If You’ve Got A Business, You Didn’t Build That.

I found out something quite interesting today in the conservative press. The roads we drive on and the bridges we cross were all built with the bare hands of small business persons and entrepreneurs, all without any government funds. When President Obama said, “Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that,” the conservative press went ballistic and said, basically, yes we did, we built those roads, we built those bridges, thank you very much, now please, government, get off our backs.

I found out something else. I’m lazy and stupid. Speaking of people who have been economically successful, the president said, “I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart…It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.” As Rush Limbaugh said of those who aren’t wealthy, “This is a bunch of people with miserable, meaningless lives who are lying to themselves; trying to tell themselves that they matter.” He continues,

This is such a crock.
This is a bunch of meaningless people (who know that their lives don’t account for anything) trying to matter, and coming up with this ridiculous philosophy that says, “Successful people have not done it on their own. Successful people only exist because of the nameless, faceless, real, true hard workers.” (Barack Obama Hates This Country)

The president continues, “The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.” Fox business host Stu Varney calls this a “shocking point of view.” The president added, “There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.” Continuing his commentary, Varney adds it is “against the essence of the American Dream…a near-socialist approach to economics.” (Fox Hosts Outraged Over Out-Of-Context Obama Quote)

And so I have a proposal for wealthy, small-business, entrepreneur conservatives. If you have a store front, put up a sign in your front window that says, “If you drove on a road or across a bridge to get here, I refuse to serve you, as you are promoting socialism.” If you ship product to customers, you will refuse to ship it on roads the government built, or from municipal airports. Also, make sure to put up a sign which says, “Please, socialist firefighting units, do not try to save my store in case of fire.”

And another one, “Please, policeman, if you see someone robbing my store, do not interfere, as I don’t believe in government.”
And when we go to war, make sure you write your representatives and beg them not to send the sons and daughters of the poor. Tell your representatives that you will go in their place.