Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Who Built That? Who Built America?

To date, your faithful correspondent has not yet heard of anyone making the most obvious response to President Obama's controversial "You didn't build that" speech. Here then, is that seemingly obvious response.

Mr. President, everyone had everything you cited in your outrageous remarks.

Everyone had access to the courts and could purchase eyeglasses; only one person invented bifocals.

Everyone knew about lightning; only one person invented the lighting rod.

Everyone had access to boats, roads and waterways; only one person invented the first commercially viable steam boat.

Everyone had patent protection; only one person invented interchangeable parts.

Everyone had access to roads, rivers, sickles and scythes; only one person invented the reaper and revolutionized grain production.

Everyone knew about electricity; only one person perfected the electric light, founded the General Electric Company, electrified the world, and almost single-handedly launched the modern era.

Everyone had access to roads, courts, and public schools; only one person invented the Model-T and instituted the first moving assembly line.

Everyone had music and "teachers who helped them along the way;" only one person invented the phonograph. Come to think of it, at age seven, three months after that person entered school, his teachers called him "addled" (or, depending on the source, "retarded"). He didn't have teachers "helping him along!" His mother home schooled him. Think about that Barbara Streisand; a home schooled capitalist made your success possible.

Everyone had access to all that went before them; only two people launched Apple Computer.

Mr. President, America has flourished and led the world in inventions and commerce for over two centuries by celebrating, fostering, and rewarding success. America did not get here by demonizing the successful.

The peers of these American inventors had everything they had, including everything President Obama cited in his controversial "You didn't build that" speech. Yet, only these few created what they did. For the most part their success flowed from hard work--often with a touch of genius tossed in. The same is true of the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs.

Perhaps if President Obama understood what built America, he would recognize that businesses principally spring forth and succeed through the motivated efforts of entrepreneurs, not through underhanded scheming, and "exploiting downtrodden workers." Perhaps if the President understood free market economics, he would have come up with a recovery plan that worked.

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