Video of the Day: Investing in schools creates twice as many jobs as military spending
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Say what? UMass economist Bob Pollin argues against “austerity” and heightened militarism, saying that education is by far the better investment.
Say what? UMass economist Bob Pollin argues against “austerity” and heightened militarism, saying that education is by far the better investment.
“Spending on education is one of the best ways to create jobs, and it’s maybe the best way insofar as we already have an infrastructure in place called the system of public education at the state level, at the level local level. And when you spend $1 million on education, you’re going to create 27 jobs. Compare that with spending on the military. You spend $1 million in the military, you create 11 jobs. So you create two and a half times more jobs per dollar of expenditure by investing in education. And the most extensive system of education we have, obviously, is public education, to say nothing of the good it does for the community and for young people to have a decent public school in the community. So we must reverse this thinking that somehow public education is a drag on economic well-being, that they need austerity in public education. Quite the opposite. Even on strictly economic terms, on job creation terms, invest in education, invest in public education. It’s the single best route to creating jobs right now.”Read the full transcript here.