Championship Subdivision Football | FCS Football | Stadiums | Blogs | Forums

The following comments are from a speech Obama gave in Roanoke, VA earlier today. This entire speech is posted on the White House web site. One of the more interesting comments is in bold and italicized.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off ... e-virginia

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.

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk 2

My sincere hope is that the President will keep running his mouth as much as possible through to November.

Yep, that's a pretty dumb statement to make, even if there's quite a bit of truth to it. Success is a combination of hard work, relationships, business environment, and luck. Government has its role but this is far to nuanced a concept to sell. Entrepreneurs are not the problem so I'd leave the Daniel Boone complex alone from a political standpoint.

Government did invent/build the internet.



Also Bain.

I think the Ds better start a drumbeat about Romney and job cuts and off shore money havens and not let up until Mutt shows his taxes. Which are most likely being furiously backdated as we speak.

Obviously it's true that nobody gets to where they are without help. You're born and somebody has to take care of you. Nobody to take care of you and you're dead. Then the need for nurturing and developing continues as you grow older. And you benefit from being educated, using public infrastructure. Etc. And of course someone has to buy what you've got to offer.

But this thing of using that obvious reality as an excuse to financially rape and pillage highly successful people so politicians can bribe the majority of the population with government programs they have to pay little or nothing for is horrible. A person's talents and efforts ARE usually a factor in success. A successful person doesn't owe the society anything more than an unsuccessful person does. In fact one might argue that they owe the society less because, in most cases, they are a net benefit. If they are very highly successful chances are that their activity has at least had a role in creating a bunch of jobs, etc. They may have come up with a product or series of products that led to a bunch of jobs, etc. The "average" rich person is already much more of a benefit to society than the average "poor" person is before tax "contributions" are even taken into account. People may not like to hear that but it's true.

They should not be considered to have an obligation to "give something back" in the form of obscenely high tax rates. They grew up in the United States. They had teachers. So on and so forth. But so did an awful lot of people who are, in economic terms, net drains on the society.

Take Drew Brees. He just signed a $100 million contract. Millions and millions of people got just as much potential benefit from being born and raised in the United States as he did. He didn't get that $100 million because of that. That's the baseline. The background. He got the $100 million because of what he's capable of and the fact that someone is willing to pay him that much for what he's capable of. He doesn't owe any more to the society because of the background of support he got than some homeless guy who got a comparable level of background support does.

This "you owe us" line of thought is crap.

kalm wrote:Yep, that's a pretty dumb statement to make, even if there's quite a bit of truth to it. Success is a combination of hard work, relationships, business environment, and luck. Government has its role but this is far to nuanced a concept to sell. Entrepreneurs are not the problem so I'd leave the Daniel Boone complex alone from a political standpoint.

Don't forget intellect and native talent, kalm.

Was Daniel Boone from Kenya?

dbackjon wrote:Government did invent/build the internet.

Revisionist history alert...

The government did not invent the internet...academics working on government contracts from ARPA (Now DARPA) had an idea, and ARPA agreed to fund it...

So it was some researchers at several universities who invented what became the internet...not the government...

Col Hogan wrote:

dbackjon wrote:Government did invent/build the internet.

Revisionist history alert...

The government did not invent the internet...academics working on government contracts from ARPA (Now DARPA) had an idea, and ARPA agreed to fund it...

So it was some researchers at several universities who invented what became the internet...not the government...

True. Regardless of the origin, it certainly wasn't the government who monetized it.

dbackjon wrote:Government did invent/build the internet.



Also Bain.

Yes. Thank GOD for the government. Wherever would we be without them?

Obama truly makes me want to puke.

http://didntbuildthat.tumblr.com/

Col Hogan wrote:

dbackjon wrote:Government did invent/build the internet.

Revisionist history alert...

The government did not invent the internet...academics working on government contracts from ARPA (Now DARPA) had an idea, and ARPA agreed to fund it...

So it was some researchers at several universities who invented what became the internet...not the government...

Government money, government contracts...


Who is being the revisionist...

DSUrocks07 wrote:

http://didntbuildthat.tumblr.com/

Actually Edison jacked most of his ideas from Tesla.

Grizalltheway wrote:

DSUrocks07 wrote:

http://didntbuildthat.tumblr.com/

Actually Edison jacked most of his ideas from Tesla.

Who, I'm sure, was government funded.

dbackjon wrote:

Col Hogan wrote:
Revisionist history alert...

The government did not invent the internet...academics working on government contracts from ARPA (Now DARPA) had an idea, and ARPA agreed to fund it...

So it was some researchers at several universities who invented what became the internet...not the government...

Government money, government contracts...


Who is being the revisionist...

Wait, when my neighbor, who is a contractor, built my laundry room...he really didn't build it because it was my money that paid for it?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lr49t4-2b8[/youtube]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/01/ge ... z22K2GACc1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BDKJMU wrote:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/01/ge ... z22K2GACc1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Millions of people use small business loans from the gub-mint to get their businesses off the ground. Kudos to that guy for bootstrapping it.

Does that mean the government built Solyndra?

Grizalltheway wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/01/ge ... z22K2GACc1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Millions of people use small business loans from the gub-mint to get their businesses off the ground. Kudos to that guy for bootstrapping it.

And having his business located on a highway...with subsidized utilities...and police and fire...but yeah...kudoh's.

This whole thing is much ado about nothing. Obama has a record as President, and that is what Romney has to exploit.

If Romney and the GOP are hanging their hopes on taking advantage of Obama's verbal gaffes they are sunk.

BlueHen86 wrote:This whole thing is much ado about nothing. Obama has a record as President, and that is what Romney has to exploit.

If Romney and the GOP are hanging their hopes on taking advantage of Obama's verbal gaffes they are sunk.

That's their problem. There's very little to suggest they are going to come up with something radically different.

Grizalltheway wrote:

DSUrocks07 wrote:

http://didntbuildthat.tumblr.com/

Actually Edison jacked most of his ideas from Tesla.

You beat me to it...Thomas Edison was a business man FIRST and a distant second came science
He was busily stealing everybody's ideas as quickly as he could