Let's make Sasha and Malia's teachers buy all of the Obama family's school fundraiser candy

Dear Barack,

In one of your recent speeches about the economy, you made the following statements about the sequester cuts:

“If those layoffs had not happened, if public sector employees grew like they did in the past two recessions, the unemployment rate would be 6.5 instead of 7.5. Our economy would be much better off, and the deficit would still be going down because we would be getting more tax revenue......”

Barack, when you allow noises like those to come out of your mouth, it reveals a deep misunderstanding about productivity, prosperity, efficiency, and the purpose of work. 

Hiring public sector workers to improve unemployment statistics is like requiring Sasha and Malia’s teachers to purchase all of Sasha and Malia’s school fundraiser candy, just to get their numbers up.  Yes, candy and money would change hands, but that’s not the point of school fundraiser candy. 

Private sector firms succeed when they can produce something their customers want with fewer employees, not more.  You seem to think that success and prosperity follow from hiring more and spending more.  (Thanks to your "Jobs Created" crusade, almost every “public works” project is now announced with boasts about how many jobs it will create. ) Yes, when Google, Dell, and Peterbilt are doing well, they hire more people.  But that’s because they’re making something that people actually want, and they’ve figured out how to get more productivity out of each person, and the marketplace is rewarding them for it.  Hiring follows increased sales and efficiency, not the other way around.  You’re my age and probably remember the Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons, where the coyote tries to make his vehicle go faster by pushing the speedometer needle.  Take notes: It doesn’t work that way. 

Finally, increasing the number of federal employees is a bad thing, just because of the nature of most federal jobs.  At best, federal employees are unproductive overhead.  The Department of Education hasn’t improved education, the Department of Energy hasn’t created more energy, and at one point we had one Department of Agriculture employee for every seven farmers.  And so on and so on.  At their worst, federal employees create wars to reward their military/industrial complex contributors.  They print money and cause inflation.  These public “servants” retire at a ridiculously early age with pensions that are the envy of the private sector.  They create regulations that would make the Pope kick holes in stained glass windows.  Creating debt and red tape in the name of full employment for feds isn’t a good idea. 

We may or may not get a decent jobs report today.  Liabilities for your debts make it almost irrelevant.  We will never, ever be able to pay off what you've spent.  The economy has stunk to high heaven throughout the 5 years of your administration, and it’s because you believe that the parasites will never outgrow the host organism. 

Think again, Barack.  It’s happening.