“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


Friday, September 07, 2012

Obama's "you didn't build that" statement exposes his collectivism


You may remember a recent speech by Pres. Obama in which he said this regarding entrepreneurship,

"....somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen."

It was a poorly chosen way of trying to convince wealthy Americans that they owe other Americans for part of what they've achieved. He pointed out specifically that business owners didn't build roads, bridges, and schools. His point was that other people did that and there is an implied contract between the rich who benefit from use of the roads and blue collar workers in society such that, through government, the road builders deserve some of what the business owners earned in profits. 


Allow me to school the President on a thing or two: roads, bridges, and schools take money to build....tax money. The government didn't built those things out of the goodness of its heart, it appropriated tax money from citizens to pay for every penny of construction. And who pays taxes in this country? The rich, that's who. Business owners and entrepreneurs paid a vast majority of all taxes collected that pay for infrastructure.


So Mr. President, people who own businesses DID build roads, bridges, and schools in an almost literal sense. The minimum-wage ditch digger who physically laid the concrete likely bore no federal income tax burden and therefore didn't contribute anything but labor to that project. Labor for which he was compensated already. Nobody owes him anything for his having built that. 


By making that statement, the President showed how little he understands how economies work. His collectivist ideology was transparent. It is profoundly pathetic and disappointing that our own media and at least half of us agree with him. 

1 comment:

Michael said...

Ed, I wish the site had a "Like" button for posts. I have nothing to add except my agreement on this one. I will say that I love to see basic economics show up and make a fool of someone; almost as much as you enjoy seeing wild-predators-turned-pets eat their stupid owners.