The American Spectator

Wayne| 10.13.11 @ 6:18AM

Yet you want to increase taxes on the successful, without providing them with increased government services. That is immoral and kills jobs. What we need is to encourage small business and growth. What we don't need is corporate welfare and non-nonsensical too big to fail arguments.

Harry the Horrible| 10.13.11 @ 9:43AM

EXACTLY.

When kids' lemonade stands are closed down because of licensing issues, we have a problem.

The only way out of our current crisis is higher employment, more taxpayers, and more revenue (and less spending...).

The only way to get higher employment is to make the environment more friendly to business and job creation.

The business environment needs to be PREDICTABLE so that businesses can plan. We need to de-regulate so that more businesses can be created. We need lower taxes (or, better yet, The Fair Tax) to reward achievement and job creation. The current anti-business climate, coupled with whimsical anti-business legislation at all levels of government does NOT promote business growth or job creation.

Harold L. Bordeaux| 10.13.11 @ 10:13AM

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Greed may be a "basic part of human nature" to the rich and greedy Ben Stein and others on this blog, but it is not for me.

I follow Jesus Christ's example by giving at least 70% of my earnings to the desperately poor.

I live a simple, modest life, and luxuries and status items do not appeal to me.

If you are not giving to the poor, helping to make this country better for all of its citizens, then you have no moral depth, and you are most certainly NOT a Christian.

You would think with all the so-called "Christians" who post on this blog that some of them would quote Christ's words about giving away riches.

No, no, no, this is one Bible verse you will never see on American Spectator, and all you readers know why.

Greed! It's the guiding principle!

yuyu| 10.13.11 @ 10:15AM

Yes, but Ben Stein is in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital having gastric bypass surgery. Have a little pity on him, man.

Gastric Bypass is dangerous!

Shelia| 10.13.11 @ 10:17AM

Well it's high time he did something about his morbid obesity.

Greed? Gluttony? Ben's full of it (and full of its waste products as well.)

Yes, Jesus set the example. Let's follow it!

Mavis N. Hursey| 10.13.11 @ 10:20AM

Jesus needs to run the moneychangers out of the temple--the temple of Wall Street--soon to be the Wailing Wall!

Simon Templar| 10.13.11 @ 10:57AM

I see we have some OWS useful idiots with us here today at TAS.

Oh yes, the christian retort! LOL. Yes, from a group of people who the rest of the week mock, ridicule, and spit on christianity, religion, and traditional values. Cute.

The quotes. Very cute. You left out a few like, "the poor will always be among us." Remember that story, Judas?
Everyone of your quotes is a cute distortion of the real story.
Yuyu, sheila girl, and mavis...while your at it look up what the bible has to say about coveting, stealing, and envy.

Please do not lecture the people here about giving to the poor..you phony, lying, hypocrits.

Significant and extensive research has shown that conservatives give more to the poor and charities than liberals and are more likely to stop and help people on the road. Liberals would rather steal from one group and give to another than part with anything they have. Look at this liberal Alec Baldwin, jackass, attempting to avoid taxes and paying his fair share while lecturing everyone else.

Mavis | 10.13.11 @ 11:39AM

My, my, my, Mr. Simon Templar,

How you jump to the conclusion that anyone who posts on this blog and does not agree with the dominant "conservative" view is a liberal.

I happen to be conservative, but not your brand of teabagger conservative. I am a little more intelligent to be that kind of irrational zealot; I happen to have a little more depth.

As for Christ's teachings, when they do not toe the teabagger line, then you all trash Him, don't you.

Good God, you people are bitter to the bone.

Ta,

Mavis

Anna K. from Emory U.| 10.13.11 @ 11:57AM

Mavis, you're taking these right-wingers too seriously.

I read this blog rather regularly for the sole purpose of getting a glimpse into the depraved teabagger mind. The anger here almost sets my computer screen on fire.

And the depravity is off the charts!

I also recommend this site to my students. We've got to know what the enemy is thinking. These are dangerous people.

Indy| 10.13.11 @ 12:35PM

"I read this blog rather regularly for the sole purpose of getting a glimpse into the depraved teabagger mind." are you able to teach without using such a derogatory term?

"I also recommend this site to my students. We've got to know what the enemy is thinking. These are dangerous people"

It seems from your post you teach one ideology v. presenting more than one point of view? Do you trust your students to form their own opinions? People who do not agree with you are the enemy? Maybe you can have your students read The Secret Knowledge by David Mamet and then have a class discussion, they might surprise you with their thoughts.

Critical thinking is lacking in this country especially in our educational institutions, I am glad you are not teaching my children.

Simon Templar| 10.13.11 @ 12:37PM

Anna, keep telling them to come here. I have no doubt that in a few years after working and reading this site they will understand just what load of bullshit you sold them.

Got a little scary news for you Anna that will blow up your little arrogant mind. I used to be a useful idiot as well...a radical socialist democrat.
So, I know you very well, Anna, and swam in your cesspool of an ideology for many years.

Now, put down the i-pad, call your daddy for some more money, and join your fellow idiots in a nice chant.

John Torkildsen| 10.13.11 @ 12:57PM

"my students", "enemy"
What a f__king joke.
You are paying your kids college fees to be re-educated by the likes Anna K?
A pox on these Marxists!

Tim the Enchanter| 10.13.11 @ 1:55PM

I hope that you show your students your postings as well so they have an example of the concept of projection. Full of yourself much? Glad I went to a real college and got a real degree.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 2:47PM

Anna K,
you are correct; AS is now a nostalgia club for post-Reaganites. And read this gobbledygook:
"The business environment needs to be PREDICTABLE so that businesses can plan."

Predictable? plan?? what does capitalism have to do with predictability?

Poppakap| 10.13.11 @ 6:09PM

The fact that you ask these questions show how deeply you embrace statism. A truly reliable troll.

Cabermon| 10.13.11 @ 5:15PM

Hi Anna,
Nice to know that you are consistent with the Saul Alinsky Left and teach your students the ways of ad hominem attacks and name calling. Referring to those with whom you disagree as "depraved tea baggers," "the enemy," and "dangerous peoples" has no place in any school, other than totalitarian brainwashing institution. Emory University should fire you.

Trinacria| 10.13.11 @ 7:33PM

Anna,

Thank you for your post - it just saved me about $5,000! We'll be bypassing Emory on my daughter's fall college tour.

By the way, glad to hear you're teaching your students that their fellow Americans are the enemy (and you think the depravity is HERE?).

Jeamaar37| 10.13.11 @ 7:54PM

Please tell me. Just who is your enemy? You sound pretty closed-minded to me and a disgrace to the teaching profession whose mission should be to teacher students to critically evaluate information and think for themselves. Thank goodness I'm not paying tuition for a student at Emory U and hope you are not representative of the quality of the faculty as a whole.

Me Myself Mom Wife Veteran| 10.14.11 @ 12:33AM

Anna K from Emory U, reading your use of improper grammar, I hope your students do not take you seriously. I know you are not representative of the fine academics at Emory.

squalis| 10.14.11 @ 9:31AM

I am an Emory alum (1979C). Glad you were not one of my Profs. I doubt you would treat differences of opinions objectively. Grades would be based on your all important feelings.

emo| 10.16.11 @ 3:00PM

I love the term Teabagger because it means our enemies cannot defend Obama's economic policies and cannot intelligently refute free market economics. Your nonsequitor of a post simply proves it

DesertFox| 10.16.11 @ 9:36PM

Academic lefty like you is the true enemy of the people-the other 99%.

1blumutt| 10.16.11 @ 9:47PM

You, Anna, a an example of instructors in our colleges, where independent thinking of a higher order is supposed to be intitially taking place, are, instead, not educating but indoctrinating. The college instructors displaying professional integrity are those who do not let their students know their positions. "We've got to know what the enemy is thinking...". You are either some kind of emotional case or you are lying, here, on this thread I hope it is the later. Get professional help, please.

CalMark| 10.13.11 @ 12:13PM

No true conservative calls Tea Party people "Tea Baggers." As for, "...when they do not toe the teabagger line, then you all trash Him, don't you." that is blasphemy.

You are a leftist troll, plain and simple. Go away.

Simon Templar| 10.13.11 @ 12:16PM

You are a damn troll and nothing else. No conservative on this green earth would ever have written such moronic, simple minded baloney you wrote. You really gave it away with the teabagger slur. You really have to do better than that to pose as a conservative.

Now, put your laptop down and go smoke a joint, get some free food, stop by and chant like you are legion, and copulate with your filthy girlfreind.

beebop2| 10.13.11 @ 5:51PM

Anderson Cooper must be so upset that you and yours make fun of his deviant sex practices.

dana| 10.14.11 @ 12:20AM

sorry if we have misjudged you, Mavis....

your cute little made-up name, superior self-assessment, and habit of calling Conservatives "Tea-Baggers" are all characteristics we have seen in liberal Trolls.

it was an easy mistake.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 5:38PM

"Yes, from a group of people who the rest of the week mock, ridicule, and spit on christianity, religion, and traditional values. Cute."

I detest the GOP- not Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is in heaven, the GOP will burn in Hell for all eternity.

Poppakap| 10.13.11 @ 6:10PM

...and you will burn for judging others. Hypocrite.

gene | 10.17.11 @ 10:54AM

Hey Simon,

You are a total loser...

Simon Templar| 10.17.11 @ 3:09PM

Hey gene,

No one gives a rats ass what you think as you do not think, you name call like a disturbed child.
Are you going to throw yourself on the floor now and tantrum?

DirtyWhiteBoy| 11.4.11 @ 9:59AM

"If a man will not work niether shall he eat"

play nice| 10.13.11 @ 12:00PM

if you go to any farway place your first stop is going to be the money changers -

Theresa| 10.13.11 @ 11:46AM

Gastric bypass sounds very smelly.

45%| 10.13.11 @ 11:52AM

Smelly? If it's Ben's guts the surgeons are opening, the odor will penetrate the very walls of the hospital and make the Angelo residents of that glittering city, Lost Angeles, sicker than . . .

yuyu| 10.13.11 @ 11:58AM

Sicker than Michelle Bachman and her flamboyant husband?

victor| 10.17.11 @ 9:57PM

yuyuyu:
"and her flamboyant husband?"

Are you saying that he is an actual "teabagger"?

If he is, then you lefties or libbies should love him, eh?

dana| 10.14.11 @ 12:28AM

Theresa, 45%, yuyu:
it you wish to pretend you are not liberal trolls, you should avoid personal attacks and name calling...

you would slip past all of us if you pretended to argue the issues instead of snarky little personal invective.

anonymity give you the capability to be crude rude and stupid, but does it give you the right?

(and my apologies to the board-i just saw the reminder not to feed the trolls-oops)

Jack in Wi.| 10.14.11 @ 7:56PM

How fat is poor Ben? I thought he was a little tubby but that is a radical move, especially at his age. Well I used to be a big fan and still wish him a speedy recovery.

pomdter| 10.13.11 @ 10:58AM

Umm, how do get those earnings to give to the poor?? If you weren't greedy, you would take a 70% pay cut since you obviously don't need the money. Instead, you are very greedy and take money you don't need and spend it how you want . Your greed is in the fact that you think you can spend your money better than those that give it to you - that is the greed the protesters are protesting, and you are a prime example of how wrong they are and how good greed can be.

JP| 10.13.11 @ 11:02AM

the bible says,

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
Luke 6:37

Be careful not to do your "acts of righteousness" before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven (Matthew 6:1).

As a fellow christian, I don't think it helps to judge Mr. Stein or brag about your giving.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 11:18AM

“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have a right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: 'If a man will not work, he shall not eat.'" (2 Thessalonians, 3:6-10)

The Bible commands that we gve alms to the poor, not subsidize the laziness of sloths.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 12:08PM

"Commands" is a bit too assertive.

Michael Harding| 10.16.11 @ 9:01AM

'Commands' is exactly what it does. You can attend as many masses or prayer meetings as you want, but if you aren't serving the 'least of these' Christ will say 'depart from me'. God cares more about how you treat the weak than about your creedal beliefs.

1blumutt| 10.16.11 @ 9:57PM

Reading all these Bible passages reminds me, as you throw them at one another like paper wads, that I have to believe, for my own sake, what I was taught to believe, that God has an great sense of humor!

DontTazeMeBro| 10.19.11 @ 11:12PM

Great reminder with that verse; socialists love quoting the Bible when they want to point out the obligations of those with money, while always forgetting to share the Bible quotes that address the obligations of those on the other side.

Appleby| 10.13.11 @ 11:34AM

That was an individually tailored reply to a specific "rich young ruler" whom Jesus thought was too focused on his goodies to be a proper follower. And he was right -- the Goodies won.

I wonder how many of the trust fund babies taking part in the Stomp-n-Scream Show in NYC would actually be willing to give half their possessions, much less all of them, to the poor they profess to champion?

Herb| 10.13.11 @ 2:40PM

But when the rich young man walked away sad, did Jesus condemn him? No, nor did He condemn the woman caught in adultery. Jesus even said the rich might enter Heaven after all because "all things are possible with G-d".

Jesus is certainly a lot more forgiving than the trolls who have popped up here today. I wish Ben prayers and a full recovery, and further criticism of his Sandpoint reveries is hereby suspended.

Publius| 10.14.11 @ 3:01PM

Sorry, but the young man walked away saddened but the Bible is silent on his ultimate decision or, for that matter, his fate.

Grant Johnson| 10.13.11 @ 11:46AM

Well, good for you.
Anyone is free to give to charity, and reliable studies show that conservatives give more of their own incomes than liberals do. Your blanket condemnation of readers of this blog kind of misses the mark there. And while nothing in this world is perfect, a much higher percent of private charity benefits the “desperately poor” than does money taken in taxes.
Note well that Jesus always made personal exhortations. "YOU give them something to eat." He did not say "Take from others to give to the poor." He did not advocate governments or others to take by force from rich people in order to help the poor. Clearly the focus there would be, as it is with the democrats and the OWS protesters, more on envy and covetousness than on helping the poor.
If you are just reminding us that we should be generous in our own dealings, well and good. But it would also be good to remind the class warriors; Jesus did not repeal "Thou shalt not covet".

Brian B| 10.13.11 @ 11:51AM

Mr. Bordeaux,

Jesus made his comments about giving away all of ones wealth to the rich young ruler who was entangled in his love of wealth to the exclusion of his spiritual well being; ie, he loved money more than God.
The bible also says that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children and that it is good for a man to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
Your bragging about giving away 70% of your earnings prompts three thoughts;
1. Jesus didn't tell the rich young ruler to give away 70% of his earnings. He said "sell ALL that you have and give to the poor". Aren't you disobeying Jesus, just to a somewhat lesser degree if your take on this verse is correct and it does apply to every person?
2. Your comments remind me less of Jesus and much more of the Pharisee who precedes the rich young ruler in Luke 18 who loudly prayed for all to hear "God I thank you I'm not like other men..." and went on to describe how he fasted and tithed on all that he earned.
3. Physician heal thyself and perhaps a search for the plank in your own eye might be in order.

Fredrick Ward| 10.13.11 @ 1:45PM

Harold B.,

Greed is a part of everyone's existence, and so is self-righteousness, and boastfulness. Pride is also a sin, bub. Point your ruler somewhere else. Might I suggest the mirror...

Mrs Vito| 10.13.11 @ 5:40PM

What a hypocrit!! If you are giving 70% of your earnings to the poor, how do you exist? Are you burdening someone else (i.e. the taxpayer)to make up to you what you're 'giving away'?
I'm a Christian also, and Jesus also speaks about 'riches' being rewards for those who take the talents he created each of us with and use them to work hard to achieve a successful life through honest means. THIS IS NOT GREED! Go and live your life your way, and don't lecture the rest of us with your opinion of what spirituality should be! If you want to give away your possessions, then amen! But how dare you presume to be a conscience for the rest of us, based on YOUR (incorrect) definition of greed.
Remember this one: "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrits do...Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will REWARD you."

Trinacria| 10.13.11 @ 7:35PM

"Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. I follow Jesus Christ's example by giving at least 70% of my earnings to the desperately poor.

Sounds like you're about 30% short, sport. Tightwad.

yes| 10.13.11 @ 9:50PM

"If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."

...so you give up all physical possessions in this life so you can have treasure in heaven? swapping one greed for another? this sounds like a trick question test!

Big Swede| 10.14.11 @ 7:09AM

This would only be a trick question if you assumed treasure in heaven equalled physical possession.

How you understand things lies in what values you put in words.
I don't think the words in the bible are meant to trick someone.

Merlin| 10.14.11 @ 12:52AM

Harold,
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Between "possessions" and "give" does your Bible have anything about the government taking your money, wasting some of it, giving some to Solyndra, buying votes with it, and then giving whatever is left to the poor in a manner that may actually damage them morally if not financially? You did not say that the 70% you give was thru the government. Was it, and if not, why not? Or do you feel that the money you give is more beneficial to the poor by not having the government involved?

I know that many people who post here give money to pro-life organization. That money makes life infinitly better for at least some (pre-voting) citizens. Does that count as a Christian act?

Paulin Orlando| 10.14.11 @ 10:01AM

DOES ANY OF IT MATTER?!

If we look back in the history of mankind, it keeps repeating itself. No matter what we do the end result is the same; wars, deaths, greed, power, corruptions, control over others, one world ruler, etc... As long as the human race exists, these tragedies will continue to repeat until we are faced with total destruction. The difference between past history and today is our ability to destroy the entire world instead of isolated areas. Oh yes, we’ve made great progress in how to destroy ourselves.

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A REPEAT OF HISTORY!

I say prepare for the worse and the last round human kind will ever face. All the ingredients are in place and it is a matter of time. It is not if but when it will happen! What is coming (soon) is inevitable; no matter what we or any government does, IT WILL HAPPEN. We cannot stop it because it is our destiny.

WHAT TRULY MATTERS

I pray and hope when the time come, we all remember what truly matters. It is not the money, power, greed, wealth or anything else that exists in our world. You can combine the entire history of humanity, its wealth and its accomplishments and it means nothing! It has ZERO value. Please remember this when you are faced with the upcoming suffering, the only truth is God and love. He is the only one that can stop the end of humanity. I know, I know, you think I am some Bible thumping weirdo losing his marbles. I am not and I usually say the same thing you’re thinking right now. I am but a simple sinner that fails miserable each day. I try my best to exist in a truly sad world of ours.

Mankind is not able to rule/govern humanity without God. It is that simple! You may say God does not exist and it is a reflection of humanity’s weakness and our need to believe in something greater then ourselves. Well, ask yourself this question; do you believe there is good and bad in our world? How do you think good and bad came to be? Humanity has given God many names because we don’t know Him; good is one of his many names. The best name I have for Him is LOVE. If you don’t want to believe in Him, that is OK, too. He will let you know the truth when the time comes; be patient as He will reach out to you and everyone in our world.

Remember, when you are faced with the upcoming torment, reach out for Him and He will give you the peace you/we all seek in this sad world. Rejoice people, His time is near! When the time comes and if you chose to ignore this warning, at the very least, reach out to one another with the love that is within you. Love and all that is good on this earth belongs to God. Share this love and goodness with each and I assure you God will call upon you and spare you the coming agony.

Jim| 10.14.11 @ 1:12PM

Baloney. Judge not lest ye be judged. Carnegie, a rich, no-good in your economy, established libraries all over the U.S. , and many of the "greedy rich " you descibe employ thousands who otherwise would be poor. If you truly give away 70% of your earnings, you are either one of those "no-good" rich people, or a liar. Or perhaps you live in your car? Last time I checked, lying was a sin, and seeing oneself as better than all those other "sinners" (which is what you and every human being are) is a far greater sin than greed. Greed didn't kill Jesus, holier than thou types did.

Jack in Wi.| 10.14.11 @ 8:01PM

Carnigie believed in giving away his money to worthy causes. He gave away a huge portion of his fortune and left his decendents with not a ton of money. He said. " He who dies rich dies disgraced. "

Paevo| 10.14.11 @ 2:06PM

Leftists' hatred of greed is in direct proportion to their covetousness of others' wealth... No need to bring religion in to the debate...

Gerry Copenhaver| 10.17.11 @ 12:59PM

Harold,
You are way off base man. Totally. You cannot say someone isn't a Christian if they don't do what you do. Christianity is about relationship with Christ, not about giving to the poor. Giving is a natural outpouring of the Christian's lifestyle but it isn't a litmus test. If you want to fulfill the commission you've been given then you need to stop harassing people and start showing them the love of Christ. The same goes to every Christian who posts on this site. Stop spewing forth venom, all you're doing is giving ammunition to those who persecute believers.

omgurdens| 10.13.11 @ 11:04AM

Taxes on the wealthy were double what they are now for about 70 years. They were used to build this country and the middle class. The majority of the country thinks they should go up a few percentage points as the current system obviously isn't creating jobs, and you think this is immoral?

Brian B| 10.13.11 @ 12:00PM

--Taxes on the wealthy were double what they are now for about 70 years.--

No they weren't.
The nominal rates were double and even higher but were accompanied by numerous loopholes and what couldn't be sheltered was hidden, moved or misallocated leading to an effective tax rate on the wealthy which was, if anything, lower than the rates of the last 30 years.
What we got in return for these high rates was not more revenue or more wealth, but a feeling of moral satisfaction for lefties who could feel smug about soaking the rich, even though they weren't, and a less efficient and slower growing economy which of course hurts the poor and middle class more than the wealthy.
Policy so stupid only a lefty could love it.

Paevo| 10.14.11 @ 2:09PM

Terms like "nominal" and "effective" are to complex for the leftist us versus them infantile dystopia...

omgurdens| 10.14.11 @ 2:46PM

You're absolutely wrong that the effective rate is higher now than historically. Any study you look at shows that effective rates for all taxpayers are lower now, but effective rates for the super rich are near half of what they were in the middle of the century. And of course we had significantly more revenue, how do you think we paid for the GI bill? Free college, 1 year unemployment, loans to buy houses and start business. Anyone who says this country wasn't built on socialist programs is either uninformed or a liar. http://www.politifact.com/trut.....50s-ceos-/

Wally| 10.14.11 @ 5:06PM

You are ignorant beyond words.

Michael Harding | 10.16.11 @ 9:20AM

How so, Wally? I don't know you well enough to take your naked assertion as fact. Could you please make an argument or submit some evidence to back up your diagnosis of omgurdens ignorance. I'm not super involved politicaly, but I do know that just calling someone ignorant is no counter point. It's just name calling, and it makes the accuser appear to be the guilty party.

Poppakap| 10.13.11 @ 6:15PM

What built this country was a love of free enterprise, private property rights, and millions of hard-working Americans pursuing their dreams of financial independence. Not socialism-lite tax policy. Look at Great Britain. They've had socialism and high taxes for 50 years now and what has happened to their middle class? It's been pummeled. The middle class as a percentage of total population has decreased while the poor have exploded. Why work when one can live on the doll?

omgurdens| 10.14.11 @ 2:50PM

Again, you seem clueless. The postwar boom was created by government money. Free college, loans to buy houses and start businesses, there was NOTHING private about it. Not to mention you could get a job with a decent paycheck and benefits before the right killed off unions and in turn killed wages and benefits.

Wally| 10.14.11 @ 5:08PM

There was no postwar boom. The economy stalled; and the unions killed themselves. Dumbass.

Jack in Wi.| 10.14.11 @ 8:06PM

The Depression ended in the mid 1940's when the Republicans took control of congress in 1946. They slashed defense spending and other programs and cut taxes. They passed the Taft Hartley act which put the unions under some restraint. It was only then that the 17 year Depression ended.

Jim| 10.14.11 @ 1:17PM

Baloney redux! Do you really think taking money from people who are OBVIOUSLY good at creating wealth , and giving it to the government, will result in greater good for the middle class? And by what rubric other than sheer covetiousness do you justify taking someone else's goods at a 70% rate? The money the "rich" make is THEIR PROPERTY!! The fact that you need it or want it is irrelevant. If I am poorer than you, and I decide I need a car, are you okay with my taking your car? I have a need, it isn't being met, and you are ever so much "richer" than I am? Think before you post.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 12:22PM

Stein's piece on the BP spill showed his true colors: he wrote in effect the victims ought to accept that we need oil.
He could have told 9-11 victims:
"in war, there is collateral damage..."

beebop2| 10.13.11 @ 6:08PM

How could we have missed that THOUSANDS died due to the spill ??????

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 12:29PM

"The Bible commands that we gve alms to the poor, not subsidize the laziness of sloths."

That's why all welfare must be means-tested, so your lazy kin and friends do not get more than they deserve.

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 3:19PM

What do you me MY lazy kin? Where do you get off calling my kin "lazy?" No one of my kin receives welfare or food stamps or any of the other varieties of Obama Vote-Buying corruptions.

Means-testing is fine, but ALL welfare and other public assistance programs should be administered at the State or local level. Get the Feds OUT of it altogether so Obozo (and his predecessors, like FDR, LBJ, and WJC) can't buy votes with other people's money anymore.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 5:27PM

Anything anyone gets from the govt. is welfare. If your kin never got anything from the govt-- then they are v. unusual.
I have met libertarians who have never received anything from any govt, local, state, Fed-- but very few libertarians don't have kin or friends who have not been helped at one time by statism.
I'm not annoyed anymore because everyone can see it is a game; govt will never be rolled back because the era of small government is over. "Small' govt ended after 9-11.

Occam's Tool| 10.13.11 @ 1:34PM

Yet, Ben, you support destroying the capital of the successful. You, too, are part of the idiots.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 1:40PM

There are billionaires who get funds from govt.
Now, I'm not gullible, and know as AS (and the entire hard Right) has said many times, it is based on self-interest. However don't scapegoat youths for economic turbulence. Youths may be culpable for bad hair and bad adolescent taste-- but not econ0mics.

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 3:23PM

There SHOULDN'T be any billionaires who get subsidies from the government. That's the point!

And these "youths" are also cuplable for stinking up the place, as evidenced by the enormous, foul smelling mess they leave behind.

BTW, no one is scapegoating these "youths" for economic turbulence. It is the "youths" who are scapegoating business for "econommic turbulence," when the real culprit is government. Wall Street is NOT stealing their money. The government is.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 2:41PM

'course, you don't really think it is ever going to change? it's merely to sell mags and fraternize about?. Books, seminars.
Rightwing Kumbaya.

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 3:25PM

Now I know where I've seen you before. January 20, 1985, on TV. An Apple Computer ad during the Super Bowl. You were one of those dressed up zombies walking over a cliff.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 5:42PM

"There SHOULDN'T be any billionaires who get subsidies from the government. That's the point!"

It isn't what should be, it is what is:
Permanent statism. A fact, not an opinion.
The era of small govt is OVER. You cannot admit it, but you know it: you just do not want to think about it.
Get used to it.

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 6:33PM

YOU get used to it. I will continue to fight it. What choice is there? Leave it alone and "get used to it" and big government will just come on in and take everything you have. This is unacceptable.

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 6:36PM

By the way, it's bad enough that you try (and fail) to ridicule those who oppose statism, but you VOTE for it! And you will vote for it again when you vote for O'bozo in 2012 (as you stated previously that you will do.) Does your analyst know about these "inconsistencies" of yours?

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 2:55PM

Mavis, Anna K.,
irony is, the Right are movers and shakers in the way the KKK-types were decades ago: they exacerbate, leading to the unintended consequences they most wanted to avoid.
The KKK- types helped radicalize blacks (and vice versa) until there was no returning to the status quo ante.
Look at the dislocation the Right is now causing; the outcome will be the anti-conservatism they would have liked to have avoided had they not been so conflicted.They are subconsciously radical conservatives harming what they most want not to harm. They always hurt the one they love!

Curtis Rasmussen| 10.13.11 @ 3:20PM

The KKK was in bed with the Democrat party, so much that it became a fixture of the party and an open and active participant in at least one of their national conventions (1924 Klanbake).

If you want to make comparisons to the KKK, look to the radical left.

You have the conservatism argument backwards. We are currently seeing a backlash against leftist radicalism brought to a head by the incompetent Marxist clown Obama and his henchmen. The people's eyes have been opened.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 5:31PM

Sure, but you will bring about that which you did not intend: all revolutions devour their own childrren, including the Tea Party revolution.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 5:36PM

... what sort of world do you think we live in?
By helping to dissolve the Warsaw Pact, Reagan
helped whelp the multipolar world we live in today. It's not that every problem we solve causes other problems, but the gears of history are in fact lubricated with blood.

We are not experimenters- we are guinea pigs.

1blumutt| 10.16.11 @ 10:10PM

Whoa, Alan Brooks, who from out of what cloud messaged you that there ever was an intent that there be a TEA Party revolution. You're blood sugar unusually low today? I'd suggest an aspirin and a lot of rest....yep, a lot of rest!

Seek| 10.13.11 @ 6:11PM

The KKK was never "Leftist" even by the most remote stretch of the imagination. They were Democrats, yes, but reactionaries and of a very specific regional sort. Glenn Beck History 101 isn't the real thing.

God, I can't stand that Jonah Goldberg maneuver -- retroactively redefine anything one doesn't like as Leftist.

Poppakap| 10.13.11 @ 6:19PM

The KKK is absolutely leftist: they seek to control their environment through government policy. Furthermore, they believe entire groups of people can't take care of themselves so the government has to do it. That is leftism in a nutshell.

Curtis Rasmussen| 10.13.11 @ 11:41PM

Louis Farrakhan
Race huckster Al Sharpton
Race huckster Jesse Jackson
Jeremiah Wright
Grand Wizard Robert Byrd
Eric Holder and his refusal to prosecute the new black panther party for voter intimidation.

All a bunch of Democrat race baiting assholes. All have more in common with the KKK than any conservative. The comparison is valid.

And when do concerns of violence and vandalism percolate to the top? I guarantee you it isn't from any tea party protests.

squalis| 10.14.11 @ 9:43AM

Actually, I think the unintended consequences of the first 2 years of the Obama administration are now coming home to roost. Remember Nov. 2010? The bigger shock wave will come Nov. 2012.

Darin| 10.13.11 @ 6:40AM

The fact of the matter is these protestors do not want to work hard and earn what they get. They want it given to them with no individual responsibility on their part. Compare them to a 3-year-old that wants something and wants it NOW. The entitlement mentality is obvious in young children, and it's equally obvious in those who are supposedly adults. Time to grow up, Peter Pan, and do something with your life.

Appleby| 10.13.11 @ 7:23AM

Their only purpose is Gimmee. They are coming to Canada to bang drums and whine this weekend; fortunately it promises to rain pitchforks and hammer handles which should cut down the crowds, and the police are prepared -- having stood idly by and allowed the Quebec Black Bloc to smash up and loot downtown during the G20 summit, Arresting Criminals R Us is now their motto.

As for me, I have more important things to do. My neice gave birth a month early and her baby is in ICU; my cousin has been told there is no more the doctors can do for her, and cancer may claim her before the new year (she is in her 40s). Somehow I cant find any sympathy for the trust fund babies and their Squat in Squalid Solidarity riff.

Teaghan| 10.13.11 @ 8:31AM

Appleby, I am so sorry for the illness in your family and I hope the new baby can soon go home to it's family. Like you, I have no sympathy for these whiney brats who are too good to do a days work cleaning hotel rooms, or working as a carpenter. Majoring in gay/lesbian studies and the like don't get you much of a job.
I wish it would rain buckets in NYC and turn to 40 degrees to make these people go home. I can't imagine what it is doing to the businesses there and I hope the taxpaying citizens remember this when the next mayoral election comes around.

Stormzeye| 10.13.11 @ 11:32AM

Appleby,
I pray for God to give you peace during this difficult time. Also, you can take heart in knowing that it's raining like crazy in Boston today and tomorrow so the Trust Fund Babies will soon be scurrying back to their mommas' basements.

KyMouse| 10.13.11 @ 7:46AM

I hope Mr. Stein's participation in antiwar demonstrations did not include signs or statements against our troops. Calling them "baby-killers," for example.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 5:48PM

Why didn't Stein join the hardhat anti-anti-war protesters?
Because he was a crypto-Communist
dope smoking draft card burning longhaired nudist who listened to the MC5 on acid.

Skippy| 10.14.11 @ 1:51PM

Forgive Ben.
There is simply no other way to listen to the MC5.

1blumutt| 10.16.11 @ 10:27PM

Hey, Alan, Up the stairs, turn left and there's the door---to the outside. Get some stink off those feathers of yours. Give it a rest, here!

JFGalt| 10.13.11 @ 8:29AM

I think all of you including Mr Stein are missing the point. These protests are gaining traction because people are angry. they are frustrated and they know that they have been hoodwinked. The problem here is that this is probably driven by the professional rable rousers. But their ranks are swelling with people that wonder where the American dream went. I know how I felt when I got laid off and had to dig into my savings. I was lucky that I had savings but then when you get clobbered with some unforseen home or medical expense you can see your savings evaporate quickly. I had to move half way across the country to find work. The company I was with imploded because management was blindly enriching themselves and couldn't forsee bad times ever coming. I'm angry and lucky that after almost a year I was able to get back to work but the damage to my retirement was brutal. A lot of people don't have that option. Instead of people just blindly railing against these protestors you need to look deeper at what its about. They may not even understand it fully themselves. America has been highjacked by MBA's that only knew to increase profits by outsourcing. They only understood shortterm profits which provided outlandish bonuses earned by laying people off. There are many good companies still out there that still believe in taking care of their people while making a good profit like New Balance. There's so much corruption in government and Wall Street and people can see it even though for the most part they do not even grasp the depth of it. It comes down to this if you want to understand what is going on - People are mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore.

JFGalt| 10.13.11 @ 8:31AM

Last point - Be honest and dig deeper into what is really going on here. At some point this will get ugly and for all the wrong reasons.

Me Myself Mom Wife Veteran| 10.14.11 @ 12:47AM

Mr Galt, that is what worries me and many of my friends. If there is going to be violence, that, too, was in the plans. The puppet masters manipulating these protestors might have started something they can't control in the end.

Teaghan| 10.13.11 @ 8:40AM

Galt, I get what you're saying but this was started by the dirty greedy unions, Van Jones and George Soros. This probably wouldn't be happening if it weren't for them . And they are hardly hard up like the ones sleeping on the street. There is too much talk of destroying capitalism and wanting communism. I don't think these young people have a CLUE what living in a communist country is like! How about we send them over to North Korea for a taste of what living in a REAL corrupt and evil society is like. No more Iphones, Ipads, Starbucks etc. These people don't have any effing idea what poor is. Galt, there are jobs out there. They may not be what they got their degree for, but it would put more money in their pockets than they have now. Or maybe they have pleanty of mom and daddies money and this is just for fun.
And one last thing. The corruptions starts at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Move their sleeping bags there.

Nina| 10.13.11 @ 9:40AM

I agree with you. They are not sleeping in boxes or digging in dumpsters to find food. I see many with phones, so much for my sympathy! They complain about the rich, corporate America while Soros is dancing away, laughing! They are protesting at the wrong place if you ask me. Many are young and don't have a clue what marxism is about but it sure sounds good, eh? Like the hippies of the 60's dancing at Woodstock, we can all be happy and have fun with no responsibilities. Boy, if they get their way, are they in for a big surprise!

scotchieguy| 10.13.11 @ 10:26AM

They are all useful idiots--naive fools and brats, who want to tear the entire system down for the acts of a few corrupt and dishonest people both in the private sector and in government. They are rebels without a clue. This is a good column, Mr. Stein. It should be read aloud to all of these protesters. Protesters, be careful what you wish for. You may just get it. Once you lose your liberty, you ain't getting it back. I think Reagan said, "all it takes is one generation for you to lose your freedom. Do not take that freedom for granted. You must be vigilant in keeping it."

idalily| 10.13.11 @ 2:45PM

I think there are two different groups in play here: Group One: the useful idiots. These are the protesters and the people who are with them in spirit, supplying food, cheering them on the nightly news (probably MSNBC), and reliving their glory days of sit-ins, love-ins, the SDS and LSD. Group Two: the angry, frustrated voters and taxpayers who watched their 401k's melt into oblivion, who see lots of corruption on Wall Street, and who know that our stock market, along with everything else in our economy, has gone horribly wrong. This group knows instinctively that you can't sustain years of high value stocks on offer without actually at some point offering something tangible for sale and profitability unless there is corruption going on. This group also knows that the CEO's getting thees huge salaries are being rewarded not for building profitable companies that supply jobs, but for tricking the system through accounting practices that simply move the decimal points around on the balance sheets. This group has people from both parties and many Indies, and though opinions as to WHO exactly is doing the corrupting and manipulating may vary, the anger generates sympathy for the protesters.

1blumutt| 10.16.11 @ 10:32PM

Nina, They are in for a big surprise? Ain't gonna be what you'd call a Sunday picnic for the rest of us, either. Yep, it's going to get uglier. Hold on to the railings!

Franco| 10.13.11 @ 10:08AM

"mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore."

What stupid nonsense. Of course they are going to take it. What are they going to do--erect a guillotine in the city square? Smash windows, threaten lives, organize a tax revolt (in which case the IRS, supported by badges and guns, will confiscate everything and toss you in the slammer)? You should see all the hot-air blog comments from angry, we're-not-going-to-take-it OWS types threatening violence and the equally ridiculous responses from their opposite welcoming the threat of violence by bragging about how "ready" they are and of the guns and extra ammo they have at hand.

Sheap get sheared, and then slaughtered. Let's just have another Civil War and get it over with already.

DC| 10.13.11 @ 12:12PM

Franco: Exactly right. Anyone not preparing for civil war at this point is betraying his family and begging to be slaughtered by the mobs of indigents and parasites, who will be armed and supported by the federal Praetorians. It will be ugly--see, e.g., 1979-81 Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. I don't doubt for a minute that I'll be coordinating my boys' firing patterns against precisely the kinds of swine that currently populate these fetid city parks. This country is so far polarized between producers and parasites at this point, that only a civil war will solve the issue. So, give me another year or so to stock up on the right types of arms/ammo and then let's get on with it.

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 3:04PM

"Franco: Exactly right. Anyone not preparing for civil war at this point is betraying his family and begging to be slaughtered by the mobs of indigents and parasites, who will be armed and supported by the federal Praetorians. It will be ugly--see, e.g., 1979-81 Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. I don't doubt for a minute that I'll be coordinating my boys' firing patterns against precisely the kinds of swine that currently populate these fetid city parks. This country is so far polarized between producers and parasites at this point, that only a civil war will solve the issue. So, give me another year or so to stock up on the right types of arms/ammo and then let's get on with it."

You might be paranoid, but IF it does come to civil war, other nations will interfere-- and you will lose. And your family too. Sure, if outside nations did not interfere, you would win, but this time it is different from 1861- '65. Outsiders could have helped the Confederacy to win; but it would be different in the 21st century if it came to civil war. IF it came- but IMO you are a rightwing paranoid fantasizing about war.

Skippy| 10.14.11 @ 1:58PM

And which nations will interfere this time?
What fetid fungal sewer will send their crack troops here to support the Revolution?
Canada?
France?
Hamas?
Give me a break, Brooks.
You really are on some good drugs, dude.

play nice| 10.13.11 @ 12:11PM

JFG - and all this has never happened before? and will never happen again?

Stefan Stackhouse| 10.13.11 @ 8:42AM

The one thing that they really SHOULD be protesting about - and heck, I might even join them on this - is the crony capitalism and bailouts to the too-well-connected-to-fail cabal. That has made me mad as hell, and it should be making Ben Stein and everyone else mad as hell as well. Unfortunately, these faux-educated loons are too ignorant to realize that this should be their real beef, and too inarticulate to make their point even if they do realize it.

KC| 10.13.11 @ 8:45AM

Do you honestly even think that these folks know about, much less read, American Spectator?

PattyMor| 10.13.11 @ 9:12AM

I disagree that greed is not good. Its self-interest that should drive capitalism. A self-interested person wants to hire people because it helps his business; not because he's altruistic. He wants to make money to grow his business. And, the entrepreneur probably works long, hard hours. Why? Because he loves it. He loves the independence of being his own boss. And in the process, he may become rich.

Now the special pleaders and rent seeking corporations are another story. They seek regulations and/or taxes on the other guy to empower themselves at the expense of their competition. This is not capitalism; but actually corporatism.

JA| 10.13.11 @ 9:55AM

There is a fundamental difference betwixt greed and self interest.
Implicit in "greedy" is that you will do anything - including screwing over others - to line your own pockets, including engaging in illegal activities.
Self interest does not suggest any of the above.

The left has literally taken , re-defined, words to suit their totalitarian, illiberal, repressive goals.
Don't help them out by confusing definitions.

Appleby| 10.13.11 @ 11:37AM

They should be marching against Bernie Ecclestone, then. He makes Scrooge McDuck look like Lenin.

idalily| 10.13.11 @ 2:48PM

Ah but to a liberal, there is no difference. If you are self-interested enough to build a successful business, you MUST be greedy. You're rich? You MUST have stolen it somehow. You're a corporation? You MUST be evil and awful. See how this mindset works?

Alan Brooks| 10.13.11 @ 2:58PM

Dope dealers also want to build successful businesses.
It all depends whose ox is gored.

idalily| 10.13.11 @ 9:33PM

Are you seriously putting forward the contention that a CEO is like a drug dealer? Seriously? If so, make your case. If not, then what IS your point? Or is this, like most of your posts, pointless, derivative drivel?

Bill| 10.13.11 @ 9:27AM

To paraphrase:

Come students and graduates throughout the land,
And don't criticize what you can't understand,
Your government and leaders are beyond your command,
Your old road is rapidly fading.
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand,
For the times, they are a-changing.

idalily| 10.13.11 @ 9:34PM

Amen.

Timothy L. Pennell| 10.13.11 @ 9:43AM

"Don't just whine and beat drums about people and institutions you don't know the first thing about."
Then it say: Dear Demonstrators.
What it SHOULD say is: Dear Obama Administration, and Democrat Party.
Right?

thecrow| 10.13.11 @ 9:47AM

http://michaelfury.wordpress.c.....e-machine/

Conserdude| 10.13.11 @ 9:52AM

The worst examples of "greed" in America are those "Occupy" protesters, who are greedy for someone else's gain and fruits of labor, rather than attempting their own. The fact that such protests manifested themselves nearly three years into the Obama administration is another sign of the spectacular failure of the liberal-statist policies of Barack Obama which were achieved with a Democratic-controlled Congress.

omgurdens| 10.13.11 @ 11:02AM

Taxes on the wealthy are the lowest they have been in history and most of the country thinks they should go back up, this is not greed, it is common sense.

Stormzeye| 10.13.11 @ 11:40AM

omgurdens, your ignorance is showing. The system has been rigged for the last 100 years by the so-called progressives. Most of the country does not pay taxes! That's why they want to see the "rich" taxed even more. Because there are always more tenants than landlords you will always have the majority supporting rent control.

DRed| 10.13.11 @ 12:30PM

"Most of the country does not pay taxes".

I read a lot of dumb things on the internet. But this takes the cake.

Occam's Tool| 10.13.11 @ 1:34PM

Income taxes, DRed.

DRed| 10.13.11 @ 2:03PM

I quoted Stormzeye directly. It was a dumb comment. If by most, you mean 'a majority', than most people in America (who have an income) also pay federal income taxes. The problem with republicans repeatedly whining about 47% of the country not paying income taxes (ignoring, also, that the most significant reason low income earnerse don't pay federal income taxes is the EITC, an idea championed by conservative economists like Milton Friedman and signed into law under President Ford) is that people like Stormzeye don't seem to understand that there are a lot of taxes people pay aside from Federal Income Taxes. Then you wind up with people making idiotic comments like "most american's don't pay taxes". Some might even call it class warfare.

Stormzeye| 10.13.11 @ 7:30PM

You're right. I stand corrected. I should have been more clear and said "income taxes" but I'm sure you got my point. The excise taxes, sales taxes and other such revenue is not what the debate is about and you know it. The progressive nature of the federal income tax benefits the overwhelming majority and unfairly results in the redistribution of the hard earned wealth of the over-taxed minority.

DRed| 10.13.11 @ 8:02PM

When you look at the total taxes paid (federal, state, local) you'll find that the numbers are significantly less progressive. That's why conservatives keep harping solely on federal income tax. That over-taxed minority has managed to get increase their wealth much faster than the rest of us in the last 30 years. If they were suffering under a cripplingly unfair tax burden how would that be possible?

Bruce Berger| 10.13.11 @ 12:02PM

In other words, you want other people to give money to you.

Steve A| 10.13.11 @ 1:56PM

omgurdens, Hey there genius. When these taxes go up, the net effect is that the Fed collects less $$. This is not a theory, it is fact. I suppose you could care less as its all about "feelings."

Well, feelings don't pay the freakin bills my friend & if you want your deadbeat pals to keep getting the dole, you had better let the producers produce.

omgurdens| 10.14.11 @ 2:56PM

You have no evidence to prove your point because it is not true. Virtually every study on the laffer curve and the relationship between taxation and revenue have shown that tax cuts never pay for themselves, and tax increases increase revenue.

Anthony| 10.13.11 @ 10:11AM

Ben is right. (Can you believe I actually said that!!!) The '60s protestors were a disgrace. The Viet Nam protest was nothing more than their attempt to keep their cushy white asses out of the draft and out of the jungles. While I stayed on the sidelines, I will admit my 365 draft number gave me a huge comfort.
The war protestors gave not a whit about the brave men that did serve and died, in a war that made armchair generals out of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Remember Johnson charting bombing runs while sitting on the toilet?
Nor did they care about the carnage that resulted after the Washington pols pulled out and the Camire Rouge murdered over 3 M Cambodians.
No, the war was fought by better men than us, but at what price? Nobody cared, their asses were safe, and that's all that mattered.
The only good that our generation did accomplish was in race relations, as Stein mentioned. We did do some good in raising awareness of the Amercian black experience.
Other than that, the Woodstock generation is and was a bust. Yet they're not done yet, they gave us Obozo and Anthropogenic Global Warming!!!

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 12:16PM

>Yet they're not done yet, they gave us Obozo...

Agree. Before Ovomit the clown was put into office, an excellent article mentioned that he is a relic of the 60's.

scotchieguy| 10.13.11 @ 10:32AM

Why now? What has happened to suddenly cause these people to take to the streets? Why not three years ago? Timing is everything. Is it any coincidence that these protests are coinciding with Obama's dwindling poll numbers?

omgurdens| 10.13.11 @ 11:00AM

It's all a conspiracy!! AHHHDHDDH!!

wodiej| 10.13.11 @ 10:42AM

Good grief, you've got to be kidding me. You danced with the Black Panthers but you think it was ok because you think you had a good reason? When is it ever a good reason to protest w the Black Panthers? We have a system in this country for grievance and crapping in the street isn't one of them.

tsd| 10.13.11 @ 10:54AM

These are the useless fools who are unknowingly/unwillingly working for the greed of others who prosper from tearing our way of life down. Soro's and the liberal acting fools like him who would love to rule the world. Just follow the money on who benefits from this display of stupidity by the useful idiots.

Bill| 10.13.11 @ 11:41AM

At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone who knows more than they do;
Then they take them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
Is wrapped around their shoulders, and then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castle by insurance men who go
Check to see that no one is escaping to Desolation Row.

k962| 10.13.11 @ 10:55AM

I am afraid this will fall on deaf ears! The mob will not only eat the rich, but they will come after everybody else next. If you own a nice home, they will argue that this not just! Other people don't have nice homes why should you? "We want Social Justice" ! The socialist mob will never be satisfied!

Jack| 10.13.11 @ 11:47AM

K962, finally somebody here said this. This the danger, and has been the danger, I've seen this when I was part of a union, and it is scary. My moral compass says, "work hard, and you shall receive". How much? I don't worry about that, I'll think about that when I'm done working. Their moral compass says, "whine and complain that everyone needs to share with me so I don't have to work hard". There is a difference between showing up to work and actually working hard at something!

omgurdens| 10.13.11 @ 11:00AM

Ben Stein, don't just whine and beat drums about people and protests you don't seem to know the first thing about.

Wally| 10.13.11 @ 11:34AM

get a job, get a haircut

Bill| 10.13.11 @ 11:38AM

You walk into the room with a pencil in your hand,
You see somebody naked and you say
-You say, "Who is that man?'
You try so hard but you just don't understand,
Just what you will say when you get home;
And you know something is happening here buy you don't know what it is,
Do you, Mr. Jones?

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 12:25PM

Dude! What color is YOUR drum? I'm going to steal some paint from that capitalistic hobby store over there, and paint my bongos like the flag of Venezuala! KEWL!

Hey dudes, did you check out the kewl BMW's, AMG's, Benz's and Ferrari's in that parking garage? Anyone know how to hot wire one of these bitches?

KEWL! Thump thump thump thump...

WARE MY GUBMINT CHEK???

WARE D FREE FOOD?

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 11:04AM

Mr. Stein calls this essay "A Letter to the Lazy." No doubt they will be too lazy to read it.

Bill| 10.13.11 @ 11:34AM

They're selling postcards of the hanging,
They're painting the passports brown,
The beauty parlor's filled with sailors,
The circus is in town.
Here comes the blind commissioner,
They've got him in a trance,
One hand is tied to the tightrope walker,
The other is in his pants.
And though their eyes are fixed upon
Noah's great rainbow,
They spend their time peeking into
Desolation Row.

Ed| 10.13.11 @ 12:00PM

I read this at americanthinker.com a few days ago...

"Conservatives and Libertarians started the Tea Party, but these OWS people have started the Flea Party."

Maybe TAS readers could take up a collection and donate a couple of cases of Frontline to these clowns.

Bill| 10.13.11 @ 2:14PM

Ann Coulter says they're the Flea Party because they're wingless, bloodsucking parasites.

chester arthur| 10.13.11 @ 12:14PM

The only thing 'grass roots' about the Occupy Wall Street crowd is that grass could take root on them.

Slacker| 10.13.11 @ 12:32PM

NO NO NO!!! Ben is way off. This isn’t some 1960’s redux. The occupiers are not generally harmless, lazy, confused, gullible fools who will eventually grow up. These people have no aims at anything constructive.

The right has been far too dismissive of OWS -making fun of their hypocrisy, bad hygiene, and stupid drums. The left is cheering, proving they are far more stupid than we imagined.

Everybody is dead wrong. The occupiers are extremely dangerous. Don’t underestimate the danger just because they all look like hippie hipster pussies. OWS is bad medicine.

You are sharing a country with people who plan to confiscate your wealth. This is the seeds of a Marxist revolution and you should be terrified. Prepare for a fight.

Bill| 10.13.11 @ 2:16PM

The bottom line on the OWS crowd as revolutionaries is that very, very few of them is anything other than a gun control nut, while many, many of us on the other side are merely gun nuts. So yes, be apprehensive; if they become tomorrow's teachers, they'll be teaching our kids for the next two generations, but don't be TOO scared. As revolutionaries, they're mostly cannon fodder.

Indy| 10.13.11 @ 12:38PM

Does anyone else find the UK press is doing a better job of covering OSW?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-bank.html

Frugalvoter| 10.13.11 @ 12:58PM

Right on !

Joel Harrell| 10.13.11 @ 1:34PM

Well Said!

Steve A| 10.13.11 @ 1:58PM

Hey Ben, Sorry to inform you, but your deadbeat Wall Street crowd would beat those drums twice as loud if they could hear you rant on about how the rich need to pay more of their "fair share." You would be their hero.

Steve A| 10.13.11 @ 2:00PM

It is fools & social do gooders like you that create these mind numbed zombie idiots with their hands out who feel they are entitled to reach in someone elses pocket to subsidize their flavor of the month.

shipley130| 10.13.11 @ 2:20PM

Maybe we should pay for everyone to go to college. At least they teach you (in Political Science) that humans are self interested (or selfish) and that equality is just a pipe dream. I am personally offended by people that claim everyone is equal. I am not equal to Manson for I would never egg people on to murder a pregnant woman, nor am I equal to George Washington, for I don't think I would pay from my private funds to fund a company of soldiers.

idalily| 10.13.11 @ 2:58PM

Uh, no. Have you SEEN what they're teaching in colleges these days?

Big Swede| 10.14.11 @ 2:07PM

Everyone is born equal(morally, not really).

Saustin| 10.13.11 @ 4:13PM

I like Occupy Austin's demands.

http://occupyaustin.org/2011/1.....d-demands/

Ratified by the General Assembly:

This movement is about democracy. We demand that the government be truly responsive to those it represents. We demand an end to the massive corporate influence blocking the voice of the people by eliminating corporate personhood and limiting monetary contributions to political campaigns and lobbying.
This movement is about economic security. We demand effective reforms to prevent banks and financial institutions from causing future economic crises.
This movement is about corporate responsibility. We demand strict repercussions for corporations and institutions who cause serious financial damage to our country and its taxpayers.
This movement is about financial fairness. We demand tax reforms to ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.

Corporate FatCat| 10.13.11 @ 4:39PM

I second that thought. You know, the California Teacher's Union has 30% of its pension portfolio tied up in Exxon. I demand these fellow fat-cats be prosecuted for collecting immoral windfall profits. After-all, corporations are not persons and should not enjoy any rights. We should also demand that property rights for any stockholder be rifted from the books, so Uncle Sam can confiscate them all! Redistribute all equities to the People - time to gut GM. The UAW (who are the majority shareholders) should turn thier shares into student tuition vouchers!!! That's the ticket!!!.... Tell Michael Moore to get off his fat duff, pick up a shovel and dig some trenches!!! There are shovel ready projects galore!!

DaveD| 10.13.11 @ 4:52PM

"This movement is about democracy. We demand that the government be truly responsive to those it represents."

No argument so far. The rest of the statement is uninformed and ignorant twaddle.

"... We demand effective reforms to prevent banks and financial institutions from causing future economic crises."

If banks and financial institutions caused the current problem then maybe you would have a point, however, since our current economic difficulties are mostly the result of governmental interference, you are simply flat out wrong here.

"...We demand strict repercussions for corporations and institutions who cause serious financial damage to our country and its taxpayers."

See above. Our current problems arise form excessive and interfering government.

"We demand tax reforms to ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes."

More ignorant and uninformed ramblings that do not hold up under scrutiny. Do some research. Try to understand, corporations do not pay taxes, they collect them.

However, like you, I too liked Occupy Austin's demands. Gave me a good belly laugh.

Jeff| 10.13.11 @ 6:19PM

I stopped reading at "Greed is a basic part of animal nature." Figures a lawyer would rationalize a low value.

Ironman| 10.13.11 @ 6:50PM

Our thoughts here on Iron Mountain are with Mr. Stein, as we take for granted that the information posted here about his health condition is not a joke combining the incivility, mean-spirit, and bad taste that sometimes -- seldom, fortunately -- finds its way to TAS blog. Get well and get back in form, sir, and bring us more of your reflections.
Still, some of us here must register our dissent from your rather self-indulgent way of recalling the protest years that you mention. In both cases you refer to, civil rights and Vietnam, the demonstrators -- not the activists, voter-registration volunteers, sit-inners, freedom riders, but, I think you mean, the ones who joined the large demos when the real battles were essentially won on the moral and legal fronts, were people seeking cheap ways to feel good about themselves. In the VN case, say what you will about our strategic errors, the protested demonstrated above all an abysmal misunderstanding of the revolutionary war against liberal bourgeois societies that was going on, and they caused us lasting damage by carrying this misunderstanding into our political culture, where it still resides. As to singing for the Black Panthers, while I see the irony in calling it a "bit of a mistake," I can't see the humor with which you want to look back on your, evidently, free and enthusiastic choice of serving as accessories to gangsters and killers who, in addition to their foul deeds, set back the civil rights movement in ways that, as in the war protests, we as a society are still suffering from.
Not meaning to sound moralistic and sanctimonious or anything and I know you are merely trying to give friendly advice to these idiots in downtown Manhattan, but here too your point falls flat. It is not true that the civil rights and VN war protests that you joined were any more specific than these down-with-Wall Street protests. They were exercises in nihilism, and their spirit was expressed by the gang leader who said, If they meet out demands, just come up with some other ones.

Studs Dupa| 10.13.11 @ 7:18PM

Hi Ben,

I see that the lazy bastards have motivated your lazy ass to write an awful article. I did not know you were a low life communist in your youth, and now you are a low life neocon in your old age. You never had a heart nor did you have a head.

Love,

Studs

RON PAUL 2012!!

nohussein| 10.13.11 @ 7:57PM

Paul is a punk.

Studs Dupa| 10.14.11 @ 5:48AM

Hi nohussein,

As long as Paul is not an arrogant baby boomer who forces you to listen to classic rock over and over again, he is great. One thing about many baby boomers they hated the generation that preceded them, and they hate the generation that followed them.

Love,

Studs

RON PAUL 2012!!

nohussein| 10.13.11 @ 7:57PM

The protesting dregs are laying in their own crap now, good.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 10:56PM

>laying in their own crap now...

That's what liberals do. They can't help it. They beat drums about it, whine about it, write maudlin bad songs about it, some even legislate it. Regardless of the outcome, they love to wallow in it, like a muttering psychotic rolling little balls of shit in a padded room.

They have a mental disorder: compulsive idealism with an underlying fixation based in juvenile irrationality.

Studs Dupa| 10.14.11 @ 5:50AM

Crap is food for neocons.

Paevo| 10.14.11 @ 2:16PM

The OWS crowd certainly seem to be feeding off it...

Me Myself Mom Wife Veteran| 10.14.11 @ 1:01AM

Just admit it. Bernadine Dorn and Bill Ayers are occupying the White House as Michelle and Barack Obama. This has been a long time coming. We have to sit back until the grownups take over and put an end to the nonsense of the protests and whatever crap these dreamy eyed radicals have cooked up.

Chris M| 10.14.11 @ 4:36AM

"Now, put your laptop down and go smoke a joint, get some free food, stop by and chant like you are legion, and copulate with your filthy girlfreind."

So Simon Templar this was you in your golden years? I love how you teabaggers practice the decency and respect of the 1950s. Brings back memories of Joe Mcarthy, J. Edgar, and Roy Cohn when he was a twinkly eyed kid. Family Values indeed... wink

Skippy| 10.14.11 @ 2:15PM

We love Joe McCarthy!
A more visionary man of the 1950's would be hard to name.
God bless Tail-gunner Joe!

Paevo| 10.14.11 @ 2:18PM

Joe no-allegation-that-so-and-so-was-as-a-communist-was-ever-disproven McCarthy!

Simon Templar| 10.15.11 @ 7:52PM

No, Chris this is you now and a very accurate description of you and your friends down in the park on Wall Street.

You are assuming I am an old person who remembers the fifties and grew up then. You are wrong. Just what the hell does that have to do with anything, anyway?

Respect is given to people who have earned respect and to people who observe decency. Your generation is most likely unfamilar with this concept given your 'everybody gets a star, all opinions are equal, and truth is relative' public education. You are entitled to nothing. Welcome to the real world.

Pal, you do not know the first thing about family values... the family values you mock and ridicule the rest of the week when you are not out here spewing.

Brings back memories? You do not have a clue what was happening in this country before 1980.
You no nothing more then what you were programmed to know.

Simon Templar| 10.15.11 @ 7:54PM

That is know instead of no.

POST American| 10.14.11 @ 4:47AM

----Sources on the ground confirm, the
entire Wall Street Sit-in is now under the
complete control of ROT-child front man
George Soros.

It's pedictably selling the USURER'S
'fave' fake out solution ----'So--shall--ALL--ism'
and 'Calm--YOU--nism' ----or, better yet,
'Marks-ism'.

And speaking of 'marks' --take a look at
your EUGENIST engineered vaccination
marks on your shoulder ---your wide's
--you child's shoulder.

A fifth person in our little circle has been
diagnosed ---and is now dead, of yet another
exotic cancer. They were NON-smokers,
NON-drinkers, family people who lived in the suburbs.
A mother in fact.

THINK the POLIO shots administered
in childhood, developed by militant
EUGENIST, the infamous Dr Jonas Salk
--and packed with live cancer and leukemia
viruses----entirely on purose. Sleeper viruses that cleave to your RNA and come alive when hormones change.
--IT'S ON RECORD--

"---and David counted the tribes."

--Counted AND, of course, subtracted.

SO, one and all, STOP being afraid to call
out! --while you STILL CAN!

----------HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012---------

Kavnasty| 10.14.11 @ 6:04AM

are you serious?!! the aim of the occupy wall street movement is not about being lazy. it is about economic justice. the parents and grandparents that you allege own these companies are being stolen from. many have lost their houses and retirement funds through wall street's scheming and government collusion. mainstream america has grown much too weary of the board being skewed in favor of the 1% super rich. i have always thought of you as a respectable and intelligent man, but boy was i surprised to see that you had written this article. my suggestion is for you to go the youtube website and open your mind up a little bit. i am guessing from your rhetoric that you have bought the lie of the american dream. it is a hollow and empty promise anymore. maybe one day it was possible, but the corruption and greed that has risen in the last few decades is unfathomable. the rest of the world has dealt with this for far too long. we are seeing it now taking shape here and it disgusts us. the middle class is evaporating. we are not against capitalism, we are against crony capitalism. not saying raise taxes on the rich, restore them to reasonable rates. stop sending jobs overseas. stop taking away our personal liberties. stop wasting money on false flag wars. here a few links for you to check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrFQs5X-I1Y
thanks for your time and i hope you will consider changing your opinion.

Paevo| 10.14.11 @ 2:15PM

"Economic justice" is as nonsensical a term a "social justice." Economics is simply economics, as justice is justice. Why not just say "forced wealth redistribution"?

Simon Templar| 10.15.11 @ 7:37PM

You are the one that needs to start using your brain, pal. First thing I woud suggest to all useful idiots is take few business courses, then you can open your trap about the greed and corruption that you perceive is so rampant.

You will quickly find out that the majority of corporations and business people are law abiding and making small to moderate profit margins and make a hell of a lot less than politicians, celebrities, and sports stars. Your ignorance is enormous and trails your arrogance just short of it.

You are correct regarding corporatism and it collusion with government but you got it backwards. It is big government that drives this corporatism and set the rules, picks the winners and losers, sets the regulations and parameters, and the means by which it can be influenced for a price.

You still do not understand how this housing crisis even originated. That is your problem. Every single issue we face economically and socially has its roots and beginning with government interference in the private markets and private citizen's lives.

Reggie| 10.17.11 @ 12:32AM

You need to really lay it out then for all of us. You're suggesting that EVERY issue we face economically AND socially is due to the government being involved in private markets and lives? Surely you must understand that many people would see this as an incredible oversimplification of the issues. Any issue. It is one thing to argue that the government should have somehow participated LESS in the deregulation of the banking and housing industries. That somehow simply lifting more rules and restrictions would have prevented all of this (of course you realize this flies in the face of what both conservatives and liberals alike are currently painfully aware of, thus it needs explanation rather than smug assurance that your vague reply is arrogantly correct). But to suggest that all of our SOCIAL issues could be boiled down to such a simple syrup is quite courageous. They have nothing to do with a historic tradition of racism or religion, with poverty or education, with rights or with women, with violence or invasion or isolation. Just a pure and simple hands-off government approach should definitely relegate most economic and social issues that we as a nation--let alone other nations having the same "Occupy" protests, from Canada to Germany to the North Africa--face. Bravo, sir. Your confidence is something I aspire to. I await with baited breath to be taught the mysteries of which you speak. I also would thrill with anticipation to know how you validate any image you see on TV about the protests and translate it into concrete knowledge about what you must certainly realize as you type the words out in response to "laura" to be caricatures and completely dated stereotypes at best (union thugs and hippies? au courant!). Teach us your plan!

Simon Templar| 10.17.11 @ 4:34PM

First, I was addressing Kavnasty misguided and ignorant views of the causes of this nation economic troubles as originating with capitalism and the private corporate sector. I was particularly objecting to his idea that wall street was single handedly responsible for the housing crisis, job losses, and losses in retirement.

I was also objecting to his claim that the OWS is not against capitalism and it is made up of people who he claims are not as Ben Stein describes.

When I said, 'every single issue we face' I was refering to the common economic and social ones that most of us are discussing such as job losses to overseas competition, deficits, wars, health insurance, housing crisis, investment losses, the destruction of the black family, continued poverty, failing schools, failing infrastructure, failing social net programs such as social security and medicare, border insecurity, illlegal alien invasion, and such.

All rooted in government actions and inaction. I was not including every single malady that man has ever faced since time began. Yes, the list I just gave you can be fully supported with tons of research as to government being the cause of many of these ills. You need to enlighten and educate yourself. It is not my responsibility to give it to you on a silver platter of bullet points.

That is the trouble with your generation. You even think you are entitled to sit back, know nothing, and have others teach you, tell you, and explain to you what is going down around you.

These other nations are not the United States and the issues they face are unique to them and the forces that are at play within these nations are tied into their own histories, cultures, and political systems.

You still do not grasp how unique America is in this regard and the fact that you live in a free constitutional Republic. Nor do you seem to grasp the forces and the historical realities that are out there in Europe and the rest of the world as vastly different than what we deal with here.

I am afraid pal, that you are the one who has a very simplistic and uniformed view of the world as well as the United States.

Since I am a nice guy I will hold your hand and walk you through one example.
Take the housing issue, for example. It roots begin with Carter and the Clinton's Community Reinvestment Act, Freddie, and Fannie, and the efforts of twenty years of government politics and direct pressure on lending institutions to ease credit restrictions and rules FORCING them to make loans to people who had no business getting them, thus driving housing prices up via increased demand to dizzying overvaluation and supply.

Let us say we will do this to the tune of about three trillion dollars cause we like to buy our votes and keep our constituencies happy cause we care about people unlike those greedy Republicans.

Now, what would you do if you were a banker? Get rid of these risky debt investments..you do know that a mortgage can be sold as an investment instrument? You say to me, who is going to buy this? Well, let us do what all good and logical business people do..let's spread out the risk.

Well, let us bundle them with other good mortages with less risk and sell them as a packaged derivative. Since everything seems to be going well and Barney Franks telling us not to worry and Fannie and Freddie will guaranatee them and take them over if there are any issues..you know that government you love so much...we will sell these bundles and mortgages to them and also to the Wall street investment firms always looking for good deals and new investment opportunities. Ok, great. Besides, not too many people really are paying attention and really realize what is going on here, and hell all I want to do is make my money and move on..it will all work out.
End of story.
Not quite.

Oh crap, the economy is moving towards a typical 8 year cycle of recession and people are being layed off. Mortgages are not being payed, foreclosures are increasing by hundreds of thousands, people are getting worried, cutting back on consumer goods and services to meet household budgets, corporations are losing sales, laying off more workers to retain profit margins for grandpa's retirement investments, leading to more foreclosures, and on and on.

Hey, these derivitatives we bought suck! Let us sell them as soons as possible even if we have to take a loss.

Oops, the cat is out of the bag! Hey, Martha did not our advisor say we had stock in dem financial firms, banks, and companies that bought dem investments? SELL!!!!!! Save what we got...SELL!!!!! Oh my gosh, dem Dow numbers have fallen to 6000. People this is the end!

Big daddy to the rescue! Elect me, I will lower the sea levels! Those damn greedy banks and investment firms, those evil corporations..this is their doing. Order up the bayonets! Unfurl the red flags. What you need is more regulation! Fairness! Stop the greed! More government oversight! This is the damn republicans fault. Bush did this!

( Thank you Wall street for your generous historic contribution to the Obama campaign, your bail outs will soon be in the mail as soon as we get Reggie and all the other useful idiots to put us in power).

Wells Fargo, shut up, and take the bail out money. I do not care if you do not need it, a crisis needs to be taken full advantage of...oh..you were not suppose to hear that!

Does that help, Reggie? As for the rest, I just do not have enough time and space and I am not sure you are worth it. OWS...the pictures tell us a thousand words about who is exactly down there.

laura| 10.15.11 @ 1:51AM

Do I detect a tone of snark and smug in this article? The people on OWS are not Marxists; that is such a weak argument and clearly proves how weak Mr. Stein's research skills are.

laura| 10.15.11 @ 1:51AM

Do I detect a tone of snark and smug in this article? The people on OWS are not Marxists; that is such a weak argument and clearly proves how weak Mr. Stein's research skills are.

Simon Templar| 10.15.11 @ 7:20PM

You are right. The crowd is primarily made up of derelicts, college students who do not know their ass from a hole in the ground, homeless looking for a free meal, marxist trouble makers, old hippies, a few useful idiot celebrities, and a sizable number of union thugs.

Is that better?

Do I detect another useful idiot, laura?

Jen| 10.16.11 @ 10:52AM

I'm not sure I understand this perspective. How do you know that all of those people don't know what they're talking about? Of course some don't. But, for example, at Occupy Detroit when people ask for a moratorium on foreclosure and eviction, odds are they know what problems foreclosure and eviction have caused in Detroit because many experience it. More than that, many ARE working through other channels to solve problems beyond protesting. All you have to do is go to the websites of some of these organizations represent to see how. Actually speaking to some of the demonstrators helps. And whenever they are interviewed, there seem to be many intelligent people who can clearly indicate how problems could be resolved. It seems a mistake to me to understand a lack of unity about one specific, clearly identified topic as laziness. Advocating action is wise, but protest is one form of action.

Steven Leone| 10.16.11 @ 10:59AM

Dear Mr. Stein,

Your right to call our protest unorganized and uneducated is the same right afforded to the detractors of your protests in the 60's. Why were you right then as a protester, and now right again as a detractor? To think that these protests are unguided, with no real backing is absurd. We don't hate corporations as an entity, we hate the fact that they use lobbyists and corruption to sway the vote in their favor. To say that our government isn't highly corrupt by these corporations is nearly idiotic; billions upon billions of dollars are thrown at special interests groups per year to get favorable legislation passed. Jobs are continuously shipped overseas because corporations can save on salary and benefits when someone in the third world who isn't used to money is afforded pennies on the day before they had below nothing. Meanwhile, here in the United States the unemployment rises higher and higher. Major corporations looking to globalize the economy, so all major economic, governmental decisions are made in a board room before being passed down through a lame duck system. To say that your stances of equal housing and bringing the troops home were logical stances versus our concerns about the economy and corruption of our government is absurd. You yourself worked for one of the most corrupt administrations ever, or at least the only one to be called on it's sh*t. You have seen how such corruption can tear a country apart, yet now, when we are starting to stand together, you have a problem. Mr. Stein, I had the utmost respect for you, but now...

Studs Dupa| 10.16.11 @ 5:32PM

I find the attacks of your protests by some on the right similar to the attacks by some on the left on the Tea Party protests. The attackers offer no substance, but attack the participants. I do not agree with the solutions offered by many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, but I agree with the core issues (the economy is horrible and the country is going to hell). Thank You for pointing out the problems affecting our nation.

Simon Templar| 10.18.11 @ 11:54AM

Steve,

This is not what your group at OWS is saying.
We have eyes and ears, pal. Your group lays all the blame on corporations, capitalism and none at the feet of government. You do not have to lecture us about government corruption and crony capitalism. We have been complaining and marching about this for years. You are late to the party.

You are clamoring for more of this big government like useful idiots.

What you want is a good pat on the head and a treat just because you are young and idealistic and think you said something worthwhile and novel. It is not novel and it is relatively useless because you do not have a clue about either complexity or root causes of the ills you just became aware of.

You can not even figure out or admit that you are being used like useful idiots by those in power right now.

Natalie| 10.20.11 @ 3:18PM

Just like the useful idiots that believe that all Americans still have the potential to someday makes their own millions, based on the American Dream and the concepts of an (un-corrupt) free market? Like that's going to happen when the top 1% owns our law making bodies. Why would they share the market, when they can have it all to themselves?
Or maybe just like the useful idiots who vote for a party that protects their rights to have prejudice of people with different moral opinions then their own (all the those 'below the belt' issues that win elections, but never actually come to federal legislative fruition)?
Or maybe just like those useful idiots that buy into fearing ANY regulation? Regulation that would maybe prosecute the obvious and blatant dishonesty that has occurred (and will continue to occur) in the super business sectors?
We are all useful idiots, just with strings attached to different puppet masters. But you are ignorant if you think these people are protesting because they hate successful business. I think Steve is right, and is representing the real complaints of the OWS population. Our law making body is corrupt.
Maybe there is confusion in the OWS goals. Maybe we should think of it like, "Who is to blame in an adulterous affair?"
If the U.S Government is espoused to the American People, then Wall Street is it's controlling Mistress. We can't afford her condo, or her sports car, or her expensive travel, or her country club memberships. They aren't in our budget.
We should agree that neither party is exempt from her temptations. And maybe the OWS and the Tea Party should join forces and go after our cheating Elected Officials. They are the ones accepting the pay-offs, and yes, it is both parties.
The OWS is just trying to expose Wall Street to the public as the Corrupting Force that it is. But the U.S. Government is participating in the affair, and needs to be held accountable.
In the end, we've all been screwed.

Bilwick| 10.16.11 @ 5:08PM

OWS: Woodstock for economic illiterates. (And Darth Soros stormtroopers.)

Michael harding| 10.16.11 @ 7:10PM

Thank you. Your comments wre helpful and insightful. I look forward to more of your analysis of the tough issues. Thank you for offering well reasoned argument instead of invective and insult. I very muchadmire people who would rather find workable creative solutions to those who prefer blind ideology.

Steven S| 10.17.11 @ 12:02AM

I, too, cannot help but thank you for the precise and insightful argument you offer. Your wit makes me feel comforted by the thought that others might feel the same as I do. Clearly these protesters are ignorant fools, and I am relieved to be in the company of like minds such as yourself. Economic illiterates. Haha.

Bilwick1| 10.17.11 @ 5:02PM

You guys are right. I was unfair. I'm sure the fleabaggers could all give you well-reasoned, economically-sound reasons for their hatred of liberty. * Something like "The State is too friendly with Big Business, so what we have to do is increase the power of the State." Or something equallly logical.

*I've never encountered collectivists who could, but I'm tryingtokeep an open mind, just like you two scholars.

P.B.| 10.16.11 @ 9:13PM

Ben Stein really summed it up, "Do something specific and constructive, and if you are willing to work as hard as the people on Wall Street, you might just accomplish something."

The younger generation has been completely spoiled by the excesses of the last 20-30 years. They feel entitelted to a perfect future, but without any real sacrifice. A bystander from the past would probably wonder what would happen if there really was a complete destruction/meltdown of the current financial system...things haven't always been so civilized.

Yes there are issues, they can be fixed...but only if we spend more energy on doing instead of B*tching.

IMO, the most important thing this country can do is reduce military presence worldwide and spend that saved money on education toward Science and Math for kids that will become the next Einstien or Tesla.

Len| 10.16.11 @ 11:59PM

I don't really understand. What makes you think that "people" aren't doing something specific and constructive about these issues? Why would you believe that protesters don't also take issue with their banks and credit card companies? Don't write letters to their legislators, don't take jobs at non-profit companies that work for social change, don't teach the youth about injustice? Address some of the issues that people have raised about the things that you say rather than reiterate them, process complex objections.

Bilwick1| 10.17.11 @ 5:05PM

Len's right. If trying to get your ideological gang in charge of the State so you can force your ideology on those of us who value libertyisn't "doing something," I don't know what is.

Natalie| 10.20.11 @ 2:35PM

I agree with your "be the Change you want to see in World" mentality, and I agree that Gen Y is entitled (their Baby Boomer parents raised them that way). I also agree that focusing on internal National issues and educating our youth in math and science would best benefit our Nation right now.
But the people on Wall Street are not working any harder than any other business sector in the Nation right now. And they are being financially rewarded disproportionately to many other far more valuable sectors in the Nation. Researchers and scientists, educators and what about every hard working American in so many variety of businesses, even the service industries who haven't been getting raises for at least the last 5 years.
Just because those Wall Street employees had the financial backing they needed to procure their Ivy League educations, which then gave them the opportunity to get into that whole joke of a Financial Sector doesn't make them more hard working than the men and women who are physically building those giant glass and metal towers that Wall Street works in.
You're right, it hasn't always been so civilized. These protesters are the first to suggest that we shouldn't remain so complacent and civilized. Just because their physical bodies are at rest while protesting doesn't make them lazy. It makes them relatively peaceful. Would you prefer them to be terrorists.
Were the protesters in Egypt lazy? Our government backed their actions and supported that their government listen to them.
We finally have a group of people that are saying, "Dishonest business practices and taking advantage of the masses (who are not educated in the nuts and bolts of the financial sector) is not OK. It is not OK for the financial sector to buy our elected officials and warp our laws to their best advantage. It's NOT OK."
And the 99% of us in our mortgage crisis and credit card debt, and authentic attempts to keep financially afloat, with what, 10% percent of us unemployed... We haven't enough currency to buy our elected officials loyalty back! Voting is not working. All the fear based propaganda about socialism, all the 'moral issues' distractions that should have nothing to do with government, all the ridiculous suggestions of losing our Amendments, it's ALL just a cover up for "We don't want to change anything that would hurt our wealthiest population, because they hold our purse strings."
How much would it cost to get our Politicians back to voting for the other 99% of our best interest?
I apologize in advance for the tangent. But you seem smart, I don't get how you can agree with Stein? He said that greed was as natural as eating and breathing" That is some creepy sh*t!

Miah| 10.17.11 @ 10:28AM

Bueller? Bueller?

Clete Munson| 10.17.11 @ 10:29AM

The message is simple, Ben. Separate money from government.

Get your money out of our government.

That is all of it.

Clete Munson| 10.17.11 @ 10:30AM

Obtuse.

gene | 10.17.11 @ 10:52AM

Ben,
You know, you sound very much like the former Nixon speechwriter that you are. You are the one who is truly clueless.

George Henry| 10.17.11 @ 10:55AM

Ben Stein is a self-serving schmuck. That is all.

Bob DiPasquale| 10.17.11 @ 11:07AM

All I read was the headline.

David| 10.17.11 @ 11:29AM

Dear Mr Stein,

You are lucky to have work so you don't need to be lazy like the rest of us. None of us have anything against corporations. Like you said they are a very efficient way of organizing production. The problem is not the existence of corporations (we definitely need them), but they have too much power - in fact more power than the people themeselves. What we need to do is take that power and give it back to the people especially to the 99% who have absolutely no power or voice right now.

Is that too difficult for you clever, hard workers to understand?

Simon Templar| 10.18.11 @ 12:23PM

Apparently it is. See, we are blinded by our real world experience and the fact that we have worked, been unemployed, worked again, and pay the taxes that support the likes of you and the other fifty percent who do not pay federal taxes.

Just how do you propose to take power from those corporations back to the people? Oh, through the very same government that plays footsy with these corporations, picks the winners and losers, sets the tax rates, and sets the rules. You want to give them more power, more money to spend, more scope, and more intrusion into the private markets?

You would like a bigger economic disaster than the housing markets? Is that it? Gee, they did a great job handling that with their intrusion on forcing banks to lend to people who should never have been given a loan and reducing their credit standards, therby causing a overvaluation of housing and over supply, millions of foreclosures, trillions of losses in stocks and investments, and nearly a collaspe of the economy.

Is that too difficult for you clever, inexperienced, useful idiots to understand?

Badda Being| 10.17.11 @ 12:39PM

In the past, women were excluded from political discourse because they were too 'frail', and blacks were excluded because they were too 'savage'. Today, 99% are excluded because they are too 'lazy'.

Simon Templar| 10.18.11 @ 12:04PM

You do not represent 99 percent of anything. You damn well do not speak for the 5o percent of this nation that pays all the federal taxes and supports the other fifty who do not with entitlements.

Nothing you have said has not been said before. Sorry but you are not unique nor novel or special or oppressed.

Aaron| 10.19.11 @ 8:51AM

For pure idiocy, Ben Stein's statement, "your parents and grandparents are the owners of those corporations through their retirement investments. Do you want to impoverish your own parents and grandparents?" ranks right up there with his "Economists can't commit rape" statement.

My mother lost 25 percent of her portfolio after the 2008 crash. Sorry, Ben. Looks like Wall Street got to her before the protesters could. If Ben had bothered to investigate the protesters, instead of forming an opinion based purely on petty biases and preconceived notions, he may have learned that what the protesters oppose is not vague notions of greed but specific instances of corporate malfeasance; hedge fund managers who are rewarded for irresponsible behavior, CEOs who run their companies into the ground and walk off with multi-million dollar severance checks. It's not that complicated for anyone who's not a low-IQ , ivory tower conservative douche bag. Remind me again why we're taking intellectual advice from someone best known (and rightly so) for droning "Frye" in a 1980s teen movie?

Natalie| 10.20.11 @ 1:50PM

Dear Mr. Stein, That is the most over-simplified critique I have read, at least during this month. Our parents and grandparents retirement funds have been bled to a fraction of their previous worth because of said greed. Greed is nothing like breathing or eating. Greed is a weakness in the human character. Greed is something that if fed, gives one a high much like a drug would (see documentary 'Inside Job'). Greed is more like a lioness that kills her young and the other lions in her pride to leave more meat for herself. Making money is OK. Being slimy and dishonest in one's business practices, and taking advantage of the hard working American that couldn't afford an IVY league education, that's not OK. Buying our elected officials so that corporate entities actually can make the laws, not OK. Making laws that are unsafe for our environment, and our physical bodies, because it's beneficial to big business is not OK. And as you yourself pointed out, it's every Americans right to stop working or whatever they're doing to protest for about whatever the heck they want. That's another thing that makes America great.

Big Mike| 11.7.11 @ 5:12PM

Mr. Stein. I appreciate your posting. Hard to believe the sheer volume of responses, not to mention some harshness you and others have received.

I don't think that I have never demonstrated for anything. I am into my 25th year of working as an accountant. I own my own corporation which I guess puts me on the 'greed' side of the debate. I wouldn't consider myself rich by any means, but the years of hard work have paid off modestly. In other words, I own most of my home with the bank as my partner!

I have watched the demonstrations in our city centre (Vancouver). It does indeed bother me. There does not seem to be any real substance to the demonstrations other than civil disturbance and disobediance. Given recent riots in our city I am surprised and disappointed that the city allows the demonstration to continue.

Corporate Greed? This is probably a wider generalization than intended. There is certainly a greed issue in our world, but it is not limited to corporations. Everyone falls victim to greed, and thankfully this force is counterbalanced by fear.

Everyone can do their part to reduce the affect of "corporate greed". It is simple: Buy locally. Manufacture locally. You may not believe it, but your spending power is much greater than the power of corporate greed. If you did an inventory list of where anything you own was made, . I would wager that very little was made in the country you live in. Think about it, if you want to do your part in eliminating the effects of corporate greed, spend your hard earned money locally, buy from someone you know who will spend it back into your neighbourhood. If you don't know who owns the company that your are buying from, then you are sending your money away...

Now onto real matters...if they were demonstrating against those darn bike lanes I would be right in there...