(ThyBlackMan.com) It pains me to write this article. It really does. Being that Herman Cain made such a fine pizza, and pizza happens to be my favorite food I had a crisis of conscience. But alas, my rationalism outweighed my taste buds, and so I have to take a brief moment to put presidential candidate and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO on the hot seat.
In a recent article in the New York Daily News, Herman Cain was quoted saying this in response to the Wallstreet protesters:
“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. It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed,”
Two things trouble me about this comment. The first is that it was made by a Republican candidate front runner. What this indicates to me is that a large 
percentage of individuals from this particular party share or support his ideological views on economics and jobs. Which leads me to my second, and most salient reason for being troubled by this comment. It shows a tremendous ignorance, willful ignorance it seems, about the way our modern economy works. And this from a potential president.
So let’s parse out some of the key components of this statement, which are clearly ideological and not rational, in nature.
A) Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job – Cain
For Herman to suggest that major corporations and banks don’t have culpability in this mess is absolutely wrong. In many cases it was bad fiscal and corporation management (and in some cases outright corruption) that spurred the financial crisis. Bad loan portfolio management, led in large part to the housing bubble, which set off the successive chain of events that lead us to where we are at today. High unemployment rate, low GDP growth, and lack of investor confidence. All of this is occurring while corporations have seen significant growth in profits. According to the website marketwatch.com,
According to the latest data, profits of U.S. corporations are at record levels even as the U.S. economy gasps for air. Profits have been totally divorced from the economic fortunes of the American people.
If you recall, I recently wrote an article that discussed the failure of the trickle down economic effect that so many conservatives use to justify their economic plan. The assumption of trickle down is that as the rich get richer, and corporations acquire more profitability the average citizens in this country will be economically better off. This model has both failed us and exposed the irrationality of Mr. Herman Cain’s position. Remember that far right conservatives have created a modern demagogue of Ronald Reagan who was a strong advocate of trickle down economics. So is Herman Cain acting his party’s hero in asserting that trickle down economics doesn’t work?
If corporations or the wealthy have no impact on the jobs and the condition of the average American, then how exactly can one believe in the trickle down effect which says that as the corporations and wealthy do better it will improve the condition of the average American? So exactly how can Mr. Herman Cain asserts that banks and Wallstreet have no impact on folks “not having a job”? If the trickle down effect theoretical works to improves the condition of the average American when corporations and the wealthy do good, wouldn’t it subsequently harm the condition of Average American’s when it goes bad? It seems like this is simply another area where Mr. Herman Cain’s ideology trumps being a rational and logical individual.
In regard to the unemployed being at fault for not having a job. Remember this, the unemployment rate is a statistic composed of individuals ACTUALLY SEEKING JOBS. It currently sits around 8%. This means that 8% of the potential workforce that would like a job can’t get one. So Herman, how exactly is that THEIR FAULT?
B) It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself – Herman Cain
This may be the most troubling quote, and scary quote yet. I makes an irrational assumption that context, society, and circumstances have no impact at all on the success or failure of an individual in America. This is a common far right position that tries to make individuals believe that all success or failure is based upon the person’s will power alone. This is that old rugged individualism promoted by the When Atlas Shrugged author, Ayn Rand and repackaged under far right ideology.
Remember this friends, the unemployment rate is a statistic composed of individuals ACTUALLY SEEKING JOBS. It currently sits around 8%. This means that 8% of the potential workforce that would like a job can’t get one. So Herman, how exactly is that THEIR FAULT?
If you fail because Bank of America terminates 30,000 jobs, and yours happens to be one of them and as a result you lose your house, car, savings, and credit rating drops to the bottom of hell, Herman, HOW EXACTLY IS THAT THEIR FAULT?
This is the danger of the willfully ignorant ideology of Herman Cain, and many of his Tea Party and far right conservative supporters. They somehow want us to disbelieve what every economic text book, social psychology text book, and sociology text book tells us, that environment, the economy, and context matters. That corporations and individuals who have the ability to tremendously damage the economy, the environment and our American context shouldn’t be accountable. They want us to believe that it is all the individuals who are suffering under this downturn’s fault.
That friends, scares an independent political pragmatist like me. It should scare you…the average American, too.
Staff Writer; Dell Gines
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