My case in point: in 2012 the Koch brothers made 11 billion in profit yet still laid off over 25% of their workers in Green Bay, many middle aged. Now they need to find retraining, find a job, and still support their families. Most ended up losing their homes or at the very least downsizing. What CEO has every lost their home, needed to be retrained, or lost their life savings trying to make ends meet after a business went under or they got fired?
What I heard from Obama is that one man cannot make a successful business without good workers and good workers should be recognized for their contribution to the organization. Currently the climate is that only the CEO is of any importance and should take advantage of their workers any way they can.
Your statement also further reveals how petty and materialistic you are. You worship at the alter of material goods not for some happiness it brings you, but to either keep up with the Joneses or get the Joneses to keep up with you.
I pity you.
But really this conversation is dead..
I suppose there might be some rich people who made their money selling things to the government. And in Obama's mind, the world revolves around the government. Maybe he was thinking of them when he made that ill-advised speech.
Even in those cases, if you trace inheritances and parental wealth back one or two generations there was a person who was responsible for their own success.
The government does not simply select people at random and say, "We have decided to make you rich." I suppose a state lottery does exactly that, but lottery winners are a tiny fraction of rich people.
In order for Obama's, "You didn't build it" claim to be true, is he claiming that the government chooses to make some people rich but not others? For a guy who is generally a good speaker, this was not a well-planned speech.
He made a reference to employees, but the context was government employees such as teachers and government-sponsored infrastructure. I saw the entire speech. Check it out on Youtube.
If government spending was limited to the things that support a growing economy, Obama would have a point. It's great when the government builds a highway and people drive on it. Not so great when they build Murtha's pork airport in the middle of nowhere. Is THIS how government makes people successful?
As for people receiving a fully-paid college education from their parents, that is simply on generation of successful people using their wealth for the next generation. No government involvement there. Zero, zip, nada, zilch.
Which does diddly-squat to show that the descendant got rich on his or her own merits and nothing more. In fact, it hurts — nay, demolishes — that claim.
I have an aunt who married a western Kansas wheat farmer. They worked hard their entire lives - no doubt about it. But they left an estate worth several million dollars (I'm not privy to the details) - and the majority of their money was from federal farm subsidies. They continued to work hard, even when they got subsidies, and made good investments. But if it hadn't been for the subsidies, they would have ended up with basically the farm - not much more.
I use that as an example of how there are advantages not everyone has access to. People need to remember that. I absolutely value hard work. I've worked hard my entire life, as did both of my parents. But hard work and self reliance rarely is enough.
Thank you for the feedback!
Some inherit it
Some Preach for it
Some extort for it
Jessie's net worth - $10 million
Some cheat the system
And some just 'play rich' with your tax dollars
As part of the "community" you have paid the taxes JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE for these things. Your taxes have paid the road workers, etc. for their time AND if your business is successful you will pay more due to higher rates for higher income earners, more gasoline. Heck business class Internet charges more in taxes and FCC fees.
In other words, we all start from GO with an equal opportunity. We ALL use these things, we ALL pay for them. But if you have the drive, will and guts to start a successful business then your success is on you.
You assume successful people are smarter and harder working than less successful people. You further assume that less successful people are envious. All this is nonsense. Success is 50% luck, 25% community, and 25% individual effort. There are plenty of successful lazy idiots, especially those who had to do little to get where they were, like most of our one percenters.
You've bought the line that success is only about hard work and smarts, and reality just isn't like ...
You assume successful people are smarter and harder working than less successful people. You further assume that less successful people are envious. All this is nonsense. Success is 50% luck, 25% community, and 25% individual effort. There are plenty of successful lazy idiots, especially those who had to do little to get where they were, like most of our one percenters.
You've bought the line that success is only about hard work and smarts, and reality just isn't like that. when the system is stacked against upward mobility, as it is increasingly becoming so, it is not envy that gets people mad; rather, it is the false impression of fairness in juxtaposition to the reality of a stacked deck favoring those who already have it all.
Oh, and that bit about "we all start from GO with an equal opportunity" is a nice fantasy but far from reality. My Romney started with much more opportunity than the son of Kentucky coal miner who made good would.
If I decide to set up so much as a lemonade stand on the side of the road, it is mine. You, nor nobody else gets credit for that. I paid the same rate as everyone else. You get no credit for my lemonade stand just as I get no credit for you driving to work or the grocery.
As for lemons, cups, coolers, chairs, there is no "community assistance". I PAY for those items at various items. The people who sell those items are just as dependent on me as I am them. However, that is how trade works. They didn't give me those lemons, I bought them. I needed lemons, they sell them at profit. The market determines the price. Once our transaction is complete we're done. I don't owe them some life debt.
I really do have to thank you though, it has given me a lot of insight into the way you guys think. No wonder you guys are anti-business, you think you're owed something because you pay taxes.
I see the value of community, absolutely. But what Obama and Elizabeth Warren have said is that business people do not participate in community. It is phrased as THEY (business owners) take advantage of the roads, bridges WE (Obama and non-business owners) paid for.
I don't think recognition of shared responsibility is an insult. I think it is an insult for the President of the US to tell the people who pay the most taxes and shoulder more of the "shared responsibility" that they "didn't build that" and that they aren't doing enough.
The Latin's a nice touch. I feel quite foolish trying to explain the same thing to you over and over. Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.