(Dumb) Republicans & (Dumber) Jonah Goldberg = “Education is no economic driver!”

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: The “shrinking” economy outraged Republicans are whining about now, is the result of their own austerity agenda.

But conservative Neanderthal Jonah Goldberg thinks an educated public is partly at fault. WSJ: 

“Building roads and schools is a big reason why God created Democrats in the first place.”

\Goldberg is claiming those damn schools with their wasted educational agendas are to blame for the shrinking economy. 

Goldberg’s jaw dropping list of dumb comments by the conservative anti- intellectual elite is something to behold. Pushing common sense aside, Goldberg tries to make the case that an educated public is holding us back. He actually finds fault in this common sense quote from Obama: "There's an educational arms race taking place around the world right now — from China to Germany, to India to South Korea.” 

Goldberg: "But there's little evidence it drives growth. In "Does Education Matter?" British scholar Alison Wolf wrote, "The simple one-way relationship ... education spending in, economic growth out — simply does not exist.”

Yikes. How could civilization have been so wrong? See if you can make sense of the following down-the-rabbit-hole logic:

Think about it this way: Growing economies spend a lot on education, but that doesn't necessarily mean that spending makes them grow. During the so-called Gilded Age, the U.S. economy roared faster and longer than ever before or since, while the illiteracy rate went down. But the rising literacy didn't cause the growth. Similarly, in the 20th century, in places such as China, South Korea and India, the economic boom came first while the investments in education came later.

Yes, according to Goldberg, modern day slavery, known as cheap labor, is proof education is unnecessary for businesses to thrive. 

Obama surely wants to see some real economic growth. Perhaps the problem is he thinks investing in a much bigger cart to put before the horse will get him where he wants to go.

For conservatives like Goldberg, you can’t improve infrastructure or education during tough economic times. In fact, under Republicans, economies tend to get worse, so really nothing ever needs to be done. I call it freeloading. 

And those intellectual black holes-all those articles appearing regularly in our local papers by conservative columnists-continues to pay dividends to the Jonah Goldberg’s of the world.