If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen

You guys are kidding right?  Here's the full text (below).  You (and the Times) pick out one sentence out of context.  Nice try.

President Barack Obama addressed supporters in Roanoke, Virginia on Friday afternoon and took a shot at the business community. President Obama dismissed any credit business owners give themselves for their success:

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.  (Applause.)

     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.

     The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.  There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own.  I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service.  That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

I didn't pull anything out of context.  I linked to the same text you posted.

He is clearly trying to state (and he believes this in his heart) that without the government that you cannot make it on your own.

Roads/Fire Service / Police/Education and on and on and on...

I pay taxes, I paid for those roads (as do you).  The gov't did not buy them.  We did.  The gov't has NO MONEY except what we provide to them.

Even his comment about the Internet is tenuous at best.  There was a ton of private sector industry that went into the early days of the internet.

It's called a headline.  You take a dramatic sentence and use it to catch attention.  I linked to the entire article and the Times posted the supporting text of the speech.  But let's analyze that sentence...

If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen

"You didn't build that" 

Maybe if he had said "You didn't build that ALONE" I might not have as big of an issue.  But he did not.

"Somebody else made that happen"

Who is this somebody else?  What did they do to "make it happen"?  Someone built a road that I used (and paid for with my taxes).  So THEY made my business successful?  Again he did not say someone else "helped" make that happen.

It's the same speech that Elizabeth Warren gave last year.  And it's complete BS.

It takes a village to build a business.

So then please explain it for us. I read the article Tri posted and it was not taken out of context. The sentence I highlighted sums it up perhaps. Small business owners succeeded because of their own initiative.... but they would not be successful without the infrastructure in place. So now for some reason small business owners owe... who?

This really irks me too. This President and his supporters, down to the whole "Occupy" movement somehow think that business owes the government for what they have... that somehow the government can tap into their revenue just because they were successful... and like any good organized crime syndicate they want their cut.

The whole role of government is to provide a level playing field for those that wish to compete and grow a business. Taxes paid into the system is their cut. Everything the government has done was tasked by the people and paid for by taxes because that is what the people wanted. (And I say that loosely in this context because that is a whole other conversation).

So instead of this administration sitting back and watching business grow and people making their lives better through hard work and being proud that they did their job... all they see is a revenue stream. Another reason to get more money out of their pocket. Not only are we going to regulate everything you do.. if you somehow are good at what you do we are going to profit off that too. It's a screwed up way of thinking.

It's like that Christopher Columbus.
There were plenty of smart and hard working sailors back then. He didn't discover the new world on his own.

Spain was cut out of the lucrative spice trade with India because of high taxes
and onerous regulations that were put into place by cronies of the Venetian state along the spice route.
The Venetians then owned the trade mostly all to themselves. 

So the Spanish royalty needed to find a shorter route to cut the middle men out of it and get a piece of the action.
They could have picked anybody to help them, just happened to pick Columbus.

Guess he was in the right place at the right time.
Maybe it was an affirmative action choice because he was Italian.

Good thing though that his science was off.
He thought India was only about 2500 miles away. 
Probably wouldn't have gone if he knew how far way it really was. 

Maybe in October we should celebrate "You didn't do it on your own, Columbus" Day.

It seems to me that when the tea party and republicans are calling for less taxes, this is EXACTLY what Obama means. That taxes are the price we pay to have the infrastructure in place that allows small (and large) businesses to exist and thrive. 

If we don't pay to build and maintain our infrastructure (both the physical trappings like roads and the people like police to maintain order, firefighters to maintain safe buildings, teachers to help kids learn how to function in the economy, etc), then how will the businesses thrive? If you need proof, go to an economically depressed city (like the one I live next to), and tell me why you would or would not want to operate your business there.

Add to that that some of us are tired of the class warfare.  It is so easy to sell a little bit of tax increase to somebody when they don't have to pay it.  If you want to tax and spend, If you want all the government bennies Then Flippin pay for it!!!  Don't ask Uncle Sam to play Robin Hood for you and take it from somebody else.  Be willing to step up to the plate and pay for the programs you think are important.  Then again it all makes me more disgusted with my fellow Americans than with any politician. 

Well you would have to ask the TEA Party that. Let's just stick to what you quoted by me... even though I have never heard the TEA Party say we do not needs roads or infrastructure. I have never heard Any American say we should pay zero taxes.

What I hear some.. OK let's just stick to me... Americans say is that I don't care to pay more taxes to see Washington waste it on more crap I don't agree with and to rig the game to line the pockets of their constituents more. We most definitely need to pay taxes, and I will go as far as to say I am willing to pay more if Washington actually used it right to get this country out of the mess it is in.

But since we are an a bit of a pinch right now, and Washington chooses to only focus on pie in the sky crap, and it is getting harder for them to fund it, they need to find new revenue streams. So to leverage the unrest they choose to stoke a little class warfare between those that have "something""" with those that have "nothing" so they can justify getting something out of those that actually have it... because of course we all know they can't get anything out of those that have nothing... except votes so they can keep doing what they want.

So what I think you're getting at is that Spain invented the internet?

Bingo!

Hey you 50% who pay no federal income taxes... you want better roads? Yes! More welfare? Yes! The government to pay for your insurance? Yes! You want free college education? Yes!

So you willing to pay for it via higher taxes?  Hell no, make the rich guys pay for it... (sigh..)

I will refuse to back a single tax increase for ANYONE until

a) we have a balanced budget and

b) we cut government waste in some real, definable way

Does anyone expect anything else from President Obama?  We elected a Marxist he follows and believes in the teaching of Marx.  The rich are rich because they have taken advantage of the poor.  The strong are strong because they took advantage of the weak. And only when the poor and the weak rise up to seize what has been taken from them will we have equality in society. Half the people in this country agree with him at least on the personal level of "I need and He must pay because He has more than He needs and I have less".

I don't think the president was addressing you specifically in his remarks. I think he was addressing those who are calling for less taxes.

Or we could celebrate "Not knowing enough math and geography to know how big the world is, and never realizing you were wrong all along, even after you have returned several times Day".

I think this is actually a perfect example of "dumbing down". We teach kids that sailors of the 1400's thought the world was flat, even though they did not (the term "falling off the edge of the world" referred to going below the northern hemisphere and losing sight of all the stars that were known in Europe and used to navigate. Once you crossed the equator, it was like falling off an edge in terms of navigation). Then we hold up one person as essentially the discoverer. To my mind, this is not that far off from teaching people the idea that successful business people are this independent figures, standing alone in the world, held down by evil government. It is simplistic, ignores many basic truths about both human nature and history, and serves only as a rallying point for what are ultimately self-serving ideas.

Yeah, because who in good conscience would do that?

 That's funny right there...

Ya, I can agree with that.

Well of course we're interdependent.
We all depend especially on those over time have stepped out, taken risks, and innovated.

That's what people who build businesses often do.
We shouldn't punish them because of that.  We need them.

(BTW, apparently Columbus went to his grave believing he had found a western water route to India.)

Immediately after the 2010 the conversation was about cutting spending.  Not any more!  Republicans allowed the Dems to redirect the conversation. 

Now it's all: Tax, Borrow and Spend ~ Obama 2012

Let's look at an example before government.  Let's talk about the tribes of Africa or early man in Europe.  There was no government to support people so everyone had to chip in.  Some gathered fruits.  It was a pretty easy job.  Some went out and hunted animals.  This was a bit more difficult.  When the animals was brought back to camp the hunters got first choice of the cuts and the gatherers got the second and third cuts.  Everyone was OK with this.  In many tribes you could chose to gather or hunt.  It was up to you to decide how much you wanted out of life (yes there is a gender bias here but in several African tribes men gather as well as hunt).

Early man took care of the sick and elderly as well.  However those who were capable yet chose NOT to help out to the fullest extent of their ability... well those people were punished.  Sometimes even expelled from the tribe.

What government (our in particular) has done is to take the "good" cuts of meat from those prolific hunters and given it to those who have chosen to do little to help the tribe.

Imagine early man if 50% of the tribe decided to not gather or hunt?

I don't know if everyone was "OK" with that system, if indeed that is how it worked. But I am struck by the claim that the government is taking all the "good cuts". Unless the money taken by taxes is somehow "tastier" (- worth more?), they are taking a cut. And then using that cut to make sure everyone in the "tribe" has either a social support network or access to resources.

It seems to me that in your tribal society, you will still have some with power and some without. It might be a chieftan, or some sort of council. But they would have the right to take from the hunters AND the gatherers some sort of "cut".

Not all the good cuts per se.  But they are taking SOME cuts and giving it to people who do not provide towards the well being of the tribe.  That leaves less for the people who ARE providing.

And remember the hunters and gathers are both already providing (out of the goodness of their heats) food and care for sick and elderly members.

Don't get me going on the single payer witchdoctor system they had...