David Brooks on Green Jobs

David Brooks' column in the NYT over the weekend continues the profusion of work that shows just how ineffective the Obama Administration's lavishing of stimulus (and other dollars) on the "green" technology has been in creating jobs.  Brooks is careful to make a useful distinction here between what he (and I) believe are laudable policy goals that can be goosed by public investment, and the folly of relying on government to create jobs.  We have a long and storied history in this country of public investment in private R&D, and now is the time actually to double down on such investments.  But we're talking basic science and engineering here, not government subsidization of sales force and marketing jobs for technologies so immature as to beg the question as to just what is being marketed?