Monday, July 16, 2012

Obama's Messed Up View of Private Enterprise

Obama recently made these stunning statements at a campaign event in Roanoke, VA:

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.

While I do understand the "no man is an island" argument as no business grew up in a vacuum, it's usually built upon the ideas of predecessors, I really don't understand him stating that business owners actually didn't build their own businesses.  Then who did?  Without the entrepreneur there would be no business.  The great teacher could go on teaching for 100 years but if that entrepreneur didn't decide to take that risk, and building a business is risky, there just simply wouldn't be one.  Maybe someone needs to use a basketball analogy so Obama actually gets how ludicrous his argument is.  If someone passes you the ball and assists you in scoring a basket, does that mean you didn't actually score the basket?  There are really a few things that one can conclude from this idiotic statement from our supposedly brilliant President:

1.  He has absolutely ZERO clue how the private sector actually works, not surprising given he has almost zero experience in creating his own business.  Yes there are a lot of smart, hardworking people out there, but what separates entrepreneurs from the rest is their willingness to take great personal risk to start their business.  If they fail, there is a chance they and their families will be out in the streets.  Is there the same kind of risk for someone who is a corporate lawyer for IBM?  Of course there is some risk but it is not anywhere near the same magnitude.  Also, if you work hard or not-so-hard in corporate world, chances are your contributions will be relatively minor to the success of the business.  Your pay might be slightly higher or lower but at the end of the day, you know you are making about x amount of money with benefits etc.  If you own your own business and you decide to slack off, you will feel a tremendous difference in how much money you bring home.  That is why many business owners don't have the luxury of taking vacations.

2.  He believes the world is like Chicago, full of shady dealings and corruption.  Remember Obama's involvement with that corrupt (and now jailed) businessman Tony Rezko and how he pushed public funds in his direction?  Rezko would often use his political connections to get ahead, in effect, often having "other people" create his businesses for him.  But unlike a real entrepreneur, he was able to fix the outcome from the beginning with little actual business risk on his part.  Note that Obama's law firm helped Rezko get $43 million in government contracts.  That is not exactly creating something from nothing like say a Bill Gates or a Jeff Bezos did.

3.  He really is a Marxist.  How else do you explain his argument which boils down to "to the society everything, to the individual nothing".  Also note his recent views that tax cuts are a form of spending (the government seems to be doing you a favor by not taking more).

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