Recently, our president said that “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” The insinuation was that the government was “responsible” for the success of businesses like Apple, Google, Ford, UPS and many other American companies of all sizes that were built from the ground up with hard work and ingenuity. I didn’t know whether to scream or blow chunks when I read what he said.
In my own career as a business-owner, the government hasn’t had anything to do with building my business, other than the taxes they take, which these days, are often for uses I don’t agree with (but that’s another subject).
Our president’s statement reveals how he really feels about businesses: they should be brought under government control to give government its due. They’re not an integral part of the foundation of our economy, the government is.
The insanity is that if any business ran itself like the US government did, which is now 15+ trillion dollars in debt and counting, it would be bankrupt. Its creditors would pull their notes, close the doors, sell the assets; game over.
I’ve heard the president complain that businesses should “step up to the plate” and start hiring. My answer to this: “Joe the Plumber.” When our president told Joe the Plumber in the 2008 campaign that he believed in “sharing the wealth” it was a signal that government wanted to take more of what businesses earn. With a Big Brother like that hanging over everyone’s shoulder, looking for more ways to get in our wallets (we get to enjoy more than 20 new tax increases from the health care bill that goes into effect next year, I’m told) you can be sure that businesses will be holding on to liquid assets to protect themselves for long term survival.
We need to vote carefully in this next presidential election.