Regarding the president’s revealing and devastating “You didn’t build that” comment, Mr. Obama is now saying that he was quoted out of context. He said he didn’t say that business owners didn’t build their businesses, but that they didn’t build the infrastructure, schools, and the opportunities that America provides for entrepreneurs to succeed. Duh.
Mr. Obama seems to be confusing these necessary things–which we all (even businesses) pay for through our taxes–with sufficient things. Government is necessary for business success, but not sufficient. That requires something else.
Here are Mr. Obama’s dismissive comments … in context. You can decide for yourself what he meant.
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.
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.
As for me, it seems obvious that the president, who has never built anything, thinks building a business is no big deal. As someone who is trying to build a small business every day, I can tell him that it is a big deal. He should try it.
