That’s the title of my piece that I wrote for the McClatchy newspaper chain. It ran in multiple McClatchy papers. Here’s the one in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Here’s one excerpt:

First, distinguish between bad jobs and good jobs. An example of a bad job is hiring someone to dig a hole and then fill it in. The person’s time is totally wasted. An example of a good job is one created by Steve Jobs: hiring someone to produce a product, say the iPad, that someone else wants to buy and is willing to spend his own money to buy. The person doing the work gives up his time but is paid for it by someone who wants the product.

My example suggests that bad jobs will tend to be those created by government with the goal of making work; good jobs will tend to be those created by people in the private sector creating value.