Marx says the value of an item is determined by the labor required for production. Lets also include profit.
Some very round numbers:
Projected cost of XL pipeline 13 billion dollars.
Profit ~20% (Dreamland for today’s contractors)
Total Cost of typical job $100k
3 Billion profit This amount did not die here but did not create or save many jobs in this step,
10 Billion equals One Hundred Thousand jobs.
As the money echoes through the economy start with the $13B subtract 30% for tax and 20% profit. (HALF).
The profit would not disappear at each step, but there is quite a bit of lost motion.
100k primary jobs, 100k+ secondary.
to bad some ordinary business type can’t use some of your numbers to tell the story.