Um conjunto de estudos, que ganham rapidamente popularidade, prometem que os empregos verdes serão a solução para todos os nossos problemas, nestes tempos de crise. Um estudo recentemente publicado por professores universitários dos Estados Unidos, desmonta um conjunto de 7 mitos sobre o assunto, apresentando 7 factos sobre a realidade dos empregos verdes. Os 7 mitos referenciados, mantidos aqui em inglês, por questões de integridade, são:-Everyone understands what a “green job” is.
-Creating green jobs will boost productive employment.
-Green jobs forecasts are reliable.
-Green jobs promote employment growth.
-The world economy can be remade by reducing trade and relying on local production and reduced consumption without dramatically decreasing our standard of living.
-Government mandates are a substitute for free markets.
-Wishing for technological progress is sufficient.
A verdade é que a realidade é distinta. Os factos determinados pelo estudo são os seguintes:
-No standard definition of a “green job” exists.
-Green jobs estimates in these oft-quoted studies include huge numbers of clerical, bureaucratic, and administrative positions that do not produce goods and services for consumption.
-The green jobs studies made estimates using poor economic models based on dubious assumptions.
-By promoting more jobs instead of more productivity, the green jobs described in the literature actually encourage low-paying jobs in less desirable conditions. Economic growth cannot be ordered by Congress or by the United Nations (UN). Government interference in the economy – such as restricting successful technologies in favor of speculative technologies favored by special interests – will generate stagnation.
-History shows that individual nations cannot produce everything its citizens need or desire. People and countries have talents that allow specialization in products and services that make them ever more efficient, lower-cost producers, thereby enriching all people .
-Companies react more swiftly and efficiently to the demands of their customers/markets, than to cumbersome government mandates.
-Some technologies preferred by the green jobs studies are not capable of efficiently reaching the scale necessary to meet today’s demands.
O estudo é altamente recomendado, sendo os mitos desenvolvidos em grande profundidade no link abaixo. Dá que pensar no facto de muito dos grandes pensadores do nosso tempo estarem completamente iludidos. Nesta linha de raciocínio, apostar na esperança e na má economia associada aos empregos verdes, está no limite da irresponsabilidade!
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1357440
