Delivering a speech in Roanoke, Virginia, President Obama indicated that successful Americans “didn’t get there on their own.”
It’s classic Elizabeth Warren-style jibber-jabber.
The White House released an official transcript, and it’s noteworthy in many areas.:
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. [Emphasis added]
It may be true that how hard a person works doesn’t necessarily determine how much money they are going to make. But that’s obvious.
However, it takes hard, smart work to become successful. Don’t worry, I won’t sound-bite the President. This is what he expounds:
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. [Emphasis added]
Obama actually echos, practically verbatim, what Warren said about infrastructure being the root of all success in America. It’s a wacky theory, and surely not a statement that will win brownie points from the business sector.
And he wonders where his donors have all gone.
