
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, whom is McCain's campaign co-chair, expressed cautionary skepticism at McCain's remark - which didn't make any distinction - saying that eBay's clientele use the online auction service as a source of primary and secondary income. Responding in an interview, she asserted that approximately 750,000 people in the United States "make most, if not, all of their living selling on EBay.''
McCain spoke about the loss of American jobs to lower paying overseas labor saying, "We shouldn't be obsessed with looking backwards all the time, and saying, `Gee, where did those jobs go?''' He further asserted that the Republican party's eBay model for the American economy was "to trade things that are produced in other countries just to swap them."
Betsey Stevenson, professor at the University of Pennsylvania's renown Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia and author of a study on the Internet and employment levels, said in response, "New people selling stuff out of their closet on eBay isn't growing the economy."
Responding to Republican assertions about operating the American economy similarly to the "eBay economy," she also said that, "In terms of jobs, there's no net increase in GDP that comes from trading stuff that's already made.''
McCain, speaking June 12 at Federal Hall, near the New York Stock Exchange, appeared confused and sent a mixed message by saying, "You know the economists? They're the same ones that didn't predict this housing crisis we're in. They're the same ones that didn't predict the dot-com meltdown. They're the same ones that didn't predict the inflation that's staring us in the face today.'"
reference: McCain's EBay Model for Jobs Finds Few Buyers Among Economists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080624/pl_bloomberg...NY9gM62zC5_RFPGs0NUE
by Hans Nichols Tue Jun 24, 12:01 AM ET
To contact the reporter on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at hnichols2@bloomberg.net
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