Ahh, 1986.
Gas cost less than a buck per gallon, Hungry Hippos was the best game ever, and Ben Stein was just that nerdy but affable economics teacher whose monotonous chant of “anyone… anyone?” put an entire nation to sleep.
Yup, those were the good ole’ days!
In 2014, however, things have changed. You need to refinance your house to fill up your gas tank, the hippopotamuses in Africa really are hungry, and Mr. Stein has devolved into an ultra-conservative pundit who shamelessly spouts super insensitive theories on why poor people deserve to be poor!!
In a recent column for The Spectator, Benny Buns proselytized:
“My humble observation is that most long-term poverty is caused by self-sabotage by individuals. Drug use. Drunkenness. Having children without a family structure. Gambling. Poor work habits. Disastrously unfortunate appearance. Above all, and counted in the preceding list, psychological problems (very much including basic laziness) cause people to be unemployed, have poor or no work habits, and enter and stay in poverty.”
Ugh!! It’s our humble observation that those conclusions are straight-up canal juice! Malarkey! Baloney! Bull honkey cat poop!
How are people who are physically or mentally disabled self-sabotaging? Does he really think that those poor souls chose those handicaps?! That their unfortunate station in life is simply a product of “poor or no work habits”??
Ben continued:
“What will make the genuinely poor stop sabotaging themselves? Maybe, just maybe, if we let God back into the public forum it would help. I have seen spiritual solutions work miracles.”
LOLz, because there were way less poor people and far better living conditions back when God was more popular! Riiiight!
The lives of the impoverished are difficult enough already; a rich dude pointing fingers and piling on does NOT help!
No wonder Ferris Bueller took a day off!
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