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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| "If You've Got a Business, You Didn't Build That |
| 2012-07-20 |
| h/t SENSE OF EVENTS ...a lot of my product is possible because of "the contribution of society," as long as we remember what that means. It means that a lot of fine people worked hard at developing good ideas about things and implementing those ideas by building institutions that endured after they departed. I owe these people my eternal gratitude. Gratitude, not cash. The reason is very simple. They all made their contributions in return for compensation, which they were paid by others. They may have wanted more in return than they actually got (don't we all?) but they regarded what they got as sufficient to offset all the trouble they went through to make their wonderful contributions to our way of life. We know this because we know that they did decide to actually take that trouble and make those contributions.* Why should you lose 90% of what you produce in order to compensate them for what they did? They have already been paid! (Not to mention the fact that the great majority of them are now dead.) This would mean paying them twice. By the way, doesn't this mean that I should be paid twice too? I contributed something too. It may not have been much, but I am still alive and can actually be compensated. Come to think of it, doesn't it also mean that I get my 90% back? But then where is all this money going to come from, now that we are paying everyone twice what they produce? Actually, I should say that Simon would be proposing to pay everyone twice, if the money were really going to the actual contributors, the heroes who make this wonderful life possible. But of course it isn't. Simon wants the state to get it. Why on Earth should it get any of this money? Insofar as the state makes any contribution to my product, this contribution was the work of individuals who have been compensated** and at any rate would never see any of Simon's vast pile of loot. So this argument is rotten for two reasons: 1) the real contributors have already been compensated, and 2) the alleged compensation would actually go to the wrong people anyway. Like I say, worst argument yet. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #12 is this a face meet palm moment that my son always says in tragic circumstance ? |
| Posted by: Chuter Uluse1520 2012-07-20 19:57 |
#11 And I think to myself, if I'm willing to give something up as somebody who's been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that's going to make economic sense. President Obama National Prayer Breakfast |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2012-07-20 19:48 |
| #10 The only honest americans are politicians and lawyers and those that don't build anything on the backs of others. /snark |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2012-07-20 14:38 |
| #9 It takes a Gulag. |
| Posted by: jack salami 2012-07-20 13:26 |
| #8 I obviously must've been stealing and cheating. My business is going OK ATM, but I am working the day after a dental operation and will be working all weekend. Business success must have nothing to do with dedication! Must've been that government sent software developer* doing all the clever stuff while I'm out partying 24/7. *Only drinks coffee made from skittles that have been through a unicorns digestive tract. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-07-20 12:49 |
| #7 >folks with successful businesses didn't get that way any other way than stealing or cheating It's projection. Hence they are so pro state stealing. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-07-20 12:42 |
| #6 P2K #3 Good analogy. To continue the thought from my first comment, I'm sick of the meme that these folks have bought into - the idea that folks with successful businesses didn't get that way any other way than stealing or cheating. It's a conceit, a way of letting themselves off the hook for their own failures and a cowardly way of not being honest about their own deficiencies. It's the only way these miserable creatures can avoid having to deal full face-on with their own warts and bruises. Pathetic. It would be the same as me saying that the only reason I didn't start for the Lakers or Celtics was because the other players conspired or cheated me out of it. The fact that I'm only 6' 2" and can't jump had nothing to do with it, oh no...... |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2012-07-20 10:45 |
| #5 and those roads were paid for by gas tax money and income/property tax money and developer impact fees for increased traffic/wear and tear. Not Obama's own pocket. What a socialist "it takes a village" A-hole |
| Posted by: Frank G 2012-07-20 10:23 |
| #4 I love the gaul. Obama is basically saying government takes your money by force and with it a d you should be thankful because the output is occasionally useful. Its not as if they built those roads for nothing. |
| Posted by: Rjschwarz 2012-07-20 10:06 |
| #3 Quintus Arrius: Now listen to me, all of you. You are all condemned men. We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2012-07-20 08:09 |
| #2 There actually is a "Chicago Way" angle to 0Bama's assertion. I've done several business trips to Chicago and the first thing you notice is the awesome architecture. The SECOND thing you notice is that EVERY public construction project Had Mayor Daley's face and name plastered EVERYWHERE, like he was a Pharaoh of Egypt. An alient would be forgiven to believe that all that building was solely financed and performed by him, rather than by the taxes he took from businesses and individuals. Given that background, wouldn't YOU believe that anything worthwhile being built HAS to be by government? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2012-07-20 08:03 |
| #1 That business owners are successful IS proof that they are some combination of harder working, smarter, better at sacrifice, better at future time consideration, and/or better at dealing with stress than the vast majority of people. Obama's assertion that there are "lots" of people who have these capabilities in spades - that such qualities are a dime a dozen - is as evil as it is inaccurate. But it sure makes those who are lesser in these area feel good about themselves. Watch the video of his now infamous statements and you'll hear what is probably the worst thing about the whole incident, worse than the predident's words themselves - the shouts of "Yeah!" from the public employees and layabouts in the audience. That should send a chill through anyone with even a passing familiarity of the history of the 20th century. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2012-07-20 07:41 |