This is how an assumption that jobs are an inherent good has created a backwards understanding of economics that has made people in countries toil harder and have less.

Government making it a priorty or trying to beat down doors abroad and interfering with other countries policies is certainly not worth it.

Dollars don’t have value. Goods do. Dollars only have value because they sometimes mean more goods. Jobs don’t have value. The income does (sort of). A job is at least two degrees of seperation from the thing you actually want.

Actually goods don’t have value. Contentedness does. But at least goods are closer to that in the chain. If you have a policy that trades something further down the chain for something more seperated because you made the mistake of ascribing value to it then you have a false economy. Jobs are a cost. We shouldn’t want them in exchange for fewer goods. Trying to have fewer imports and more exports so you have more jobs is backwards.

I mean to say that the relationship between goods and contentedness is an imperfect relationship. But so is every layer. That’s why having laser focus on something toward the end of the chain is so likely to create miscalculation. Each layer doesn’t have a 1:1 relationship with the end thing you want. It’s important to understand that chain and some of the common false economies in it. Blind chasing of one layer doesn’t create good results.