I've been a little worried about what a second term for President Obama might look like but feel better now that I know that Jerry Springer favors his reelection. I would have totally discounted Springer's opinion because of that raunchy, humiliating, disgusting, show he came up with but now know that I can't hold Springer responsible for it because he didn't really do it. It was some teacher he had or some highway that was built or maybe the government funded internet that resulted in The Jerry Springer Show.
I guess the point that President Obama was trying to make in his claim that, "If you've got a business, you did not build that - somebody else made that happen," is that we all stand on the shoulders of our predecessors. Well, that is true. Henry Ford would have been seriously hampered if the wheel had never been invented, and Ben Franklin's experiments with electricity certainly paved the way for Edison's development of applications for electricity and even for that internet that the government developed.
But the president is absolutely wrong with the "somebody else made that happen" part of his statement because that is exactly what moves us forward, individual people making things happen. Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison and a long string of energetic and creative people involved in development of the internet all invested their time and talents to make things happen, and thousands of others, founders and scientists at Microsoft and Apple and Intel and hundreds of other companies have invested their time and talents and money to make things happen.
And because of all those people, someone now can start an internet business selling hot sauce or tee shirts or some other thing he or she has invented or a book written or a song recorded or a social network. But if such a person starts such a business, we can be sure that person has "made it happen," and can confidently give that person credit for having done so. And, if it turns out to be a bad business or a bad product, like The Jerry Springer Show, we can confidently and comfortably blame the person who made it happen.
Personal responsibility is essential, and, if we all agree to own up to our mistakes when things don't turn out well and just express a little humility when they do, we will be stronger and happier. And, if we choose not to try to make anything happen, to just adopt a philosophy of total dependence, we need to recognize that there are personal consequences to that as well.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
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Infrastucture is needed and used by all of us every day. It is hard to imagine this or any country outside of the Third World not having all of the infrastructure that governments at all levels provide. But....
ReplyDeleteLet's look at the picture from a slightly different perspective.
If Henry Ford and his contemporaries did not invent the automobile, would Mr. Obama and his contemporaries have built the highways anyway with the thought that "If you will build it, they will come"?
It is delusional Mr. Obama's part to try to take government credit for people to be innovative and motivated to improve their own lot and perhaps that of their contemporaries. Many inventions we use were just that. A good idea that was marketed.
Without the freedom of individuals and the markets, very few of the things that we take for granted would have been invented, marketed, and become the stuff of everyday life.
Society moves and governmant follows in a democracy.
If you don't want to be burdened with that responsibility, I'm sure that there is land for sale in Greece that could be occupied immediately.
What has happened to our work ethic?
What has happened to government for, by, and of the people?
Additionally, if those markets didn't work, there would be no wealth of any kind to be taxed and consequently NO government money to build anything.
ReplyDeleteThe creation of wealth from the markets of this society must come before government can do any thing.
O Pioneer. I had no intention on comenting on the above until I read various other allusions and quotes in my locla newspaper OpEd pages.
ReplyDeleteThe statements above indicate as well as the columns and letters that President Obama said
"If you've got a business, you did not build that - somebody else made that happen,"
He said no such thing, so I would hope that if folks are going to use his words against him then listen to his actual statements and not just the quptes that are clipped and editied by the GOP based political ads.
Certainly the reference for the pronoun "that" was extremely unclear. Being a Harvard educated lawyer, the president should have been very clear in what he meant. I thought I had the link to the President's comments in the post, but here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKjPI6no5ng Even if we assume the pronoun "that" referred to bridges and roads and the great American system instead of to a business, I think the statement is both misleading about our system and revealing about the president's mindset.
DeleteI may have had the luxury of seeing most of the speech, and not a snipet that someone put on youtube with a misleading title. The GOP ad is much worse;it is extremely misleading. In my view, It was perfectly clear as to what Obama was talking about. In fact, in the next sentance he alluded to the internet and made point the same point that you didn't build that either.
ReplyDeleteOnly a politically biased mind, in my opinion, comes away with this negative view of the Presidents mindset, and many are guilty on the other side of doing the same thing to the Governor. "I love to fire people"
Most folks who are sucessful have had help along the way. President Bush received enormous help from his Dad's friends with his oil compoany and his major league ownership. Governor Romney's son was helped when his Dad gave him 10 million to start his business. One of my close friends received a small business loan a long time ago and his sons are running his very sucessful concrete business. I could go on with examples.
In the same speech, President Obama praised the ingenuity and hard work of the small business creator. I didn't see that on youtube.
As an aside, when Governor Romney went to Utah to save the Olympics, he gave a spech to all the athletes, and he told them that "they didn't get there (to the Olympics)on their own" He talked about the coaches, mentors, and parents. He may have forgotten to mention the huge amount of money that came to him and the USOC from the Federal government that helped him save the Olympics but that's OK. What was his mindset?
I have my own biases as well but I am not an idealogue - I did not vote for President Obama in the last election, and I have voted numerous times in both national and local political races for candidates from both parties.
I know many people, like me, who received National Defense loans that assited me immeasurabley in getting a college eduacation. My parents didn't have much money and I was'nt brilliant enough to get a scholarship. My first home was purchased with an FHA insured loan. When a business is wiped out in a natural disaster, there are public and private instituions that help. This is not our "system" ??!! OK, if that's your view, but I disagree.
I suppose my main point is that the system depends on business first to generate the wealth and incomes that can be taxed to generate funds for the needs of government. The only other source of wealth for government is natural resources owned by the government. Saudi Arabia gets all government funding from natural resources. The USA gets it from profitable private enterprise. The dollars earned by such enterprises and their employees can either be reinvested in businesses or used, hopefully wisely and for the common good by government, but not for both. It is just an issue of getting that ratio right.
DeleteI thought your point was that Presaident Obama is misguided in his undersatnding of Americanism, so I misread you. As an MIT graduate, I would have thought that you would have been clearer in your use of words (jab Jab).
ReplyDeleteYou're right, we need to get the ratio right but we really aren't that out of balance. Fifty years ago, income taxes on the wealthy were over double of what they are today; now a small increase back to what was to be an expired rate is a national catastrophe according to some. Even the $300,000 earner would keep the tax cut on the first 250,000. Many of our largests corporations through a variety of tax breaks pay virtually no taxes at all. Many of our zillionaire hedge fund managers torture income into capital gain and pay half of what I pay.
I think the Washington politicians know that the source of funds for the government come from various taxes. I think that the point that the President was making is that those tax dollars from the community of taxpayers is used in many ways to help individuals in this country - both the needy (food, housing,etc) and the successful businessman (research, roads, infrastructure, small business loans, data banks, etc)
Keep up the excellent work; I may not agree with everything I read but then it gaives me an avenue to vent as well...........Thanks
Thanks, Andy. I enjoy your challenges as well. However, the "ratio" I was talking about getting right has nothing to do with various tax rates or even with total taxes but rather with the portion of our GDP spent by government compared to the portion available for private investment or spending on consumer goods. Our taxes, actually, are not burdensome at all, but the spending of government, much higher than tax revenue but which will have to eventually be covered by taxes, is, in my opinion way out of line.
DeleteAn interesting tax tidbit from the Bartlett book is that in 1935 the top marginal rate was 79% but that only one person in America, John D. Rockefeller, paid at that rate on any of his income. So, while we have had high marginal rates on high incomes in the past, it takes a good bit of study and analysis to find out how much tax was actually paid at such rates since many found some way to avoid such punitive taxes.
We are in complete agreement but I couldn't let this opportunity pass without mentioning that although this spening imbalance and shortage of revenue was significatly aggravated by the Bush tax cuts not causing revenues to increase as promised, a humongous unfunded drug progam as part of Medicare, and wars that were embarked on without funding.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I liked and felt I understood President Bush and believed he was faithful to the office of the President, careful exploration of my blog postings will reveal that I believe the drug bill, No Child Left Behind, and failure to fully fund the wars were serious mistakes. I read and enjoyed his autobiography in which he explained his positions. Still think he was wrong but still like him.
DeleteI liked him too but a lot more after he was out of office.
ReplyDelete