Obama: Business owners don’t grow businesses, everyone else does! Or something…
**Posted by Phineas
Continuing to display the deep economic knowledge of the Democratic Socialist who’s never been outside the ivory towers of academia and government, President Obama last night explained to us bitter-clingers how wealth is created:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)
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.
Remember that, folks. If you built a successful business, you had nothing to do with it. The long hours you put in and the pleasures you deferred were immaterial. It was all the government, so hand over more tax money, you ungrateful, selfish wretch.
Now, I’m not one who says government has no role, or that no taxes are ever justified. Building roads, creating infrastructure, establishing the rule of law and providing access to courts to seek redress — all this plays a role. But Obama’s argument sounds like a statist’s economic version of “Field of Dreams” — if you build it, wealth will come.
Sorry, Barack. It just doesn’t work that way.
Jazz Shaw at Hot Air thinks Obama is channeling Fauxcahontas Elizabeth Warren, who famously said something equally ignorant. But I think Jim Pethokoukis hits the mark:
Beyond the frightening collectivist tinge of the statement, Obama clearly has NO IDEA why economies grow over the long term.
Yep. He’s clueless about how wealth is created, as is most of his cabinet. As I’ve often said, when one becomes a liberal Democrat, it must be a requirement to surrender all knowledge of economics.
This November, let’s elect someone who has a clue.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)