Posted on 12/10/2016 6:10:55 AM PST by rktman
I’m sure most people remember the snarky condescending remarks President Obama made in 2012: “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. … If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
The gist of his speech is no business owner can take credit for his or her successful enterprise. Instead, we must give credit to the government, which built the roads and bridges and the Internet and other infrastructure that made any success possible.
Obama’s remarks rightfully caused a furor among small-business owners. So capitalism can’t work without extensive government regulations? Businesses can’t succeed without government funding? On what planet?
Why would the president make such a patently absurd claim? I believe the answer could be found in an Erik Rush column: “If business owners owe their success to others [especially the government], then it ostensibly justifies confiscating their wealth.”
Even David Chavern, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in response to Obama’s speech, “Success is apparently a collective effort – but where was that ‘collective’ during the periods of risk-taking and failure? The vast majority of businesses fail. … Every day millions of people put their lives, savings, houses and families on the line and work 20 hours a day just to grab their small slice of the American dream. Where is the collective when all of this is going on? And if the collective is really responsible for success, how come everyone isn’t successful?”
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
For those that prefer their articles with ads:
http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/the-difference-between-capitalism-and-socialism/
I ran my own business for over 35 years. I retired 2 years ago. Its an adjustment but I love it overall.
Kudos to you for having to deal with the ever increasing govt roadblocking. Glad you got out when you did.
Actually it was great. I was a lawyer in Kansas and didn’t have to deal with inventory or a lot of the other stuff. I did have to deal with the whole employment thing but only two employees played the federal gubmit card in all that time.
Like I said in some post yesterday, when I was about 15, (’62) my Dad was stationed in England and my Mom and I took a trip to Germany. We stayed a couple days in Berlin and I had the opportunity to cross over to East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. It was a slap in the face to see what the East was enduring while the West was thriving. Still huge mounds of WW II debris/rubble 17 years after the end of the war. Few shops, few people on the streets, few cars and just a visceral depressing feeling. I was more than happy to pass back over to the West. I have a map I had laminated showing the divided city at that time. Young folks go “Huh?”. They have no clue of what oppression really is. Guarantee they wouldn’t like it.
My brother’s MIL doesn’t get it in the same manner. She waited tables at the same restaurant for 20 years for wages and tips, and when the owners sold the joint and didn’t split their fortune with her she was so disappointed, insisting she worked hard for their success. When I asked her how much of her own money she invested in the business she couldn’t even understand why I asked the question.
Ruh Roh! You admitted to being a lawyer. Nobody will ever believe you again on FR. LOL!
Most businesses are successful in spite of government. Get guvment out of the way and watch a business grow.
Excellent article!SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil . . . For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver - Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
I thought common sense was outlawed.
Milton Friedman pointed out that there can be no political freedom without economic freedom. Under capitalism, you are free to discuss anything. Under socialism, you are free to discuss anything but ending socialism.
Under capitalism, if you don’t like the political situation, you can run for office.
Under socialism, you can run for office, but more likely you are running against your boss, or cronies of your boss. The people you run against control all the media, so you have no way to get your message out, and you might lose your job.
“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.”
This from the poster child of post-turtles.
He thinks because someone placed him in a successful position, every successful person was also “placed” in a position of success.
In the early 80's we took a trip to West Germany and went to Berlin.My wife was tired so I went exploring to a point close to the Bradenberg Gate.There was a small wooden platform there that I climbed to get a better view.You could see the East German guard tower about 75 yards away.While I'm standing there an Army jeep-type vehicle pulls up and out get two British soldiers (this was the "British Sector").One walked over to the wall and the other got onto the platform with me.We greeted each other and then the soldier gets his binoculars out and starts looking right at the East German guard tower and you could clearly see that they were looking at him.He then starts to wave to them and,as he's waving,he says to me "they hate it when we do this".The soldier was clearly loving it.In response to his comment I asked "Do they ever wave back?" to which he replied "Are you kidding? They'd wind up in Siberia".
Classic stuff...a moment I'll never forget just as you'll never forget your excursion.
Easy enough.
Capitalism happens naturally - I have lots of eggs and want milk. You have milk and want eggs. Lets make a deal.
Socialism requires guns and force.
You have eggs, and you have milk - I want a cut of both or else.
The main problem I have with socialism is that the collective trumps the rights of the individual. This means your rights continually get eroded due to the elites in power deciding if your rights are too dangerous and need to be tempered to keep the collective “harmony”.
I believe the opposite is the most beneficial, what is in the best interests of the individual is what is best for the collective. Individual rights, liberty, should trump the will of the collective. Otherwise it can only lead to tyranny.
“If business owners owe their success to others [especially the government], then it ostensibly justifies confiscating their wealth.”
Even if businesses did owe some of their success to the government, everything the government does is funded by, and at the behest of the people, including those that own the businesses. The government cannot claim it is owed anything for using the peoples’ money to perform the services that the people ask it to.
If you hire a financial manager and they decide that, because they are helping you to succeed, with your money, they should be entitled to “confiscate” some of it for themselves, they would go to prison!
Obama only has experience with crony capitalism. He obviously never ran his own business. The government only puts up obstacles to the honest non-crony business. They do that to protect their cronies and to force everyone to work for their cronies.
Some brilliant observations in this article.
I see where the city council in Portland, OR are going to tax CEOs in their city because the CEOs make too much money.
A government of children.
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