Conservative pundit Ben Stein suggested that only government-sanctioned religion could save poor Americans from their own ‘self-sabotage,” reported Right Wing Watch.

‘What will make the genuinely poor stop sabotaging themselves?” the actor and TV host asked Friday in The American Spectator. ‘Maybe, just maybe, if we let God back into the public forum it would help. I have seen spiritual solutions work miracles.”

Stein argued that anyone concerned about wealth inequality was just jealous of billionaires, whom he described as necessary and beneficial to American society.

‘They fund symphonies and ballets and schools for inner city kids,” he argued, while recovering from an illness and listening to Big Band music. ‘They are a bulwark against tyranny because they can afford lawyers to fight overweening government.”

The wealthy are actually good for democracy, Stein argued.

‘We want for there to be a high number of rich people who function as a brake on government just as the nobles did on the crown in long ago England,” he said.

On the other hand, Stein argued, poor people dragged down society with their slovenly habits and appearance.

‘My humble observation is that most long-term poverty is caused by self-sabotage by individuals,” he argued. ‘Drug use. Drunkenness. Having children without a […]