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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (20129)	7/20/2012 9:14:24 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	8 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

so it's your contention that what he meant to say was something that makes no sense at all? is that correct? Since you seem to have the inside line on what Obama meant, what do you think he is really trying to get at? Why do you think he said what he said? Was he just trying to remind business owners that we all build on each other's successes? And now that he got that thought across that he's done? Or do you think he is telling business owners that they didn't get there on their own and therefore they aren't really entitled to what they think they have earned? I think that most business owners understand taht they had parents and teachers and mentors along the way. I bet most understand that they have used the infrastructure that they themselves helped to put in place. Remember, the government has no money without taxing the people. Therefore when the government tries to take credit for something, it's not like the government didn't fund it with our money. No, I think Obama was trying to say that what we think we have earned, we don't really have exclusive rights to it because the government helped to facilitate the success. Giving it even more context, notice how he assumes that entrepreneurs only think that smarts and hard work made them successful. As Obama says, there are a lot of hard working smart people out there who don't have their own business. What defines an entrepreneur is their willingness to take the risk (along with the hard work and smarts). There isn't an entrepreneur out there who doesn't understand that it's the fact that they took the risk that separates them from normal hard working smart people. Basically, Obama erected a straw man and knocked it down. But why? It's simple. Look at the text in blue. He wants successful business people to give something back. But he doesn't want them to do it voluntarily in a way that they feel is most beneficial. He wants them to give it back in the form of taxes so that it goes to the things that Obama thinks are important. “There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. I think that Obama said exactly what he meant to say. Not what you think he meant to say. It simply doesn't make sense if interpreted the way you would like to interpret it.