Patrick,
perhaps you should be looking for a common denominator of a "jobs creator" instead of a common visualization. One thing all job creators have is a payroll that they must meet on a strictly delineated basis. Do you, as a teacher, manage and fund a payroll? Teachers are an essential force in creating individuals with the skills to justify a paycheck, but they directly create very few jobs. The jobs funded by the schools themselves are created by the taxpayers of that school system who allocate part of their private wealth to gain ends they desire, i.e. education for their children.

Hey James,
Without good schools, which means good dedicated teachers, this country is sunk. A Democracy can't survive without education. I guess you didn't get the point here.

Hey Lynda,
Where in my post did you find the argument that I did not want good Schools? My post was meant to address the idea that teachers were "job creators", and to illustrate a useful criteria to identify who a "job creator" might be. Just because a teacher presents one side of an idea does not mean that opposing viewpoints are against good schools. I am sure Patrick would be the first to agree with me on that.

Patrick. Please tell me you are not an economics teacher.

Lynda. You're right. Without good schools this country is sunk. We can start with the realization that good schools should have good teachers who understand the concept of what a "job creator" is.

And no, Patrick, you are not forgiven for "not understanding this whole thing." Being a teacher doesn't give you a pass on basic economics. In fact, being a teacher who is responsible for educating our children, you should be required to understand it.

The first lesson, Patrick, is that despite the efforts of our representatives and bureaucrats in Washington, we are not yet a communist nation. Therefore, your categorization of businesses making a profit as "hoarding" and a "dereliction of their duty" demonstrates your complete lack of understanding of freedom and capitalism.

Second lesson for you, Patrick, as you reveal your envy and hatred toward people based on their financial success, you should know that the eight-figure salaried suits you despise so passionately are the minority in the pool of "job creators" in America.

The vast majority of jobs in this country are created by small business owners who often risk everything they have, usually working 14 to 16 hours a day, often seven days a week to survive. And maybe pulling in a lower salary than you are. You'll find them in your neighborhood. You may even have some of their children in your classroom learning your lessons of hatred and class envy.

Kevin - Nice Job on the article - hit the nail right on the head. Please disregard Kens attempt at an economics lesson. He actually just used the word "economics" the rest of his reply was all hogwash. I've been teaching economics for over 30 years and I never remember any basic lessons about how the government is swinging us toward communism. He for got to sign his reply with his full name:

Ken McEntee, President and CEO, The Write Company.
Member of 6 tea party organizations in NE Ohio.

Hey Ken, Trickle this down (a lesson in basic economics)

like any complex system of human organization, capitalism has inherent flaws. The robber-baron era of unbridled excess led to monopolies, which crushed any competition, which in turn undermined the application of free market forces to match supply and demand. Unregulated capitalism devolves into an oligarchy

Without regulation capitalism behaves like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in which cycles of instability add to each other cumulatively until the system collapses. The most recent example is the disintegration of the banking and housing industries following a decade of careless deregulation of Wall Street. The bottom line is that capitalism works, but needs to be modified from its purest form to be most effective.

Long story short, lower taxes on the wealthy don’t equal more jobs. They never have. That’s just another one of the long cons the GOP is running on people, playing on economic fear to reap more tax breaks.

Your fact about vast majority of jobs are created by small business owners is very debatable. What is the definition of small business owner ? Many reports categorize small business as less than 500 employees.

Patrick....or Michael.....or Kevin.....(whichever you prefer) Excellent essay nonetheless. I agree 100%, We have been coddling these so called job creators forever and still......no jobs. So what is it we are really investing ourselves in? And I also agree that assuming that any teacher takes his/her political beliefs to the classroom is absurd.

Ken....I agree that "economics teacher" did not really refute your comments, however he said a lot more about economics than you did. I believe all you did is accuse the federal government of trying to make us communist, and tell Patrick he was guilty of Envy and hatred. If you want someone to refute your statements - I'm your huckleberry.

(Continued)...

Here's a link to an article from entrepreneur magazine regarding a recent study from the Treasury Department. Now, I know you tea drinkers think that any branch of the Government is actually Satan, but give it a read nonetheless. You might learn something.

Here's a quick Summary

It's a song we've heard all through the downturn: Small businesses create most of the jobs, so they should be the focus of federal assistance. But is it true?
New data says -- not in general. Businesses with between $10,000 and $10 million of revenue account for just 17 percent of business income, according to a recent Treasury Department report.

So here is me telling you that 17% does not constitute a "vast majority" However the vast majority of what you said to Patrick was insulting and false

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220616

Also Ken. I read economics teachers post just once and seem to understand it. It seems that you said Patrick does not understand the concept of Capitalism. And Eco teacher, in my opinion, gave a short summary of why capitalism is not necessarily perfect if left unregulated. "Unregulated" now that's a term a "job creator" can identify with - you probably feel as at home with that term as you do the term "lipton"

If you still think he's full of it just search John Rockefeller and monopoly in google.

I think what eco teacher did was assume you had at least a 3rd grade level of understanding about basic economics, and tried to smarten up the conversation by expanding on that knowledge. But if you didn't get it - that's ok. We can start slow. You've probably been reading the constitution and other historical documents and the "new" language might throw you off.