You Didn’t Build That
Posted on | August 28, 2012 | 2 Comments
Over and over, those on the Left attempt to paint President Obama’s anti-business remark as being “taken out of context” In light of the GOP Convention’s Tuesday night theme of “We Built That”, it bears a closer look.
So, here is the full comment – and the context just makes it worse.
You have to be an idiot to think that people who are successful didn’t do that themselves; didn’t have something special, didn’t do something extra. If success didn’t come because someone was smarter or worked harder – everyone would be successful. Everyone uses the roads & bridges Obama mentioned, some people who use them just make something better – and so contribute a greater amount to their continued upkeep. Some people create successful businesses that create jobs for other people who use those road & bridges.
John Schnatter didn’t become successful because he had access to roads that no one else in town could use. John Schnatter became successful because he had an idea, and he was willing to sacrifice his beloved Camaro to get the funds to start a pizza delivery business. Papa John’s now has nearly 17,000 employees across the country and, as a publicly traded company, has created wealth for anyone who had the idea of investing in them.
- If it wasn’t something special, everyone who ever grilled a burger would have created McDonald’s.
- If it wasn’t something special, everyone who wanted to find things on the internet would have created Google.
- If it wasn’t something special, everyone who shared silly videos would have created YouTube.
- If it wasn’t something special, everyone who ever swung a hammer would have created MasTec
Successful businesses are started by people who have an idea and the work ethic to manifest it into something concrete.
Did government “make that happen”? No. In fact, in far too many cases, government was the speed bumps, pot holes – and stop sticks – on the entrepreneurs’ road to success.
If government spending on infrastructure was the secret to success; no one would be unemployed or under-employed, no business would ever fail.
If government spending on infrastructure was the secret to success, California would still be a shining example – not a cautionary tale.
If you built a successful business, YOU built a successful business. You deserve to enjoy the fruits of your labor, not be ridiculed or punished.
Sorry for the rambling, I just wanted to get it out
UPDATE (8/29/12): Great quote from Rand Paul’s speech
When I heard the current president say, “you didn’t build that”, I was first insulted, then I was angered, and then I was saddened that anyone in our country, much less the president of the United States, believes that roads create business success and not the other way around.
Anyone who so fundamentally misunderstanding of American greatness is uniquely unqualified to lead this great nation.
UPDATE (9/3/12) : From Kyle Smith’s column in the NY Post
But there was something to it, a lot to it. And far from being taken out of context, the speech, when you reverse the zoom lens from a single phrase to the general theme, becomes even more disturbing. Start with “You didn’t build that” and pull back, and the effect is like the famous scene of the wounded and dying in “Gone with the Wind”: widening your angle draws more and more horror into the frame. “You didn’t build that” is indeed a fair summary of the overarching message.
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2 Responses to “You Didn’t Build That”
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August 30th, 2012 @ 5:05 pm
I couldn’t not comment on this one. This entire strawman argument over the ambiguity of a pronoun is ridiculous.
First of all, “you didn’t build that” could have been phrased “you didn’t build the roads and bridges” (unless you were the one building roads and bridges, of course).
People who create successful businesses generally are special in way or another, and nobody is arguing that they are not. But people don’t live in a vacuum! Would John Schnatter have been as successful if he had started his business in Antarctica? Isn’t it possible to admit that there are factors that accelerate success, and we should strive to identify and maintain programs?
John Schnatter likely succeeded because he was smart and worked hard. However, he also excelled because he has a reliable government, clean water, an educated population, the police, and, yes, roads.
While one could easily argue against specific regulations that may be misplaced or over-enforced, claiming that society offers no support mechanism is blatantly ignoring the truth. I like my clean air, and you being forced to install a catalytic converter is not the evil government overstepping its bounds. Sometimes good things are done for the right reasons.
August 31st, 2012 @ 8:13 pm
You are arguing against a strawman I never introduced.
Though he stated it quite inartfully, I have allowed the corrections & clarifications he has since issued. (Really, for a man who is billed as such a great orator, he sure spends a lot of time explaining how he misspoke) You will note that I even make mention of “roads” in my example. So, you are arguing that I am not attaching the meaning you prefer to his remarks, when I am arguing exactly that meaning.
What I am pointing out is that EVERYONE benefits from the roads & bridges – but not everyone becomes successful. It isn’t the infrastructure that creates success, it is success that supports infrastructure. The larger & more profitable a business becomes, the more they contribute to those roads & bridges, both directly & indirectly.
He says, “I’m always struck by people who think, it must be because I was just so smart. There’re a lot of smart people out there. It must be ’cause I worked harder than everybody else. Let tell you something, there’re a whole bunch a hard workin’ people out there” The clear implication is that being smart & hardworking isn’t what led to your success, yet all the ‘advantages’ he mentions are available to those who never build a business or become successful.
John Schnatter didn’t have greater use of those roads & bridges, he didn’t take more than his fair share of the “fire service” – he had a good idea and the willingness to sacrifice to make it happen.
Obama also said, “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave ya’ some help” Maybe, maybe not. In Schnatter’s case, the help he got was from someone willing to buy his car (so he had the cash he needed) and his father who allowed him to piggyback on *his* successful business. That isn’t the government helping out, that isn’t “the community” sharing in his risk, that is him working the hours and stressing about the bills. And, all along the way, that was him paying his taxes that paid for all that infrastructure that he – and everyone else in town – used. As his business grew, so did the amount he paid back. As his business grew, so did the number of employees and the taxes *they* paid. That is how it is set up.
To say he, or any other person, owes something more to the State (that they haven’t been paying their “fair share”) is insulting to all Americans who have ever dreamed the American dream. When people become wildly successful, most contribute in large & small ways to the community & to the country, bypassing the inefficient bureaucracy in D.C.
Some, as you’ll see in the post I am working on, become successful in America without ANY infrastructure in place, and without ANY investment from the government.
Your point about a catalytic converter is completely misplaced. My dreams of a smaller government are not dreams of no government. But there is a whole lot of daylight between a catalytic converter and telling someone they can’t buy a soda over 16 ounces. There is a big difference between maintaining a police force and telling soup kitchens they can no longer accept prepared food donations because there is no way to track the calorie count & nutritional make-up.