Relax teachers, your job isn't real!

The jobs numbers that came out last week were certainly a disappointment. Only an additional 18,000 jobs created for the previous month. What's interesting is to look inside those numbers. Turns out that there were really 57,000 new private-sector jobs, but the public-sector lost 39,000 jobs--mostly teachers.

And this has been happening for a while. Have a look at this graph:

Source: Economic Policy Institute

"In total, the public sector has lost 430,000 jobs compared to the private sector's net gain of 980,000 jobs since the Great Recession ended in June 2009 – an average of nearly 19,000 jobs each month over that time." Many--perhaps a majority--of these lost jobs were in education.

But, not to worry, because these lost public sector jobs were not "real" jobs. I know, the job I had teaching physics and computers for 33 years seemed like a "real" job. I got a paycheck, spent much of it in the local stores, paid taxes and raised a family. How stupid I was to not have seen the truth.

Friday evening, conservative darling Ann Coulter showed me the light. "Government can't create jobs," she said on TV. Those jobs aren't "real jobs." They're a "drain on society" because government workers are "not revenue producers."

Let me be very delicate about this: That's one of the biggest loads of crap I have ever seen delivered with a straight face.

Agreed, most government jobs do not involve making and selling things like Ms Coulter's books. But think about how government workers enhance the revenue she generates from book sales:

• If someone tries to steal her work and publish an identical book under their own name, government workers (police, prosecutor, judges, etc.) will protect her income stream.
• If she invests some of her income in a bed-and-breakfast just outside a national park, government workers (rangers, maintenance workers, etc.) will see to it that the park continues to attract visitors, some of whom will stay at her B&B.
• When she flies around the country on a book tour, the airline benefits from all those air traffic controllers who keep planes from colliding. If the airlines had to pay for this service themselves, her ticket would be much more expensive.
• It's difficult to write or sell books when you're ill. Government workers make sure there are no poisons in her air or food supply.
• If she were to have children, government workers (teachers) will provide daycare. They will work for babysitting wages and throw in a free education to boot. She won't need to hire a nanny or skip her latest book tour to care for her kids during the day. 
• When she appears on TV, government workers (FCC) and those nasty government "regulations" make sure that TV and radio broadcasters do not claim the "freedom" to place their signals on any frequency they darn well choose.

Sorry lady, I'm a teacher. It's a real job, and if you don't think it is, you're an idiot!