Herman Cain calls unemployed Americans ‘un-American’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The other day Republican presidential candidate and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain told economic victims, “Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!”

Riiight. Because in a global economy dominated by multi-national corporations and multi-national banks, decisions made by individuals are why there is so much structural unemployment.

They are unemployed because the global economy has failed to create enough good jobs.

Jim Clifton is the chairman and CEO of Gallup. He is the author of The Coming Jobs War (Gallup Press, October 2011). In this post The War for Good Jobs | Quality Digest, Clifton explains:

Of the 7 billion people on Earth, there are 5 billion adults aged 15 and older. Of these 5 billion, 3 billion tell Gallup they work or want to work. Most of these people need a full-time formal job. The problem is that there are currently only 1.2 billion full-time, formal jobs in the world. This is a potentially devastating global shortfall of about 1.8 billion good jobs. It means that global unemployment for those seeking a formal good job with a paycheck and 30+ hours of steady work approaches a staggering 50 percent, with another 10 percent wanting part-time work.

This also means that potential societal stress and instability lies within 1.8 billion people, nearly a quarter of the world’s population.

That's 1.8 billion with a "B", pizza man. These individuals do not control capital or the means of production to create jobs. That would be in the hands of the multi-national corporations and multi-national banks.

Herman Cain had more choice words during a campaign stop in St. Petersburg, Florida. According to the Associated Press, Cain lambasted the protesters as un-American:

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says the Occupy Wall Street protesters are un-American and against capitalism. Speaking to The Associated Press during a book signing event Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Fla., Cain said the protesters shouldn’t rally against Wall Street bankers or brokers because “they’re the ones who create the jobs.”

Lee Fang’s reaction at Think Progress Herman Cain: Wall Street protests are un-American takes apart the piizza man's utter nonsense:

[I]t’s not anti-capitalist to protest an industry that was saved by trillions of taxpayer dollars and returned the favor by fighting against common-sense regulations. Plus, contrary to Cain’s assertion, Wall Street bankers are in the business of making money, not creating jobs. Many private equity firms make billions by buying out companies, laying off employees, and re-selling the company once it begins generating more profit. Other hedge funds and investment banks simply speculate on a number of different aspects of the economy, such as the price of oil.

Some ultra-profitable Wall Street firms have even turned toward cannibalizing their own, laying off brokers and other employees to pad quarterly profits. And considering the fact that risky Wall Street bets plunged the financial system and caused an unemployment crisis, Cain might be a tad out of touch when he suggests that Americans should be thanking Wall Street.

At the end of the day, protesting a corrupt, multi-national corporation is just as American as tossing tea in the harbor.