{"id":518,"date":"2012-07-18T17:43:39","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T21:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jparnell.com\/blog\/?p=518"},"modified":"2012-07-18T17:43:39","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T21:43:39","slug":"ones-debt-to-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/?p=518","title":{"rendered":"One’s Debt to Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey know they didn\u2019t \u2014 look, if you\u2019ve been successful, you didn\u2019t get there on your own. \u00a0You didn\u2019t get there on your own. \u00a0I\u2019m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. \u00a0There are a lot of smart people out there. \u00a0It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. \u00a0Let me tell you something \u2014 there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. \u00a0There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. \u00a0Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. \u00a0Somebody invested in roads and bridges. \u00a0If you\u2019ve got a business \u2014 you didn\u2019t build that. \u00a0Somebody else made that happen. \u00a0The Internet didn\u2019t get invented on its own. \u00a0Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, this excerpt from Obama\u2019s recent rant in Roanoke was more than political fodder; it was an outline of his personal and economic philosophy. His core argument here\u2014one adopted straight from Marx\u2014is that success and prosperity are achieved on the backs of society, past and present. The extent to which this is true creates the moral authority to redistribute wealth in the way that companies distribute dividends to their shareholders. If one\u2019s wealth isn\u2019t earned<\/em>, then one doesn\u2019t really have a right to keep it. <\/em>Of course, this is an easy sell to many who don\u2019t see themselves in the successful category, as it grants them moral access to the fruits of their neighbor\u2019s productivity.<\/p>\n

But there are two glaring logical flaws here. First, the President is asserting that each of us is born with an unsolicited \u201cloan\u201d whose repayment schedule is aligned with his or her productive ability. Such a claim is illegitimate because it does not bestow upon the individual the right to accept to decline the loan. Like it or not, he or she is forever owned by the collective.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that some of us are born with \u201cadvantages\u201d that others might not have, but this is the result of a productive and free society, not a loan to our kids. We build schools and pave roads because we want to enjoy a better world ourselves and pass along something better to the next generation. Put another way, the inheritance we enjoy as Americans is due in part to the quasi-capitalist system that has created it, and in part to the gift<\/em>\u2014not the loan\u2014we received from our parents and others.<\/p>\n

Second, let\u2019s assume for the sake of argument that Obama is correct and that business success is owed to government. Where does he think government amassed the resources necessary to \u201cinvent the Internet,\u201d hire the great teachers, or build the roads? Government merely extracts wealth from the private sector and spends it. It creates nothing. If you\u2019re born with a debt then it\u2019s to the private sector, not government.<\/p>\n

But we cannot reject Obama\u2019s claim completely. The US has drifted to a mixed economy of capitalism, socialism and fascism. The crony capitalism we see today is an outgrowth of this amalgamation. Here\u2019s the irony. By definition, those who have profited on the backs of government and society are the crony capitalists. We should root out the corruption that has unfairly benefitted firms like GE and GM, not hold them up as evidence that \u201cbusiness needs government.\u201d Obama has this backwards.<\/p>\n

The blessings of our country can be attributed to individual and business successes independent<\/em> of government. When individuals have the freedom to create, compete, and retain the lion\u2019s share of any profits earned in the process, they work harder, smarter, and more productively. They build cars, invent computers, and discover new treatments for dreaded diseases. Obama is fundamentally changing this system by creating a system where individual and business prosperity depends on government regulation, planning, or \u201cinvestment.\u201d It\u2019s no wonder that our economy has grinded to a halt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey know they didn\u2019t \u2014 look, if you\u2019ve been successful, you didn\u2019t get there on your own. \u00a0You didn\u2019t get there on your own. \u00a0I\u2019m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. \u00a0There are a lot of smart people out there. \u00a0It must be because I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}