It’s the day after the President’s jobs speech and I’m picking up my 9th grader and his buddy from school… I say to them, “dudes, I have a question for you; let’s say you own one of the top two restaurants in town, and are in need of a cook… Three people apply:

There’s John; he’s one of the area’s best chefs and currently works for the other one of the top two…

Then there’s Jane; who recently lost her first chef’s job due to her employer going out of business… Their food was, uh, well, they’re out of business…

And lastly there’s Jim; who just got laid off at another local restaurant… They say he’s a pretty good chef, but, well, he got laid off…

So whom do you hire?”
They, without hesitation and in unison reply, “John”…

I say “good answer. But what if I told you that Jane’s been unemployed for 7 months, and Jim’s a veteran… Which, in either case, would win you a very nice, one-time, several thousand dollar tax break?

Now whom do you hire?”
They, with a half-second hesitation and in unison reply, “John”… (not at all concerned with the amount of the tax credit)…

I say “why?”… The hitch-hiker answers, “if your food’s the best, your customers will keep coming back. You’ll make a lot more money that way.”

I then ask, “so what if you didn’t need a new cook, but the government was going to give you a big chunk of money for hiring one anyway (if he/she’s a vet or been unemployed for 6+ months), would you?”

They, (still not concerned with how much) without hesitation and in unison reply, “NO”… (a smirky teenager that’s-a-stupid-question kind of “no”)… Asking why would have been an intellectual insult and inspired more smirkiness, so I didn’t…

So how is it that a couple high school freshmen have a better business sense than the authors of The President’s jobs bill? You think maybe it’s because they lack political instinct?