The pain of math

From Friday's news:

The Obama administration has been eager to counter the argument that the stimulus has been ineffective amid a Washington debate over whether a second stimulus might be in order.

Administration officials said they looked at $150 billion of the stimulus spending and determined it had created or saved about 650,000 jobs through September 30.

This is pretty simple to break down:

$150,000,000,000 in stimulus / 650,000 jobs = $230,769 per job.

The average American, age 25-64, makes roughly $32,000 per year (per this Wikipedia chart based on Census Bureau data).

So, we spent an average of $230,769 to create jobs that typically pay $32,000. That's enough money to pay their salary for seven years.

The only thing more shocking than the amount spent per job created is that the Administration apparently thinks this is an effective counter-point to the idea that the stimulus has been ineffective.

Do they think nobody can do math anymore? Or do they really think $230,769 per job is a good deal?
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Mark Biller is Sound Mind Investing's Executive Editor. Visit www.soundmindinvesting.com to learn more.