Teaching to Prosperity

In the third presidential debate, president Obama once again made clear that the biggest point in his supposed plan to grow the American economy is to hire more teachers, especially in math and science. That is supposed to get our economy ready for the "jobs of tomorrow".

A year ago, if someone had suggested that this would be the main plank in the Obama economic platform, people would have laughed. Was this a spoof from Saturday Night Live? No one could have expected that Obama would seriously propose this.

Remember, there are about 23 million unemployed or underemployed people in the USA. According to the census bureau, there are about 7 million folks employed as teachers in the country, and this number includes all teachers from nursury schools to graduate schools. If Obama were to hire an additional 5% for his math/science plan, it would reduce the number of unemployed by just over 1%. In other words, carrying out Obama's plan would have essentially no meaningful effect on unemployment or economic growth, but this is the main point put forward by Obama.

While talking about hiring teachers does give Obama something to say, the truth is that most Americans understand just how silly the Obama plan is. Improving education in and of itself is not silly. Expecting the hiring of a few more teachers to help grow the economy, however, is ridiculous. Each time he makes the point, Obama looks like a fool who has no understanding of how the economy works.

Yesterday, Obama put out a new glossy booklet that contains his "plan" for the second term. Guess what the main economic points are: that's right, raising taxes on the wealthy (which everyone agrees will not promote economic growth) and hiring more teachers. Unbelievable!