Pop Quiz

Here’s how Michael Mandel starts his column:

Here’s a quiz for you: The two biggest job creators in the economy over the past year were health care and education, adding 370,000 and 160,000 jobs, respectively. Meanwhile, construction and manufacturing lost a total of 1.5 million jobs. So which one of these two statements is true? a) The Obama stimulus bill gives the most money to the worst-hit parts of the economy—manufacturing and construction.

b) The Obama stimulus bill gives the most money to the growing parts of the economy—health care and education.

Answer after the jump:

If you guessed (b), give yourself a pat on the back. Despite all the talk of big infrastructure projects, the majority of increased spending in the bill goes to health and education. And that’s a good thing.