Becoming a teacher – a smart choice?

Ok, I had to take a lot of shit from my friends for my choice of studying mathematics to become a teacher. From the apocalyptic scenario of “You won’t get a job.” to the likes of “You will be paid in food stamps.” (I put this one in a way friendlier wording than the original one) or the obligatory “You’re insane.” everything was included. The choice teacher + mathematics seems very appalling to most.
Anyway, stumbling across the net to get my daily overdose of information I came across this piece of news: “Wenn die Stewardess Mathe unterrichtet – Lehrermangel in Deutschland” (Link is in German). Well, basically there aren’t enough teachers in Germany, we’re short of about 14,000 – 16,000 teachers. In the next 12 years about 350,000 teachers are going to retire and there aren’t enough teachers to fill that gap. One link further it states, that the most affected subjects are Mathematics and Physics. Kudos to me. My combination is Mathematics and English, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. And maybe I’ll add Physics if I’m overwhelmed by another wave of megalomania.