Let me say it again, "No, assholes, you didn't build it by yourself."

[kentuck]

Somewhere, you learned to read. Maybe you even went to a public school? Maybe you learned everything you know from a private education? Maybe your teacher went to a public school?
Even if you are the world's greatest propagandist on the world's largest radio stations, somebody gave you a break somewhere.

Maybe you got a loan from the SBA (Small Business Administration) to start your business? Maybe you bought a truck and hired a driver and a mechanic and paid them the going wage? Maybe they helped you to make enough of a profit to buy ten more trucks and so you hired more drivers and more mechanics?

Maybe you drove on the highways that all Americans helped to build everytime they purchased gasoline? Yes, the wealthy contributed just like everyone else when they bought gasoline. But their share was nowhere near enough to build their own highway or bridges. Their business depends on all of us to keep an infrastructure of water, electricity, roads, and an educated work force.

Maybe you built a pizza business or a computer business? Chances are you did not put the computer together by yourself and you did not bake the pizza by yourself and you did not deliver either of them to a customer.

The right-wing media is in an uproar today over the comments by the President that "you did not build it yourself." How dare he! Well, the President was right, assholes. Even Bill Gates had to borrow the $1000 that he paid someone else who created the computer program that made him a multi-billionaire. Nobody made it on their own. They either got money from Daddy and Mommy or they got help someplace else. Maybe they got grants and loans for their college education?

Let's have this debate. It would be good for America.

[Gregorian]

1. Newton, Leibniz, Archimedes, Socrates...

What else is there to say.

[kentuck]

2. Who taught Socrates how to read??

Who were their teachers? Nobody does it alone.

[Gregorian]

4. We're in this together. I think that's at the heart of what Republicans don't like to admit.

It's the heart of the problem. Greed versus sharing.

The funny thing is, the world works in nonintuitive ways. Legalizing drugs in one of the South American countries has resulted in less crime, less addiction.

Republicans are like that monkey with his hand in the coconut. Just let go!

[kentuck]

5. And this is why they think they should be taxed less on capital gains...

than the average middle class guy on his income. Where do these people get the idea that their money is worth more than the money of any other hard working American?

[MrMickeysMom]

37. Very sound statement...

That's what this is about, when you strip it down, which we should.

[grantcart]

11. Don't forget biological Eve, and I believe that she wasn't Anglo-Saxon, either.

[Pholus]

27. what else to say? Simple: "I will derive!"

"I thought back to Newton and to Leibnitz and to problems just like this...."

And yes, I apologize in advance...

[Gregorian]

32. Haha. I love it. But integration is where it's at.

[Pholus]

38. VERY nice....

People don't appreciate things like this nearly enough!

[nichomachus]

3. Let's not forget the spouse

usually a wife, who took care of the house, the kids, everything else, and helped you out on the side while you ignored her and the kids and worked 20 hours a day.

Remember her? That would be the wife you dumped once you made your first million so you could trade her in for a newer model.

[YoungDemCA]

6. The fact that American society and goverment celebrate and protect private affluence....

...is proof of society and government's role in the many "individual" success stories in the United States.

I know of no single upper or middle class American who has NOT benefited enormously by using PUBLIC services, or who was not molded by society-parents, public school teachers, role models, friends, family, colleagues.No man (or woman) is an island.

Now, notice the people who I left out from being benefited-the poor, along with other members of disenfranchised or oppressed groups, such as the LGBT community or non-white Americans. They don't benefit nearly to the extent of your typical white middle class small business owner who thinks they have "built everything themselves." But even some of them have moved into the middle and upper classes, with a combination of social justice movements and government action.

The point is, the most privileged groups in America are entirely hypocritical when they tell the truly underprivileged that they, the businessmen and "entrepreneurs", got where they are without any help. That betrays their privileged mindset, not to mention their ignorance of just how much help they have gotten.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

7. In America, everyone inherently has access to public education, roads, financial assistence, etc...

You see, any American in a given time period has the same market conditions (demand, technology, and public infrastructure) as everybody else. So what's the diffrence between a sucessful business and a failed business? The difference is the CHOICES made by the business owners... THEY made their businesses possible through their choices using the building blocks of society that were available to everybody.

It's not the toil and fruits of society that make a sucessful business, otherwise we would all be sucessful buisiness owners seing as the benefites of society are avalable to all of us. It is rather the construct and action of entrepreneurs that use the tools society gives us to build more than what was there before. It is the business, in the abstract, that they themselves have managed to create.

If they are lucky then their choices, business, and legacy will outlest them and perhaps be inherited by another to continue.

[YoungDemCA]

8. A lot of it is luck and probability...

How educated your mother is, how much money your father makes, what kind of school you attend, the character of the neighborhood you live in, if you're lucky enough to have white skin, if you are straight or at least in the closet...being male helps, too.

And no, the benefits of society are not available to all of us, otherwise wealth and resources would be more evenly distributed.

[kentuck]

12. "...using the building blocks of society..."

Did these building blocks just appear out of thin air? Who made these "building blocks"? And what type of building blocks are you thinking about??

I would disagree that "any American in a given time period has the same market conditions (demand, technology, and public infrastructure) as everybody else."

A very poor man has less possibility of using the system to create a successful business than does a wealthy person who perhaps has a lot of wealth handed down to him. They are not on a level playing field, no matter how much we would like to think they are.

[chknltl]

9. Agreed! America needs to have this debate.

Two infrastructure examples:

When the fire department comes to my house, there is no need to bring more than a couple of trucks, maybe another for backup. Putting out a full blown fire on a McMansion can take a few more fire trucks. If the McMansion owner has a large corporation, and should that catch fire it might take in more than a few fire departments just to contain the blaze!

We should not pay the same in taxes for what amounts to be unequal protection. He gets much more from the commons than I, he should pay much more for that.

Although my tax dollars go to keeping a navy out there to keep our shipping lanes open, I profit only in what I am able to purchase by doing this. The corporatist importers and exporters profit much much more than I by our tax dollars being spent this way. They should be spending much more of a percentage of what they profit in taxes in order to reap those increased profits.

[MrDiaz]

10. the government

could not provide or do any of these things if not for the tax payers...and china of course. lol

[YoungDemCA]

15. Not sure if serious

"if not for the tax payers and China"...Ummmm

[Patiod]

13. A woman I know posted that BS

And she had been running for our state university's board of trustees.

Yes. Public high school AND state university, and she thinks she did it all herself.

[hughee99]

14. Is there a difference between taking advantage of something that was available to all

like a bridge, road, public school, etc... and getting specific help that others did not (like a government grant or financial backing from one's parents)?

If you want to go to the lowest possible level, no one conceived or gave birth to themselves, so technically no one got anywhere on their own.

[SlimJimmy]

16. +1 I think the President's remarks were ill-advised. When he said:

"You think you were so smart?"

"You think you worked harder than anyone else?"

I believe he alienated a lot of small business owners where it wasn't necessary. All the back tracking and explaining in the world is not going to fix that.

[hughee99]

17. I agree. I think there was probably a much better way to make the same point.

The phrasing he used left it open to selective parsing and a wide range of interpretations.

[kentuck]

19. I think some were probably alienated...

Because it is true. They think they are smarter and work harder and are more deserving.

[SlimJimmy]

25. Not some, many.

[kentuck]

26. Yes, many...

...think they are smarter and work harder and are more deserving.

[SlimJimmy]

28. Do you think everyone is capable of opening and running a small business? Do you think it takes

hard work and an excellent knowledge of the particular business? I mean, 50% of small businesses fail. There must a discriminating factor or factors involved in that failure rate.

[kentuck]

30. A lot of luck is involved...

and being in the right place at the right time. Some people simple do not want to run a business. Not because they are not intelligent enough or knowledgeable about the business, they simply don't have the inclination to be in that line of work. Business owners are not smarter and they do not work harder than everyone else, they have a certain attitude toward wealth and wealth creation that some people just aren't that interested in. It is rather boring, in many instances. Making money, just to make money, does not require any special inspiration or education, it mostly requires a simple attitude.

[SlimJimmy]

31. It reminds me of the old saying:

"The harder I work, the luckier I seem to get." Most of the business owners I know had a combination of smarts, hard work, and luck. They also made the most of opportunities presented to them. Those business owners are generally the ones not in the 50% that fail.

[kentuck]

33. Some work hard and some have hard workers...

But, no doubt, they work hard at getting hard workers.

[SlimJimmy]

34. Two words: Sole Proprietorship.

But that's okay Kentuk, you keep denigrating the small businessperson. I think the President made a huge mistake in doing so, and you seem to be doubling down on that error. Why, I'm not sure. It won't win anyone any votes this November.

[kentuck]

39. How is it denigrating to tell the truth about them?

If they grew their business, chances are they hired someone to help them do the labor. In other words, they didn't do it by themselves. That is the point of the post. If they want to continue to believe they did, someone should continue to point out that we don't have a caste system in this country where we have the Job Creators and we have the Untouchables. They are not smarter and they don't work harder, as a general rule.

[SlimJimmy]

44. That's right they *hired* someone do help them. In other words, they used their own

capital (in most cases) to pay that person. But that's okay, Kentuck, you keep pounding on the small business owners in this country. I'm sure they'll come around to our side in November for it.

[Hydra]

41. 80% who fail

You might want to look at the facts rather than polishing that idol. Opening a business is risky, expensive, and can wash you out if you don't have a backup. I work at a successful small business...or rather, it was, until the Bush era and the economic crisis. Now the owner of 20 years panicks every time payroll comes around.

You can work 24 hours a day and fail when market conditions turn against you. Awesome, isn't it?

[SlimJimmy]

45. Most small businesses fail because the owner did not know enough about the business,

or didn't have enough initial (start up) capital to get them through two full years without a profit. It's what I learned in business school 30 years ago, and it's as true today as it was then.

So, those are the facts. Have a nice day.

SBA says 50% fail during first year

In his book Small Business Management, Michael Ames gives the following reasons for small business failure:

1. Lack of experience

2. Insufficient capital (money)

3. Poor location

4. Poor inventory management

5. Over-investment in fixed assets

6. Poor credit arrangements

7. Personal use of business funds

8. Unexpected growth

Gustav Berle adds two more reasons in The Do It Yourself Business Book:

9. Competition

10. Low sales

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/smallbusiness/a/whybusfail.htm

[savalez]

22. Can you provide a link to his speech where he said those things?

[SlimJimmy]

24. You can't be serious. It's been widely played on nearly every MSN newscast since the speech.

[savalez]

46. A simple link would have sufficed.

Not everyone is pinned to Cable TV news all day. Me, never. I had read about the part taken out of context but at the time could not find the full transcript. Anyway, here it is for anyone interested.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia

[Bigmack]

18. The SBA guarantees $12 Billion in loans to small businesses every year..... nt

[Iggy]

20. One Percenters: PLEASE, please Go Galt on Us

yes, please go off to your swank maisons tucked away in heavily guarded, gated communities.. with
your infinity pools and garages with "car elevators". just please go now.

wait, what's that you say?

WHO will raise and cook your food? who will wipe your spoiled kids' asses? who will skim your infinity
pool? who will mow your lawn, tend your garden? who will take out your trash? who will service your
three Cadillacs? your Volvos? who will unclog your toilet?

your kids? Hah hah hah hahh!!! your kids don't do shit!

you see arseholes, you NEED us wayyyy more than we need you.

so please go far away, alllll by yourselves, and see how long you survive. have Fun!!

[Junkdrawer]

21. Goes to the CORE misconception of pre-Wittgenstein Western thought....

To wit: Individuals have "thoughts" communicated by language.

Wittgenstein: Humans evolved playing language-games. The expression of the thought IS the thought. In the deepest sense, we are social beings.

Deep water:

[drokhole]

23. And the people who mined the precious minerals from other continents (often times at gunpoint)...

...that go into building a business's infrastructure (tech gadgets, offices, warehouses, any and all other assets), and into the machines used to build that infrastructure, and the people who built those machines, or developed the mathematical concepts underlying the mechanics of those machines, or (to use your pizza example) developed those recipes, and those people's network of people who influenced and aided in their lives, etc., etc., etc...

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving..." - Albert Einstein

"If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton

And let's not forget the Earth and the complex network of macro- and micro-organisms that thanklessly provide people with the resources that they so often callously exploit in attaining and accumulating their "wealth" on "their own."

[kemah]

29. Just look at history, the Louisiana Purchase and the Transcontinental Railroad all paid government $

Right now the Midwest would be speaking French if was not for the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition all paid with government money. Plus the Transcontinental Railroad paid with fed money. These projects plus countless more made this country.
Look at Hoover Dam government project, Las Vegas would not exist today with the low electric rates and the water from Lake Meade created by Hoover Dam.

[fascisthunter]

35. heck, they just fund it

[Zax2me]

36. Why are you twisting the Presidents words?

You know you are at odds with his comments, right?
President Obama meant roads and bridges, specifically.
When romney said he meant what you say - the Presidents campaign called him for deceit and changing the meaning of what he said.
Which is what romney did.
So, I guess, what are you defending?
Because we know it is not the Presidents comments as romney - and apparently you - see them.

[kentuck]

42. You are correct that the President was talking about roads and bridges...

But even if he had said what they are saying he said, he would not have to run from the comments. They could be defended. Even their lies can be defeated. Because they are trying to say - no, they are actually saying it- that the President said that "no one built his business by himself", which he did not actually mean but the Repubs have intentionally misconstrued.

You are probably correct also that we should not fight on those grounds but on the grounds of what the President meant to say, however clumsily.

I still say that no one built a successful business without the help of someone else or the community as a whole.

Sometimes, it's just not enough to say "they are lying".

[LuckyLib]

40. We are all connected. Something the Republicans never want to acknowledge.

[Nye Bevan]

43. Jobs and Wozniak, Hewlett and Packard, all drove on highways, I'm sure.

I bet they even drove over bridges on occasion.