Ben Stein on the unemployed

Ben Stein says that in his experience, the unemployed have unpleasant personalities and poor work habits. There have been a lot of angry responses to this, but personally, I think he's spot-on. The responses discuss the relative high rate of unemployment, but I think that's because in a good economy, even marginal workers can find work. But in a bad one, they're the first to go. That's basically what Stein is saying.

I see this in a microcosm, just with hiring cleaning, lawn and handyman help. You wouldn't believe how many marginal people who just want to collect a paycheck there are, until you hire some yourself. Or how much they overvalue their services. Just today a potential housekeeper bid me $180 for cleaning my house (a Latina with a heavy accent, just so you don't think it was a "lazy white person"). The average price I've paid is $120, to give reference.

You can also see this by reading Craigslist ads for services. Some people spend more time writing what they won't do than writing what they will do. And what they will do is nothing special.

http://www.aolnews.com/article/ben-stein-dissing-the-unemployed-no-way-no-how/19561916

Well. how about companies that go under? The pleasant and the unpleasant lose their jobs.

When my company had a going out of business sale and downsized, I was the only employee who remmained. I don't think I was the most pleasant of the bunch.

I happened to be necessary.

I have a nephew laid off in the Boeing layoff, he is not unpleasant to my knowledge.

Concerning your house--I'd be interested n the hourly rate. Would the Latino lady spend more time on the job and do a more through job?

I am unfamiliar with the hourly rates for houscleaning.

alice wrote:

Well. how about companies that go under? The pleasant and the unpleasant lose their jobs.

The pleasant or skilled quickly find new jobs, though, that was his point. The unpleasant/unskilled need extensions for unemployment benefits.

$20 is the typical hourly rate for my house. This person wanted about $45. And btw, spending more time on the job isn't necessarily a plus. After X amount of hours, it just means you're slow.

In a normal economy, yes. Some industries are really down.

How does a car industry worker find a job? I don't care how pleasant they are.

They retrain for a different job. Government programs for retraining plus a year plus of unemployment benefits will help.

btw -another team (of Latinas) is coming by in an hour to give me a housecleaning bid, let's see if this one is more reasonable.

7/21/2010

I think LC has her head in the sand box
again, people who are out of work are
honest working people who happen to be
caught in a very bad situation , their Co.'s
didn't want them , also they save money
and if they do hire someone new it'll be a
person in their early 20's , so instead of
paying someone say $18- an hour, they'll
pay the new person $10- an hour, they save
$8-an hour . I've read many articles on the
un-employed and many who are in their early
50's to early 60's can't do you understand can't
find a job , first their age is against them
and not many companies are hiring because
they know this economy is headed for a major
disaster, it has been said it'll take another 3 -
5 years to straighten out, so LC come down
off your ivory tower, and hang out with the
middle class and know the horrors their liiving.

Cheers..Joe

True. They will have a lot of competition and age discrimination.
Life is not easy.

You have 5 hours of housework per week?
What takes them so long?
What do they do?

Did the Latino lady propose extra like windows?

Waxing the driveway, cleaning the gutters,etc.,?

I agree that age discrimination is an issue. You and Joe are selectively reading, though, like the guy who wrote the article Stein responds. Many people who are unemployed are unemployed because, frankly, their skills, work ethic, and attitude suck.

I have someone come by every two weeks. Actually, it's usually two people, and they're between 3 and 4 hours. They dust, vacuum, mop, change sheets, the usual. No, no one does windows (that's a whole different service) or outside work. What the hell is driveway waxing?

LC wrote:

I agree that age discrimination is an issue. You and Joe are selectively reading, though, like the guy who wrote the article Stein responds. Many people who are unemployed are unemployed because, frankly, their skills, work ethic, and attitude suck.

I have someone come by every two weeks. Actually, it's usually two people, and they're between 3 and 4 hours. They dust, vacuum, mop, change sheets, the usual. No, no one does windows (that's a whole different service) or outside work. What the hell is driveway waxing?

A joke!

You hire someone to change your beds--how unusual.

Many are unemployed because of no reason.

To paint all unemployed people with the same black brush is unfair.

Who is painting all unemployed people with the same brush?

What's wrong with having someone change the linens? Why is that worse than having them dust or vacuum? And it's not unusual.

7//21/2010

I can see LC has never been un-employed
she knows not what she's missing , there are
millions of people in this country who are in a
desperate way through no fault of their own !
I remember the 1970's when we were in a severe
recession and people couldn't get a job...Evidently
LC's head is screwed on the wrong way, who gives
a dam about your house being cleaned , I guess she's
too much of a goddess to do her own cleaning..So
LC learn more about the real middle class who have
screwed by companies , laid off they and their
families in a desperate situation , it's private sector
who creates jobs not govt. !

Cheers..Joe

7/21/2010

DK..

Where are you ? Your needed
on this..

Cheers..Joe

Ben Stein.

Nothing is wrong with it. I changed every bed in our house when I was nine years old --that was unusual.

LC,

Are you employed?

Ben Stein is not painting all unemployed people with the same brush. Read the link in the OP. He's saying what he has noted in his experience.

Joe- I've been unemployed for short times. So has my husband. I guess it's just coincidence we always found work?

Alice - yes, I'm currently employed.

eta -Well, the cleaning people came and left, they bid me $120 and I provide supplies. I'll take it! They seemed alright, but I've thought that before, just to have garbage work done. Both Latina, one doesn't speak any English and is probably illegal, but I'll take what I can get.

Maybe you were unemployed when the economy was robust.

It seems the point of this thread is that unemployed people are unpleasant and lazy. I do not agree.

Sometimes last hired are first laid off, as a company practice.

LC wrote:

Ben Stein is not painting all unemployed people with the same brush. Read the link in the OP. He's saying what he has noted in his experience.

Joe- I've been unemployed for short times. So has my husband. I guess it's just coincidence we always found work?

Alice - yes, I'm currently employed.

eta -Well, the cleaning people came and left, they bid me $120 and I provide supplies. I'll take it! They seemed alright, but I've thought that before, just to have garbage work done. Both Latina, one doesn't speak any English and is probably illegal, but I'll take what I can get.

Why were you unemployed?

Quote :

Maybe you were unemployed when the economy was robust.

I got my first job during the early 80's recession. There are always segments of the economy that are doing well during a recession.

My other unemployment stints were due to moving. But I typically found work within two months.

Quote :

It seems the point of this thread is that unemployed people are unemployed and lazy.

No, it is Stein's observation that long-term unemployed people are often unpleasant or have a poor work ethic.

http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-onward-toward-an-entitlement-society/19563655

<< Sure, extending unemployment benefits at a time of high and persistent unemployment might make sense. But it should come with a meaningful admonition that there are limits to what government can or should do for people, and our deficit indicates we're running up against such limits. If people don't take more responsibility upon themselves, we're going to see a reprise of the events of the last few years. >>

In a robust economy, he could be right

His article is not timely or helpful now.

There's only one time in the history of the nation when unemployment was so high - the Great Depression. Ask your parents about the lazy, long-term unemployed people of the Great Depression.

Even the segments of employment that normally have positions in recessions are not hiring this time - medical, social services, schools, government.

It's like the perfect storm: college graduates pouring out with no paid internships or entry level jobs taking what once was the place of high school students now the place of the impoverished elderly - fast food alley, Kmart, Target, and Walmart.

Commission only sales jobs are out there still for the young and attractive.

Long term unemployment does lead to a condition called "hopeless." The house goes, the car goes and there's nothing left but $245 a week max (in Florida) if you are at the high end of the wages spectrum, less if you are not.
.
Yes, a few people with savings or a working partner may take advantage of the system; but there are means to cull them out. They are in the annecdotal minority, not majority.

Work search details must be documented. If you take funds and are not "actively seeking work" any monies received can be taken back: it's fraud.

Before I retired, I used a housekeeping service. They did the same tasks LC mentioned, including changing the linens, but they didn't wash them. It was my job to see that they were folded near the bed when they arrived. In some ways, it was like I had to clean the house before the service came.

Now that I'm retired, and have no children (or grown men) to clean up after, I enjoy doing the housework. Maybe because there is no one to complain about except myself.

Ann

I will never enjoy housework and resent that the most about being retired; that I don't have the income or excuse to hire someone.

The wages here for houseworkers is excellent. Some make $200/day for basics. A friend suggested I do that to pull in some extra income. Nope. My children would have to be starving first.

I have an acquaintance who was abanoned in the U.S. as a Canadian citizen with two babies and no money to get back to Canada. She cleaned houses to put food on the table after running a high level job in Canada. She applied her management and business acumen and when we met, she had twenty people working for her and lived a very nice lifestyle with her teenage daughters.