Dwelt a miner, forty-niner

Actually, the California Gold Rush started, not in 1849, but in January 1848 when gold was found in Coloma, California. Though it is difficult to be precise, it is thought that gold worth many billions of dollars in current values was extracted, a great deal of money and a great contribution to the USA economy. For example, San Francisco grew from a few hundred residents before the discovery of gold to almost 40000 residents in a very short time. This was growth through exploitation of US natural resources (and miners) and not through exploitation of US ingenuity (though, no doubt, many miners were ingenious), which had a multiplier affect throughout the US economy, thus increasing federal government income.

 

The rites of job creators

In June 1993, shortly after Bill Clinton became US President, the US unemployment rate was 7.0%. Under Clinton the unemployment rate dropped dramatically to 3.9% in December 2000, and the top rate of taxation had increased from 31% when he entered office to 39.6%. 

In June 2001, shortly after George W Bush became US President, the US unemployment rate was 4.5% and the first of the Bush tax cuts were enacted (to create jobs). One year after the tax cuts became the law of the land, June 2002, the unemployment rate had already increased to 5.8%, and at the end of the Bush administration (and another set of income tax cuts) the unemployment rate was 2.8% higher at 7.3% together with many other problems. (BLS figures.)  Unemployment might have increased because of the tax cuts, or there might be other reasons, but there does not seem to be any support for the Republican rite that tax increases suppress job creation or – the reverse – tax cuts create jobs.