Ben Stein: Most Unemployed Have 'Poor Work Habits, Poor Personalities.'

[babylonsister]

Ben Stein, still an asshole.

http://mediamatters.org/strupp/201007200052



Ben Stein: Most Unemployed Have 'Poor Work Habits, Poor Personalities.'

July 20, 2010 3:36 pm ET by Joe Strupp


Ben Stein, writing at American Spectator, claims to know why many of the unemployed are without work, stating they did not realistically look at the job market and economy and "lived in a dream world."

In the piece titled 'The End of Wishful Thinking,' Stein declares:

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. They are people who create either little utility or negative utility on the job. Again, there are powerful exceptions and I know some, but when employers are looking to lay off, they lay off the least productive or the most negative. To assure that a worker is not one of them, he should learn how to work and how to get along -- not always easy.

But he then notes that people close to him, whom he presumably does not believe have poor personalities or work habits, have also been struck by the recent unemployment wave:

... it has hit the people closest to me the hardest. Until now, I never had a friend who was truly in financial extremis from a recession. When recessions happened, they happened to people in Ohio or Illinois or Michigan. Now, they have hit hard in California and in the law field where so many of my friends work and in Washington, D.C. (yes, even in D.C.) where I am from. I never had a friend lose his house until this recession and now I am sad to say I have many pals who have either lost their homes or are in process of losing their homes.

Doesn't that sort of negate his other claim? Unless he is close to people who don't want to work or have poor personalities.

[Warpy]

1. Unemploy Ben Stein

Without his gasbag gig, he's largely unemployable because his personality stinks and I'm sure his work habits aren't any better.

Gotta love it when these elitist, clueless shitbags start to slam the victims of their own disastrous policies.

I just hope the victims are paying very close attention.

[BanzaiBonnie]

21. We will remember

[burnsei sensei]

2. I hear and I do not believe

a word he says.

[izquierdista]

18. I do

I think he speaks from years of experience at having an overbearing and unpleasant personality and being rejected for it.

[burnsei sensei]

23. And how luck he is to have his money

and resources.
To be rejected with no recourse to anything is quite a different situation.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. You know, getting 18,347 job rejections along 10 years does tend to make one grumpy.

I doubt most of those people were "unpleasant" to begin with.

Moreover, Ben Stein being around is another acute mood-souring factor.

[KansDem]

4. "...people who have overbearing and unpleasant personalities..."

Sounds like the cast of FOX News, not to mention Rush Limbaugh...

[Kievan Rus]

5. More of this crap again...just like Tom Corbett in PA

Just another heartless mammonite without any compassion.

[onenote]

6. exactly how has Ben "surveyed the ranks of those who are unemployed"

He's talking out of his ass. When Circuit City went out of business does he think only the "least productive or most negative" lost their jobs. When Boeing and the auto companies and other heavy industries were laying off employees by the thousands do they think that managment was picking and choosing who to lay off based on personality?

What a jerk.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. That caught my eye, too.

I suddenly thought of an old Looney Toon where Elmer Fudd is strolling down the avenue in a fancy day coat past a row of out of work vaudevillians and actors like Eddie Cantor, Jolson, Crosby, all trying to get Elmer to hire them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. What about the 1,000s out of work thanks to BP?

This "lazy__________ ( fill in the group) " meme is being pushed hard and wide by
the Right.
I could close my eyes and swear we in the early 50's.

[liberal N proud]

7. I wonder what this rich little brat knows about unemployment

[Berry Cool]

8. Hello, Ben Stein, you asshole.

I'm supposed to get advice about why I am unemployed from a guy who works as a charlatan selling people on paying money to get a credit report that they could be getting for free, and lies telling them that it's free? Yeah, the first person I'm going to ask for employment advice is you, you shameless lying huckster.

[Hannah Bell]

10. +100.

[Bitwit1234]

11. What's he doing with a job?

He fits the description especially the personality part. In fact he don't have one.......

[louis-t]

12. Hey Ben, loved your old show. You're still an ass, though.

Let's see, one job for every 6 unemployed. Gee, once yer brilliant relatives get a job, there won't be any left for the lazy people.
:mad:

[onehandle]

13. Prick. nt

[Better Believe It]

14. Stein has an overbearing and unpleasant personality. Why is he working?

[NRaleighLiberal]

15. Wow. So all of those thousands laid off from Pharma jobs - formerly told they were top 10% -

is it a case of "just kidding"? That's total bullshit.

Whether people have a job or not - especially white collar, professional, big corporation jobs that are significantly downsizing - like Big Pharma (it is they who laid me off) - is more about whose ass you kiss or luck (or bad luck)....I've seen many great people leave and many horrendous people stay. Little rhyme or reason to it.

One thing for sure - Ben Stein is someone who SHOULD be unemployed, because he himself is lazy and worthless.

[Blue Owl]

16. Dull gasbag lives in a flatulent cloud of his own creation

Ben's gift is bringing tedious boredom to bigoted GOP talking points.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

17. What the hell does Ben Stein know about the unemployed? Anyone? Buehler?

[BanzaiBonnie]

20. I doubt Ben Stein has ever done a days work

And he certainly has a poor personality. Head firmly up his ass.

[Critters2]

22. +1 nt

[Cleita]

24. Ben Stein has an overbearing and poor personality, so he

should look in the mirror first before accusing anyone else of it. I have had personal dealings with him as a wage slave and I know.

[Curmudgeoness]

25. "overbearing and unpleasant personalities"---oh no, I think that's me.

I still have a job but now I am thinking I will be the next to be laid off. Well damn. And then I will never find another job. I had better get a personality transplant. Any donors out there?

[WVRICK13]

26. Take Ben Steins Silver Spoon

out of his mouth and stick it up his right wing self-righteous ass. Make him compete for a real job and see how far he gets.

[matt819]

27. Well, we've all heard of the studies

You know, the ones that have documented that conservative brains really are different from liberal brains. The views expressed here are those of a sociopath. You hear the same sorts of thoughts from serial killers regarding their attitudes toward those they've killed. They are objects. They mean nothing. They are merely props in their warped, sociopathic vision of the world. And they have no fucking off button, the one that should operate automatically when such views start to make their way from their brain to their vocal cords. To be fair, this could be a generalization (sound familiar), but, the more I think about it, you know something, I don't think it is. As Alan Grayson said yesterday, May god have mercy on their souls.

[sendero]

28. Let's take this ridiculous assertion ...

.... to it's logical conclusion. So, the millions of people unemployed now essentially "deserve" it because they are unpleasant or don't work hard enough.

What do we do about that? LET THEM STARVE? Is that the answer? I didn't hear much else in the way of answers. So, we just let them starve because they are not perfect human beings.

This is why I cannot stand Libertarians. They are as stupid as they are heartless.

[DinahMoeHum]

29. Hoo boy, was Ben Stein born an asshole. . .

or did he work on it his whole life?

Jerk.

:puke: