Ben Stein: Unemployed are "people with poor work habits and poor personalities"

[Project Grudge]

"The people who have been laid off and cannot find work are generally people with poor work habits and poor personalities. I say “generally” because there are exceptions. But in general, as I survey the ranks of those who are unemployed, I see people who have overbearing and unpleasant personalities and/or who do not know how to do a day’s work. Source"


Absolutely disgusting in my opinion. As President Obama stated, "That attitude I think reflects a lack of faith in the American people."


*edited for better citation.

[The Magistrate]

1. It Sounds, Sir, Like Mr. Stein Mistook A Mirror For An Unemployment Line....

[NanceGreggs]

11. ...

:thumbsup:

[saigon68]

32. Its not just the Mirror ,Sir

The microphone, with the whiny voice, also plays a part.

[ljm2002]

53. The best possible response!! n/t

[madokie]

59. Best line I've read in a while

even though I know not of ben stein.

[Wednesdays]

70. Ben Stein = the boring teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?" ...and exactly as pompous and boring as a TV commentator. Oh yeah, and he also hosted a game show where he supposedly gave away his money.

[madokie]

71. Thanks

for the attempt but I'm still clueless
My bad I'm sure :hi:

[Junkdrawer]

82. Honest Mistake. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

89. eggggscellent!!!!!!!

[Book Lover]

2. Truly a new Studs Terkel we got ourselves here

Why, I'm sure Mr. Stein has interviewed dozens, nay, hundreds of unemployed people. I simply cannot imagine a man of integrity making such a bold statement without at least hundreds of interviews with unemployed people of all walks of life under his belt. A veritable social scientist he is.

:sarcasm:

[CoffeeCat]

3. That's disgusting, revolting and WRONG...

Only an elitist, out-of-touch egghead would say something like that.

I know so many top-notch people who were laid off. One was a vice president at a large bank, another
a vice president at the world's largest PR firm. Both have gone on to be very successful at other jobs.

However, you don't have to be a corporate executive or college-educated to be a great person or a valuable member of
the American workforce. Many people in blue-collar jobs or working in retail or construction are unemployed not
because they are defective, but because our economy is so screwed up.

We outsourced most of our manufacturing jobs. That's the fault of our sick government, and not the fault of the
personality of the guy who lost his job. Many teachers have lost their jobs. I suppose their "poor work habits"
just did them in, right? And all of those construction workers who lost jobs due to the housing market collapse. Well, I guess
if they learned how to improve their "poor personalities" none of this would have ever happened to them.

Ben Stein has his head up his ass. He's been hobnobbing at those incestuous cocktail parties for so long--he has
absolutely no idea how 99.9 percent of Americans live.

Stein's ill-informed lunacy is revealing though. The ruling class in this country thinks that if you're out of
a job--that you're dirty, stupid or unemployable. That's why it's so easy to deny an extension of unemployment
benefits. These jerks are ruining America and they rationalize all of it by objectifying and stereotyping the
victims of their selfish greed. What pseudo-elitist, classless jerks they are.

[JHB]

28. "egghead" ususally implies someone bright...

...and I think we've all seen that Stein is overrated in that department.

Personally, I'd go with "pin-" or "block-".

[vanbean]

64. For the sake of argument, let say what he said is true.

IT STILL DOESN'T MATTER! Everyone deserves a job. He is just trying to find a reason to justify cheap labor.

[CoffeeCat]

76. He's trying to justify cheap labor..

...but I think the right-wing noise machine is desperately trying to demonize
the unemployed. They're being positioned as lazy, dumb and not worth a job.

That's what the Republicans do best--objectify those that they want to mistreat.

Look at what they tried to do to the Iraqis--were were basically told that they
were rabid "insurgents" trying to kill our soldiers. They were turned into objects
so we wouldn't care if they lived or died. Now, the ruling elite doesn't want
to help out the unemployed so they're positioning the unemployed as defective.

I know people who listen to Beck and they are all about talking smack about the
unemployed. They feel that unemployment makes people lazy and less likely to
work. They also think that there is something wrong with someone who is
unemployed.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I'm surprised Ben Stein isn't out of work...

Especially considering his poor personality...:P

:eyes:

[DeltaLitProf]

5. Has anybody seen this guy in anything lately?

Other than maybe providing his out of touch punditry on Fox?

[ashling]

12. Freecredit.com

I would almost rather they go back to the sexist little fart with the boy band.

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. He's doing Comca$t ads with his fellow idiot celebrity Shaquille O'Neal

As if that company needed a worse image.

[Ex Lurker]

clue me in on why Shaq is an idiot?

I wasn't aware he's done anything idiotic, but I could have missed something.

[marmar]

40. Why the attack on Shaq? And why's he an idiot?

nt

[Sebastian Doyle]

55. Most overrated NBA player in history

Who got famous on the most overrated NBA team in history. And couldn't hit shit from the foul line :evilgrin:

[Touchdown]

84. Shaq was involved in making the worst Sega Genesis game of all time!

... which is unforgiveable!

[truedelphi]

22. I believe he still writes a column for the NY Times

But he hasn't got a clue.

He was on some talk show panel, saying that "retirement is something that has only come about over the last few generations, and that in the old days people worked until they died" or some such claptrap.

I really hope if people ever take to the streets, someone grabs him and allows him to serve as a house domestic.

[karynnj]

50. He lost the column

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/07/ben-stein-loses-new-york_n_253855.html

Must have been his poor work habits and bead personality.

[truedelphi]

85. Wow. I am glad that he is out of there.

I have heard of some columnists being removed because they protested the war in Iraq (A guy I liked who wrote for the SF Chronicle) but this is the first time I have heard that someone was fired for being in a commercial. Good riddance to Stein.

[Johonny]

51. I believe he got fire for his unpleasant personality and poor work habits

[Rex]

6. I don't care about his projection problems, I just wish he could

find a less vulnerable part of society to bully around. Next he will be spitting on homeless people. Repukes destroy this country and then get mad at the people they put out of work...go figure.

[slay]

16. +1

i'd like to think if republicans could step back and for one minute look beyond their shallow greed and hatred that they would be appalled and ashamed of themselves. like i say, i'd like to think that. I seriously do not understand the lack of humanity in these people.

[Rex]

94. That is a nice thought.

Yes that would be nice.

[mrcheerful]

34. That is SOP for conservatives kick the guy when they are down

these are the little pricks that would come up after the school bully knocked someone down and start kicking them while on the ground, then brag on how tough they were, they usually were the bully's side kicks. When they find themselves out of work it's never their fault, oh my work place had a minority quota and they screwed up as I was the company's hardest worker, yeah right if you don't count the days they took off that is by calling in sick. They also believe disabilities are a choice and the disabled choose to be disabled.

[Enrique]

58. Michael Medved has a regular segment mocking homeless people

he plays "Hallelujah I'm a bum" and has a grand old time.

[Raschel]

7. Benis a refudiation of his own theory. Egad, his shtick is so lame & boring & he's still working.

[MilesColtrane]

61. "Benis"?

Mistype, or newly coined word that describes him to a T?

[Raschel]

75. I saw it and didn't bother to change it. It fits him well!

:rofl:

[Electric Monk]

8. Busy liars are better, Ben?

Might as well say it. That's your camp.

[KT2000]

9. "survey the ranks "

how exactly did he do this?
I would love to see him write an article about the movement of middle class jobs overseas and the resulting loss of jobs and buying power.

Who is this guy anyway? He makes commercials and claims to be an economist - big deal.

[LooseWilly]

10. Uhh- guilty as charged?

I have "poor work habits and a poor personality"... as I walked away from a job where my employer tried to arbitrarily reduce my wages, presumably hoping that I'd be desperate enough to just accept doing the same work for less pay while the cost of living went up around me... the definition of "poor work habits and a poor personality", when both are defined by the bosses that would have workers do more for less.

Ahh, it feels good to be denigrated by the bosses, yet again. :) I only wish I would've had a job picking Ben Stein up from an airport in the towncar I was driving for a time... so I could've no-showed and left his ass stranded... and truly savored what little power the workers have to fuck with the minds of the bosses.

[Raine]

13. Stein shouldn't project his own work ethic

onto others, not everyone is like him with poor work habits and a poor personality. x(

[slay]

15. You mean the Ben Stein who makes his money off hocking eye drops and credit score sites?

yeah he works REAL HARD. he must have worked 8 hours a day for 52 weeks to make those! He KNOWS what it's like to be a working man - don't ya know! What. A. Fucking. Ass. :mad: :grr:

Tell ya what Ben, work for minimum wage 40-50 hours a week for 5 years, then get laid off, then we'll talk. He deserves a punch in the face.

[notadmblnd]

17. I think many older workers are unemployed because employers know they can't pull the wool over their

their eyes or exploit them like they can younger workers!

[aquart]

18. What utter bigotry from that ass, Ben Stein.

[JVS]

19. We can't all be Herb Stein's son.

[mitchum]

20. He thinks with all of the grace and warmth which he speak

[Mimosa]

21. Sometimes I guiltily but sincerely wish bad things would happen to bad people

Ben Stein is disgusting and out of touch with how ordinary people live, work and struggle.

[realisticphish]

26. nature tried

no personality, droning voice, he is designed to be ignored!

[Warren DeMontague]

23. And Ben Stein is an expert on what, exactly? Why?

I mean, aside from being one of the world's leading authorities on (cough) how Intelligent Design proponents are unfairly persecuted by evolutionary biologists.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[realisticphish]

25. One might say they were... *sunglasses* EXPELLED

[NightWatcher]

27. Former Nixon speechwriter, lawyer, and stooge criticizes ethics of anyone?

Be glad you stayed out of prison along with Pat Buchanen and STFU.

[Vinca]

29. What a vile human being.

[Ganja Ninja]

30. "As I look down my nose ..... err, survey, the ranks of those who are unemployed"

People like this need to stripped naked and dropped in the middle of the deepest darkest Amazon jungle.

[hobbit709]

31. Anyone willing to make a freecreditreport.com commercial should STFU.

And you display such a shining example of a "good" personality

[MattSh]

33. Sorry Ben...

They're called Republicans.

[northernlights]

35. hah!hah!hah! he talking about HIS FRIENDS!!!!!

I wonder if his friends realize he's writing about them?!? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

"many of my friends , who thought they were rolling in real estate equity, find themselves without work and also upside down on their homes, with lofty mortgages to pay, and no ability to sell their homes."

"In a word, I am seeing real desperation, which I have never seen before up close and personal."

"I get letters and e-mails from friends of decades standing asking for money every single day. Their common denominator is that they lacked prudence and lived in a dream world. I pray that I am not as much like them as I often think I am."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

(boldface mine :D)

[sendero]

36. Typical Libertarian..

.. all of his accomplishments are due to his hard work and diligence, but everyone else is a slug.

[blindpig]

37. Isn't that called 'transference' or something?

He's describing capitalists.

[corpseratemedia]

38. How did he survey the ranks of the unemployed?

Did he go to the unemployment office?

Which city (ies)?

Did he talk to the people there? Because if he had spoken to the people in line, I'm certain he wouldn't be holding such eugenicist ideas about them, when it is CEOS who are laying off thousands and sending jobs overseas. It must be really hard for republicans to witness what fruit they've bore.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

66. How did he survey ALL those people?

Did he interview MILLIONS of them? How did he get a representative sample?


Why we got ourselves a regular reincarnation of Carl Freidrich Gauss here, don't we????

:sarcasm: :wtf:

(Gauss discovered the bell curve. He was doing his father's bookkeeping when he was three years old.)

[marmar]

39. What a pile of mierda this dude is.......

nt

[Jkid]

41. How did Ben Stein got his job so easy?

I think he never got to experience unemployment.

[spanone]

42. fuckstein

[lunatica]

43. Thus spake the dullest man on earth

[Odin2005]

44. Stein can go fuck off!

[old mark]

45. Mr Stein had had several TV shows and on all of them has proved he is not funny.

He has long ago proved he is not sensitive, and now shows he has no sense at all and no respect for anyone with less money and position in life than he.

Great job, Ben.
Go fuck yourself.

mark

[Javaman]

46. thank you mr. stein, first you're a speech writer than followed your true calling: game show host.

the man is a moron.

[sinkingfeeling]

47. Not every ugly puss can get a job hawking Clear Eyes or Free Credit Scores.

[pipi_k]

49. Oh come now...

it takes real talent to make an inflated beach toy look like an irritated eyeball...


:+

[AngryOldDem]

57. Here, he's shilling for Comcast with Shaquille O'Neal. n/t

[11 Bravo]

48. Ben Stein commenting on personality is like Rush Limbaugh opining on a uterus.

Neither of them possess that whereof they speak.

[Blue Owl]

52. Maybe Ben Stein could indirectly encourage more violence against the homeless

Nice job Ben, you fucking taintwipe.

[Mimosa]

78. Good point! Words have consequences. n/t

[peekaloo]

54. this from a guy who gets upstaged by a CGI squirrel in commercials.

:eyes:

[AngryOldDem]

56. Typical Republican response.

You can find work if you look hard enough. If you can't find work, then you're just plain lazy and a slacker who wants to suck from the government tit.

Not the least surprised that Ben Stein spews this bullshit.

[MilesColtrane]

60. Stein lives in an imaginary world in which...

Bob Woodward, Ben Bradlee, and Mark Felt (Deep Throat) are responsible for the genocide of the Khmer Rouge.

I'd pay no more attention to what he has to say than I would to a disheveled man with his pants around his ankles wearing a scuba mask singing "La Marseillaise".

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

62. Fuck Ben Stein n/t

[Dappleganger]

63. Says Mr. Personality himself.

What a dick!

[LongTomH]

65. To Hell with Ben Stein!!!!

Why do we need to listen to anything that little, arrogant psuedo-intellectual turd says?

Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[prolesunited]

67. YOU LIE!

I am demoralized enough without consistently being blamed for this situation. I have a stellar work record and a very agreeable personality.

Truth is, I wonder how many people they are pushing into suicide with their rhetoric. Take someone who already is depressed by not working, out of options for eating and living and health care, then point the finger of judgment at them -- constantly browbeat them, calling them lazy, shiftless, worthless, undeserving. How long does it take for people who are isolated and lack support and are feeling hopeless decide that ending their own life is the best solution.

And, you know their answer: They were weak and cowardly to commit suicide. It's still their own fault.

[Arkana]

68. Ben Stein can go fuck himself.

Sincerely, someone who's been unemployed for a fucking year.

[WinkyDink]

OFGS. AS IF he "survey(s) the ranks of those who are unemployed..." LYING GREED-HEAD.

[WinkyDink]

69. Oops Dupe.

[librechik]

72. I can't understand how the US is the Greatest Nation in the World, since our people are such slobs

At least 80% of our people (the 4 left over after the one available job gets filled)

The Pukkkes never seem to notice how they put down our country.

[Brickbat]

74. Right here is a fucking excellent point.

Well said.

[Blue For You]

73. To be frank,(b)enstein is a monster. /eom

:mad:

[Cleita]

77. Ben Stein is a jerk.

I had to put up with him at a resort I once worked at that he was a guest of. He's a despicable man and he really shouldn't talk about overbearing and unpleasant personalities as that describes him.

[donquijoterocket]

79. lack of faith

That and Ben Stein's typically wingnut overweening arrogance and idiocy.What else would one expect from a semi-regular on Fux noise and other wingnut propaganda organs.

[wisteria]

80. I wish on Ben Stein what millions of unemployed or underemployed Americans are going through now.

It takes a real heartless person to kick around those less fortunate than him, when they are hurting.

[bluestateguy]

81. When was the last time he got an acting job?

nt

[Permanut]

83. Can you say "Asshole"?

Anyone? Anyone?

[readmoreoften]

86. Didn't he mean the corporate raiders? They don't work and they're total assholes.

[MadMaddie]

87. What a nasty little rich man

People like him are like the Robber Barrons of yesteryear.......they make their money off the backs of hard workers and then shit on them when they get a chance.

[BrklynLiberal]

88. Ben Stein is a self-absorbed assh*le. Always was. Always will be.

[Skittles]

90. fuck you Ben you elitist, entitled, rich piece of SHIT

[DinahMoeHum]

91. Hey, Ben, were you born an asshole. . .

or did you work on it your whole life?

:puke:

[unkachuck]

92. and I loved Ben Stein....

....anything and everything Ben Stein ever hawked, I'd purchase....I've spent tens of thousands of dollars over the years on the goods and services Ben recommended....and I was always happy and satisfied and would highly recommend Ben's products to my friends and relatives....

"...as I survey the ranks of those who are unemployed, I see people who have overbearing and unpleasant personalities and/or who do not know how to do a day’s work."

....not any more....I will never purchase anything ben stein is selling ever again, for the rest of my life....

[Incidental Gravy]

93. What an Asshole!

[Beacho]

95. And I have a poor fist

for his poor face.

"....We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not... fuck with us."

--Tyler Durden

[donheld]

96. He's an ass