Business Owners .. What Do You Make of This Sentence?
 

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event in Roanoke, Virginia | The White House

If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. I would like to know who built my business besides myself?

Who is that somebody else?

Look at the who,e quote. The "you didn't build that" refers to the infrastructure that businesses need to succeed:

"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.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.* There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own.* I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service.* That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.*"

More of the Elizabeth Warren logic.

Because you need cholesterol to live, don't complain when we force you to eat a Big Mac every day.

Seriously, one of the purposes of government is to foster business. So don't expect a huge "thank you" for doing what you are supposed to do. But when government crosses the line into blood-sucking parasite, expect some push back.

Also, Obama is king of the false dilemma. Either you are for soul-sucking taxes that rob you of the fruit of your own labor or you are for complete anarchy.

There's some great stuff in that article. This is probably my favorite:

“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.” And the private sector created the phone system that made the Internet happen. Putz.

And "The Internet" is one of the most poorly designed and implemented projects I have ever seen. Sure, packet switching is nice but other than that it's a minefield. Al Gore can have credit for creating it. It's a mess.

Be careful if you read the entire thing. It's just socialist BS.

Letting the Bush tax cuts expire on those making over $250k per year is hardly a "soul sucking" tax. And asking congress to put together long term transportation funding is not too much to ask I don't think.

Of course the telephone companies were government sanctioned monopolies that thrived at a time when the top income tax rate ranged from 70-90%.

A lil history lesson in how this infrastructure development really worked. Most of the roads in the early days of our nation were private. We called them pikes from which we get the term turnpikes. You payed a fee directly to the business owner for the use of the road. It was either that or you made your own trail.

Anyway, back to Obumer. This is his standard rhetoric he spews to show that without infrastructure, paid for by government, most businesses would not have succeeded, therefore, we need to pay back the government.

The misleading notion, of course, is that as a taxpayer, you've already paid your ‘fair share’ of that infrastructure. He also completely ignores the hard work typical of the small business owner, and gives most of the credit to just about everybody (the collective) except the businessman. This is just more marxist class warfare which is standard for this POTUS and a lot of the country is falling for it.

Here's a history lesson, our modern infrastructure of highways was paid for by the government. Even back to the early 20th century most

But what about maintenance and future infrastructure?

Barry, you know I feel that should be local but IF I accepted your response; what abt the approx 50% that do not pay federal income tax? .. With your mindset they shouldn't be able to use any roads the Federal Govt fund, no?

Leftists appeal to feelings more than facts. Obama is a good speaker, so he does it better than most. And the unwashed masses don't know any better.

If I was a business owner paying my employees so little that they pay no Federal income tax, I would be happy for a subsidized way for them to get to work.

I had to read Obama's quote three times just to make sure he really said what i thought he said. This is yet another clear example of Obama's utter lack of understanding of the private sector. I've always said he that he lacks even the most basic understanding of how businesses operate. He basically confirms this with his recent quote. I owned my own business for ten years. I can tell you that the government did absolutely nothing to help me build that business. But they did do a grat job of contributing to it's demise. Obama handed Bank of America billions of dollars to bail them out. Bank of America took that money and then quietly cut off small business owners lines of credit. Thousands of small businesses were basically choked to death. I was one of them.

Even if the intent of Obama's remark was to say that American's work best as a team, his delivery was way off he mark. Keep in mind that was a prepared speech, not an off he cuff remark. The fact that Obama and his speech writers didn't understand that business owners would be deepy offended by this remark goes to show how little understanding Obama has about business.

And when they were long distance cost $3 a minute and you only had a couple carriers that carried the call.

What's happened since deregulation? Many companies offer phone service and long distance is free. Thanks for making my point.

Fire, the wheel, the cotton gin. How did you ever get invented without gubmint involvement.

You claimed that the foundations of the Internet were developed by the private sector. In fact, they were developed by Bell Labs, the R&D arm of AT&T, which AT&T was able to fund due to their cushy monopoly. There are no corporate R&D labs dong the kind of fundamental research that Bell did, which also included inventing the transistor and the laser along.

The sad part is, even if you remove the Collectivism, you still get more Collectivism. Even if you remove the "somebody else paved the way for you, so you owe them" part, what you are left with is a complete removal of the individual spark. He is specifically stating that you aren't successful b/ you are smart or hard working b/ there are lots of people that are smart, and hardworking and they aren't successful. So what explains how you got there????

For arguments sake I give the Bamster the benefit of the doubt, and not infer exploitation as being the answer, Obama feels it's luck … you’re just more lucky. And therefore, YOU OWE those who had everything you had, but just didn't have that luck.

At its core this is an attack on the concept of private property itself. This philosophy at its core is Marx and Engles as they didn't believe in private property ... unless you’re an apparatchik of course. It is hard to blame Obama anyhow and I probably should remove the "WOW" b/ I completely understand where he is coming from and the ideology/theory he was raised on.

And before all that there was Alexander Graham Bell. Tinkering away in his lab without the benefit of government.

And since Vint Cerf cut his teeth at IBM you could argue that the government created Internet was created by a guy that was trained in the private sector.

But Vint Cerf was educated at public primary and secondary schools, and attended UCLA. So maybe IBM hired a guy who was originally trained by the govt. Do you realize how dumb you sound?

Let me add my perspective on this after a little more thought. God created the universe, created and sustains the laws of physics, and causes rain to fall on the just and unjust alike. God only wants 10%.

The government builds and maintains roads and it wants about 50% of GDP.

Do you?

You're arguing that the government is the innovator. The government is what gets things done. The government knows best. Am I wrong?

If Obama feels that "If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen" then everyone that feels trapped in a crappy job or anyone that isn't in life where they want to be just needs to shut the hell up about it. Apparently planning, starting and running your own business is no big deal to Obama (and you're defending that). Go talk to any small business owner. I'm pretty sure they'll disagree.

If someone doesn't like being a ditch digger, go start a business. After all, someone will make it happen for you.

I was countering your assertion that the important bits of the Internet were developed by private industry. They were in fact developed by DARPA and the R&D arm of a massive government-sanctioned monopoly. The point is that every day businesses take advantage of technology, infrastructure, education, and research that are or were backed by government dollars.

BarryG it would be one thing if the government were using our tax dollars for R&D. Instead it is going to the military, entitlement programs, and debt service. I am a big supporter of the military and it provides a lot of value per dollar invested, but it is still overfunded. I am not a big supporter of entitlements or debt service...neither provide much value and both are most certainly overfunded.