City boy, huh?
I don’t think it was nearly the “rallying cry” you make it out to be. It was a joke. It wasn’t all that funny. It was about the Vice presidential candidate. Are you saying that every time that SNL does a skit about a politician, that that is used to rally and consolidate the democratic base?
The “You didn’t build that” quote, from the actual presidential candidate was repeated much much more than the “house comment”. I would venture to say that the house comment was never used in a political ad (I am not sure of this, but I never saw one, and a quick look about in google for ads in that campaign didn’t turn one up.) The “you didn’t build that” quote was featured very prominently in ads against Obama. Even after any voter with any level of interest in the political process would have known the full quote, they were still going on and on about it.
You get it, but you do not agree with it? Does that mean that you built all of your own infrastructure that supports your business? If so, Impressive. If not then what do you actually disagree with about the whole quote?
And you do realize that we are tired of explaining it “ad nauseam, infinitum”, probably more tired than you of hearing the explanation. So why do you bring it up?
Yeah, but that’s what it was about. He was talking about infrastructure, and he was being taken to task about it. You may not have seen it as an attack on infrastructure, but it most certainly was.
OK, that was funny.
Beat me to it.
Erm… they do “milk” bulls. :eek:
“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
Context seems pretty clear.
Oh honey, it’s retarded.
Seems clear that the Republican propaganda from American Crossroads and Carl Rove misled many indeed.
Why was it necessary that business owners be told that they didn’t personally build the infrastructure?
Sarcasm toward the target of this thread and their preferred candidate?
Probably because of all the "“self made” businessmen who felt that government should back the hell off, since they had no role in building the business.
Of course not. But you know better… come on.
I’m not talking about how true or false the comments were. I’m saying that in the same way the the SNL skits and the various crap said about Palin was crap towards the Republicans and their VP choiceour side was in the same vein as the Obama comment was taken and abused - something to rally and encourage the troops.
I’ve said it a couple times now that I’m to the point I think you’ll never understand what I’m saying - it was mocking what the President said, and what it could mean.
I don’t. I read it to believe that without government business wouldn’t exist. It’s with their blessing and help that I I believe that without business the government wouldn’t exist.
That’s my take of it. Not what the point of promoting the comment was. It meant things to different Republicans, all of which centered on the idea that Obama was and is big government, the most interaction possible, and effecting and interfering in everyone lives more than it should
Because folks like you (and Trump and Perot and dozens of narcissistic, unthinking, Ayn Rand fans) like to pretend that it is true.
These two statements are not in contradiction. Neither business nor government (above the subsistence tribal level) would exist without the other.
Here is Obama’s specific statement on the subject:
The “that” in the bolded sentence is clearly referring to the American system and the infrastructure, not the business. (If you dig up a video of the speech, his spoken words make that even more clear.)
And here is the Elizabeth Warren statement on which he was building:
I’d like to know HeweyLogan’s opinion on which reality show Trump should go back to once he gets crushed in the election: The Biggest Loser or The Amazing Racist.
I understand what you are saying. I just disagree. If you ask nearly any democrat about “I can see my house from here”, they will laugh and talk about the SNL skit. They have no thought that Palin, the vice presidential candidate, actually said it.
If you ask a republican about “You didn’t build that”, then you will generally get the response that Obama, the incumbent presidential candidate, was denigrating business owners.
These are not the same thing at all.
Without government, my business wouldn’t exist. I need roads to connect my customers to my doors, I need power lines to run my equipment, I need gas lines to heat my place, I need phone and internet to conduct transactions, I need a skilled educated workforce to draw upon, I need a peaceful society without war and with the expectation that laws have force in order to be prosperous. I need to have a form of money to trade with clients, vendors and employees that has value. I get all that crap from the government. Even bankruptcy protection is a useful thing. I have never used it, and I hope to never use it, but it makes it easier to take a risk when you know that if things go badly, then you are not completely screwed.
Now, without businesses, the government is pretty pointless, so there certainly is a symbiosis there, and the government does depend on them to have an economy worth protecting, but if my, or you business, went out of business right now, the government would stand just fine. If the government collapsed right now, I know running my business would be much much harder, to the point of being impossible, and it would also be the least of my concerns.
If building infrastructure, providing a stable economy in a peaceful environment, and assisting in the education of my workforce is “interference”, then more power to 'em
In sane capitalism, the business owner seeks to provide something that people need and to make enough profit to support himself and his people. In rabid, vampire capitalism, the businessman seeks to make something that will make him rich, without much concern for his effect on his fellow citizens. For him, a pet rock is better than a low-pollution detergent, say, if the pet rock has a higher profit return.
Nothing wrong with business and capitalism as a thing. Fact is, consumer choice is a very good tool for economic planning. Central planning is weak that way, as the Soviet “system” amply demonstrates. Only thing wrong with capitalism is people. Which is the only thing wrong with socialism. So, improve the people. Educate, nurture, advance.
Impractical? Maybe. Got a better plan? Got something better to do?