I just found a great job after months of having to search because I didn't have enough experience yet. But, in the interim, I was unemployed for five months. I submitted dozens of applications daily across the nation, manned the phones all daylight hours, and took classes to improve my resume.
So, I was very surprised to learn that the reason I was unemployed wasn't due to the economy, the shortsighted hiring practices of facilities, or just a bad time to have graduated (and had a first job fall through), but because I was lazy, didn't know "how to do a day's work," and had an "unpleasant personality." Well, at least Ben Stein thinks so.

Ben Stein's out-of-touch rant here

If I had my own job writing for a major publication (although Ben's is now smaller after he got fired from a job for telling lies and then shooting off his mouth about it), I might blame it on people in charge of the economy not knowing what the common worker does and what their life is like. This is as true for the CEO of a major hospital group as it is for asleep-at-the-wheel Secretaries of Treasury or State. Knowing Mr. Stein often places his politics ahead of rational thinking (did you see that smear-job movie?), I'm hardly surprised that he's blaming the victim here. And the "exceptions" part doesn't mitigate that he's blaming almost all of the unemployed.

I have a great job now that I love very much, but I'm preparing for the future and expanding my knowledge base and education. I wasn't unemployed because I "lacked prudence and lived in a dream world," and I'm sure new nurses out there are just as hard working and ethical as the rest of us. And I'm counting on being reminded of that if I'm ever thrust into an executive position, become a policy maker, or find myself a boring blowhard with a failed acting career and a horrible sense of reality.


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