Pizza magnate and GOP candidate Herman Cain slammed the Occupy Wall Street protests on Sunday. During an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer, Cain slammed the Occupy Wall Street protests as “anti-American” and “anti-capitalism.” “I don’t have a lot of patience for people who want to protest the success of somebody else,” Cain said.
Cain defended his use of the terms “anti-American” and “anti-capitalism” to describe the Occupy Wall Street protests: “The free market system and capitalism are the two things that have allowed this nation and this economy to become the biggest in the world.”
The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread throughout other cities in the United States. The Occupy Wall Street protests are a stand against the corporate greed that the protesters believe has taken control of America’s financial system. The protesters also believe that the current political system has had a role in encouraging corporate greed in the financial system.
Cain defended his disgust for the Occupy Wall Street protests by illustrating his upbringing. “My parents, they never played the victim card. My parents never said that we hope the rich people lose something so that we can get something,” Cain said.
Cain suggested that the protesters should direct their energy at a different target. “Go and picket the white house. Demonstrate in front of the white house. The thing that this administration does not get is that the business sector is the engine of economic growth,” Cain argued.
Cain isn’t the only public figure who has been critical of the Occupy Wall Street protests. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed the protests on his weekly radio show. As quoted in Reuters, Bloomberg said that the protesters are trying to “take the jobs away from people working in this city.” Bloomberg added that “their salaries come from the taxes paid by the people they’re trying to vilify.”
