Why is it that Republicans love saying "A poor person never gave a person a job" so much?

[ck4829]

First off, could dispute that whole notion that poor people don't create jobs, they buy goods and services along with everyone else, which creates demand, which needs people to make those goods and services.

Secondly, has a poor person ever closed down your factory? Has a poor person ever taken our country to war? Did a poor person cook the books for Enron?

Third, it's funny that you're supposed to nod along with the notion that poor people don't give jobs, but what happens when you DON'T get a job? Who do Republicans want you to blame? That's right, poor black people, poor single mothers, poor immigrants, etc.

Weird, right?

[exboyfil]

1. In general rich people don't give jobs either

They or their management surrogates hire people that allow them to make more money than they otherwise would without that person. There is nothing giving about it.

[ck4829]

4. LOL, exactly though. Last time I was hired, it was the store manager

And for a job before that, an HR person.

[Soxfan58]

2. They wouldn't say it...

If some idiot didn't believe it.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. It's supply side thinking

The market is the only thing that creates jobs. Demand for goods and services are what cause hiring. Rich people create only as many jobs as their demand for goods and services creates.

[irisblue]

17. I think you're right.

Reagan & the Supply Side Economic policy started that bull pucky

[TexasBushwhacker]

36. And the best way to create demand

is to put more money in the hands of the poor and middle class, because it gies straight back into the economy to buy more goods and services.

[Dulcinea]

48. Even Henry Ford understood that.

He paid his employees enough to afford his cars. And he was far from a liberal.

[TexasBushwhacker]

50. That's what I don't understand about Walmart and Amazon

Half of Walmart's employees are part time, even though 69% would prefer full time and the retail industry as a whole only relies on a third of its employees working part time schedules. Even Walmart's lucky full timers only get 34 hours a week. I just don't understand PROFITABLE companies like Walmart and Amazon cutting employee hours to save on paying them benefits like health insurance. They aren't "job creators". They're "poverty creators". They create employees who have to rely on SNAP, Medicaid, subsidized housing and EITC, all things paid for with TAXPAYER DOLLARS. Corporate welfare at its finest.

While I certainly have issues with the for profit health insurance industry, when the CEO of Aetna found out just how many of their lowest paid workers were getting SNAP and other forms of government assistance, he did something radical. He raised their pay from $12 to $16 an hour, without cutting their hours. He said he thought the raise would pay for itself in worker productivity.

https://www.npr.org/2015/04/30/403257223/health-insurer-aetna-raises-wages-for-lowest-paid-workers-to-16-an-hour

[ismnotwasm]

5. Jesus was poor as fuck.

According to their own holy book, he fed people and gave his life.

[Shaddox]

32. Exactly! My first thought. The fucking hypocrisy.

[lame54]

6. Social worker is a job

[ScratchCat]

7. Its just their silly justification

to convince their constituents that they really should be in favor for a system that allows a very small handful of people to be insanely rich at the expense of the rest of the country. It instills the picture that if we "changed" the way things worked, there would be "no jobs", you know, because after all, "libruls" hate the rich. They want the guy making $15/hr in rural America to paint houses that he would have no job at all if the 200 +/- people that are billionaires can't be billionaires. So basically, its a catch phrase to condition poor, Republican voters to vote against their own self-interests.

[unblock]

8. it is part of their philosophy that moral value is in proportion to wealth.

it is rather calvinist in origin. their philosophy is that god rewards the good with riches on earth.
wealth is evidence of moral virtue.

poor people lacking the wealth to hire others is taken not as a barrier to entry that deprives the poor person of realizing what may be their greatest ability to contribute to society, but rather as evidence that the poor person isn't morally fit to allocate wealth.

conversely, it blows smoke up the butts of the rich, allowing them to (continue to) think they are virtuous and that their wealth is evidence of that virtue.


as others note, for the rich, jobs are necessary evils at best, and much of their time is spent trying to minimize pay and benefits and number of jobs and trying to extract the most "value" out of the jobs they do have. they would not think twice about automating away as many jobs as possible if it would save a couple bucks.

nevertheless, those jobs allow them to claim that their relentlessly, greedy, self-interested pursuit of ever more wealth is a moral good because of the jobs it produces on the way.

[treestar]

9. Exactly. They are trying to exalt the rich.

As if we could not do without the rich. Whereas the rich could not do without the rest of us to spend money on their stuff. Or to work for them. The rich don't give us jobs out of the goodness of their hearts. Only because it will make them more money.

Right wing logic is always full of holes. I guess that is why they like the poorly educated and those who don't think anything through.

[Ohioboy]

41. They like to worship Ayn Rand

and drink her Kool-aid.

[ecstatic]

10. Because they're stupid AF. Millions started with nothing

and used the social safety net to go to school, find a job, then eventually start a business and/or hire at least one person.

[klook]

11. A poor person never forced somebody into early retirement,

or suckered them out of their pension fund, or moved their job overseas.

[UpInArms]

12. The Republican crocks of shit are running over

This (me) poor person .... ran a local newspaper for ten years ... my hubby and I had an annual income (for a family of three) of less than $24k ... we employed many people during that period ...

The greedy old pig party believes a small business in $5 million plus ...

They are just liars ... that is all

[Turbineguy]

13. They are conflicted about the poor.

The poor give them people to look down on, while at the same time being people republicans can be cruel to.

[GoCubsGo]

14. Because there are still enough people around who buy into that bullshit.

Critical thinking is not a skill most of their cult possess.

[Bigredhunk]

15. -

They hate poor people. Poor people are losers. Drumpf said years ago that (paraphrasing) if your family isn't rich after a generation or two you're a loser (i.e. there's no reason for regular people not to get rich eventually).

They know they have nothing to fear b/c poor people aren't a reliable voting block (and if they do turn out to vote, R's will just stop them from voting). Poor people don't have a lobby, they don't have power.

[Paladin]

16. Feeble excuse for their non-stop worship of money. (nt)

[LiberalFighter]

18. They seem to want to get rid of poor people.

The problem with that is in all likelihood if all current poor people were poofed it would result in people filling that vacuum because there would be fewer goods and services. Therefore fewer jobs . With fewer jobs there would be people without jobs.

On the poor person ever gave a person a job bit. "Poor people" do a lot to help keep the economy and the community going. When they give to charity, which many do, they help others to get a job. When they help feed someone, which many do, they help others find a job. If they help provide transportation they help others find a job or keep a job.

All Republicans want to do is take money away from the lower income folks so that the rich can hoard more for themselves without any benefit to society.

[C_U_L8R]

19. It's because the poor are defenseless

And these Republican chickenshits can't help but hurt, disparage, even rob anyone they perceive as weaker than themselves. True assholes.

[dalton99a]

20. .

[gratuitous]

21. Sloganeering substituted for rational argument

It just sounds so good, makes the libtards all triggered and angry, and ends the discussion because it signals to everyone that they're not serious, except to the Very Serious People who control the political discourse in the country.

[ooky]

22. Republicans live on disingenuous talking points that they make up

to spin and deflect their corrupt and selfish agenda. M$M gives them a free pass to get away with it and this is just another example.

[delisen]

23. If poor people don't give jobs & rich people give poor-paying

jobs, what's a person to do? Guess we have to nationalize a bunch of industries.

[haele]

24. Poor people give plenty of others jobs - especially other poor people.

Poor people need services to continue working, to make ends meet, to just get by. They need day care. They need car repair. They need house repairs and basic infrastructure.

They need community to help them and their families survive. Much of that is paid for in cash under the table, in barter, in scavenging and "make due" repairs, but an enterprising person with nothing but a few tools and scavenging ability can easily create a business - a job - supporting poor people's needs at a price point affordable to both them and the entrepreneur. A retired neighbor or housebound mother with little better to do can watch and feed five or six neighborhood kids at a time while their parents work. A part-time retail worker whose collected tools from various pawn shops and thrift stores can set up a weekend car repair business with his or her buddies, maintaining clunkers pretty much at parts cost and beer money - enough that those vehicles can pass DMV inspections.
Ever see those guys hanging out at Hardware stores, looking for day labor under the table? They get hired by poor people who need someone for one day, to help clean up and haul refuse a yard or a garage, or fix some drywall, or to help secure a tarp over a leaky roof until enough money can be saved up to replace plywood, tarpaper, and shingles.

So not only are poor people consumers, it's important to realize that both their needs and their pooled efforts to meet those needs build communities - not "gangs" or "tribes", because the majority of gangsters don't really thrive - they're disposable compared to a few on top.

Most people, once they hit adulthood, don't want to be considered disposable. Most reasonable people want to have a secure, environmentally comfortable home, enough food and clean water available to sustain them, and an opportunity to expand to their creative potential and pursue "happiness".

And that seems to be something that most Calvinazis, Randriods, and other authoritarian type snobs just can't seem to wrap their heads around. Wealth does not equal or confer happiness or dignity. A sense of purpose does.

Wealth just makes it easier for lazy a-holes to get by without getting their hands dirty.

Haele

[richdj25]

25. We all contribute..

towards people gaining and sustaining employment with our tax dollars, including sales taxes, which covers variety of things. State legislators and the like wouldn't get paid otherwise.

[IronLionZion]

26. They want middle class people to blame poor people while rich people get richer

Rich people don't create jobs unless they can profit. They'd love to do the same work with as few workers as possible and claim they're finding efficiencies. That's why they automate as much as they can.

[Mike Nelson]

27. They want...

… to blame poor people for being poor. They didn't work hard enough... they were not smart enough... and so on...

As rich people, they want to be admired, respected and even worshiped.

Oops... I forgot NOT to call them "rich people"! They like to be called the "job creators" now...

[50 Shades Of Blue]

28. Because they are fucking assholes!!!!

[underpants]

29. Idolatry and righteousness of the rich.

The rich should be idolized in their minds because they are your superiors. Why? Because they are still much more righteous than you. They are better people.

This was very prevalent in right wing circles in the mid to late 90’s. You don’t hear it very much anymore but it’s still there.

[dlk]

30. It's Republican Snobbery & Elitism

They truly are all about the money.

[marybourg]

31. Looking for a neutral-appearing reason to

disfavor poor people; they may be fine people, but they don’t create jobs, so . . .

[Thomas Hurt]

33. Conservatives can't stand the thought that someone they think of as their lesser...

is going to get something conservatives don't think they deserve.

IMHO, conservatives like to think of themselves as stand-ins for God.

If God isn't going to make sure their lessers get their moral comeuppance they will have to do it.

[Cracklin Charlie]

34. They have to keep the hate flowing downhill.

The scheme only works as long as their mark hates those that have less than they themselves possess.

It is of utmost importance that the hate NEVER come back up the socioeconomic ladder. That situation could spiral out of control very quickly, and end very badly for them.

[SWBTATTReg]

35. Then I guess that a lot of repugs aren't getting into heaven, eh? Didn't Jesus say that a rich ...

person getting into heaven is like a camel going through the eye of a needle?

[Blue_true]

42. Also, what you do to the lesser among you, so do you to me. nt

[Quixote1818]

37. Here are a number of people once poor who ended up creating a shit load of jobs

https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-who-came-from-nothing-2013-12

[klook]

38. Fascinating read - thanks! (nt)

[modrepub]

39. Because It Allows Them To Rank People

You know, a rich person is more important than a poor person. They can not accept that pesky "all people are created equal" clause in our constitution. And it's not only them, it's most of us. Most of us would be hard pressed to think that someone like Albert Einstein is on the same plane as Mark Chapman but if you truly believe in that clause you have to accept that no one is above someone else in this country.

[Ohioboy]

40. Thank you for posting this. I have wondered the same thing.

I've always thought as you; poor people create demand and therefore jobs.

The rich should know this more than any other group since they design many of their businesses to take advantage of people with little or no money. Lending money is a perfect example. If everyone had enough money they would never need loans. Making loans to people with little money creates income for the rich. In fact the people with the least amount of money pay more interest than those with money.

I would almost take this whole notion one step further and claim it is the middle class and poor people of this country that create the jobs and not the other way around. Without them there would be few customers for the rich to sell their stuff to.

[lostnfound]

43. jobs aren't "given" by employers or owners, they are completed by employees

Employers HIRE employeees for jobs. Employees EARN their wages. This language of “given” is messed up.

[GulfCoast66]

44. Know how you make a poor person a job creator?

Pay them enough of a wage that they are not poor. Then the have money to spend. We are a consumer based economy. Poor folks don’t have them money to consume much.

This is not rocket science.

[The Wizard]

45. The wealthy stay wealthy

by underpaying the poor for their labor.

[Scruffy1]

46. The work would still get done without the rich.

They have merely got control of the process and skim off the top so they can profit from other peoples labor.

[beachbum bob]

47. the mind of republicans like to "blame" those at the bottom for being at the bottom while

protecting those at the top,

We are in the in the final stages of either we take our country back or succumb to a world of chaos. Make no mistake about it. The ELITE have been winning for decades. They have successfully kept the american people warring with each other as they have exploded their wealth and power.

UNLESS we take back out govt and make drastic change to the tax code, to the income tax structure I am afraid the future of kids will be gone.

[In It to Win It]

49. I don't like that argument because...

depending on your definition of poor, poor people are the reason the wealthy are wealthy. It’s majority poor people that buy their goods and services; without poor people their goods and services wouldn’t be produced.

It’s people think believe that argument that help poor people remain poor.

[Kurt V.]

51. partly because some conservatives equate poor people to people of color.

Simple racism

[muntrv]

52. Poor people give Robb Walton, Bud Walton, and all their families jobs.