“YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT!”
Individual Initiative & the American Economy
“YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT!”
Let’s be fair to President Obama.
The commercial, “These Hands,” a commercial currently being aired by the Romney campaign (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lr49t4-2b8),quotes Mr. Obama proclaiming during his July 13th speech in Roanoke, Virginia: “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
The quote is accurate, but perhaps taken a bit out of context. The full context is as follows: “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.” (emphasis added)
Perhaps the president simply expressed himself poorly. Possibly Mr. Obama’s statement, “you didn’t build that,” was meant to convey that – alone – entrepreneurs did not build the nation’s infrastructure nor create all the conditions necessary for their success. This is a nice thought. However, there is also the possibility that Mr. Obama truly believes what the Romney commercial implies: that those who succeed under our free enterprise system owe their success not to their own brains, guts and grit, but to government largesse.
Consider what Mr. Obama said immediately after the sentence italicized above: “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.”
But this claim is wildly inaccurate. Government research did not create the Internet, nor was profit an objective of its creation. What the government (which is to say, the American people as taxpayers) did do was provide funding, initially through the Defense Department, and later through legislation sponsored by then-Senator, Al Gore.
No one person or entity invented the Internet, but the research involved was done mainly by universities and private enterprises, notably the Xerox Corporation. The original purpose of the Internet was to link computer research centers. Government research did not create the Internet “so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.” Making money off the Internet was a by-product of the government’s involvement, not the objective; just as the objective of the space program was to put a man on the moon, not to create freeze-dried foods, hand-held cordless vacuums, temper foam mattresses and other consumer products that were spun off from space technology.
It is true that a great deal of the pure research in this country takes place in government laboratories and in university and private research labs with the help of government grants. Mr. Obama had that right. But the government does not identify the commercial possibilities of this research, nor does it make and market successful consumer products; the business community does this. We don’t look to NASA to provide us with temper foam mattresses anymore than we look to the Defense Department to provide us with Facebook.
President Obama’s remarks in Roanoke remind me of an old story about a Scottish minister who arrived to take charge of a new parish. After touring the manse, the minister ventured out into the back yard and was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of the most beautiful flower garden that he had ever beheld. Rubbing his hands together in sheer joy, he turned to the gardener and exclaimed, “Oh, Davy! Look at what the Lord hath done!”
The gardener snorted and replied, “Aye, Preacher. But ye should have seen this garden last winter, when the Lord had it all to himself!”
The American business community is the gardener in this fable, and President Obama is the well meaning, head-in-the-clouds minister who seems unable to recognize the role of individual initiative, persistence and hard work in the creation of any successful project.
Whether you consider the Romney campaign’s commercial to be fair or not, it has thrown the national spotlight on one of Mr. Obama’s greatest weaknesses – he is an intellectual who has never had to run a business or meet a payroll, and he lacks the practical understanding of how our free enterprise system really works – how individual drive and initiative built the American economy and worked to keep it strong.
Thomas Michael Stewart, a resident of Eugene and former student at Marist and Sheldon High Schools, is currently a senior at Princeton University.
Amen!
No matter how you look at his speech, in context or out of it, Obama didn’t give credit where credit is due. I have a small jewelry design business. I learned my craft from private teachers and personal observation of others. Government didn’t give me my business; I’ve earned every customer! Obama is indeed the minister in the fable – and that doesn’t reflect well.