Obama’s disgusting public dismissal of enterprise and entrepreneurship--“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that; somebody else made that happen"—has spawned derision. Rich Lowry describes it as a "statist" attack on the "self-made man."
The Obama theory of entrepreneurship is that behind every successful businessman, there is a successful government. Everyone is helpless without the state, the great protector, builder, and innovator. Everything is ultimately a collective enterprise. Individual initiative is only an ingredient in the more important work when 'we do things together.'...
For that most American figure of the self-made man, exemplified most famously by Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, President Obama wants to substitute the figure of the guy who happened to get lucky while not paying his fair share in taxes. What a dreary and pinched view of human endeavor. What a telling insight into his animating philosophy.
The Obama formulation goes something like this: Steve Jobs couldn't get to work every day without roads; he couldn't drive safely on those roads without a well-regulated system of driver's licenses; ergo, the San Jose, Calif., Department of Motor Vehicles practically built Apple.
Yes, of course they did.
And there’s satire, and plenty of it:
[Hat tip Robert Tracinski at RealClearPolitics]
15 comments:
Nice, but Obama wasn't referring to the business themselves, but the infrastructure that supports them, roads, education, etc, etc.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia
Here's the full quote:
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Obama tells a little home truth which nails just how ridiculous libertarians are. No wonder your response is so hysterical.
The point is: Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Bill Gates etc would not have been able to do what they did if they had been born in the slums of Calcutta.
Nice try, chaps.
Now just where the hell do you think the government got the money with which to build the infrastructure?
From printing presses in the West Wing?
Government has no money...only what it steals from the productive private sector....
The internet was built on private sector created wealth and with private sector created resources....
To Bill J, you may be right, Steve Jobs couldn't have achieved what he did if born in the slums of Calcutta. All the more reason to allow a middle class to grow out of those slums, by the same system that allowed the Western middle class to rise from the Industrial Revolution: capitalism. It's capitalism that gives opportunity.
That and state funded schools, universities, hospitals, roads, science (space programme anyone?). Poor old Atlas has so many others giving him a helping hand, that no one notices when he shrugs.
Surprise surprise, Judge/Jol/Hal back again.
TWR, you are correct there. Judge Holden can change her tag name, but her underlying message pattern is the same. This makes her very dumb. Indeed she's really dumb as she works at the Ministry of Women's affairs. Her qualification was in gender studies, which is not real studies at all.
You a dumb girl! Shrieks the libertarian in a well thought out intellectually robust defence of capitalism. Good effort.
That and state funded schools, universities, hospitals, roads, science (space programme anyone?).
All of which are currently funded through private sector profits or debt.
If government didn't do these things do you really think they would disappear? Hardly, all began independent of government and were then taken over.
"That and state funded schools, universities, hospitals, roads, science (space programme anyone?).
Nothing the private sector isn't doing now.
"Obama tells a little home truth which nails just how ridiculous libertarians are. No wonder your response is so hysterical."
Yeah, that really nails it. Perhaps the hysteria is from statist apologists such as Edward/Hal/Judge when they see Obama's anti-American thought processes mapped out for all to read.
"Nothing the private sector isn't doing now."
Um yeah that's my point, thanks. Private sector is piggy-backing off of innovations resulting from government funding. Atlas doesn't even realise he's doing it.
ytherect 37Typical partisan hyperbole over mispoken line. Get over it. The hayseeds may buy it, but not anyone who listened to the speech in whole. Man, you conservatives are bitter.
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