You Didn't Build That

By saying “If you've got a business, you didn't build that.”  Obama only announced what we already knew about him.  He is a socialist who believes the government is the source of all prosperity.  The quote was reported in the media for several days.  Only this week Obama and his minions responded.  Their response was that critics were taking his comments out of context, and they may be frighteningly right.  You rarely hear what Obama said immediately prior to the “you didn’t build that” statement.  If you do, the meaning changes.  Here is Obama’s full quote.

"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."

So he appears to be saying that if you own a business, the roads and bridges used by customers to do business with you were built by the government.  Forgetting that these construction projects were paid for by taxpayers, (the business owners and the people ones doing business with them), it seems like a reasonable statement.  But which context did he mean to communicate when he said “If you've got a business, you didn't build that.”   Only Obama knows for sure, but I suppose we should take him at his word and believe he was referring to the roads and bridges.  Assuming that was the context, why would he say it?  The answer to that question may be more disturbing than it appears.

Obama was making a case that corporate profits are made possible by the central government.  He must do so before he confiscates a larger portion of them to “share the wealth”.  In Obama’s mind, raising taxes on the rich is only taking money they owe the government anyway. Sometimes referred to as “socializing profits”, this is the next step in Obama’s plan to socialize America.  At its core, the philosophy believes that nothing is owned by the individual.  Instead, everything is owned by the government for the benefit of the collective - the "village".  “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is a pure Marxist philosophy.  It is also the basis for Obama’s plan to Transform America. If Obama can convince enough people to go along with that logic, he can win the election.  When there are more takers than contributors, the takers will rule.  We may be there already.

Taking Obama’s words in context is far more troubling than believing he made a stupid gaff in front of a supporting crowd.