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President Obama made headlines this week when he said, “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.”
I’m not going to wade into the politics of this, but rather address the remark. Obama is basically praising government-sponsored innovation, the Internet being a great example. He’s right: The government created the Net. But an innovation, government or otherwise, has zero value until there is a customer for it. We wouldn’t even be talking about the Internet today if America’s rare business builders, the country’s great risk-taking entrepreneurs, hadn’t turned it into a colossal economic engine, creating millions of customers and changing our lives.
This all relates directly to America’s job crisis and the country’s ability to get out of it. Too many American leaders seem unaware that desperately needed new jobs appear only when entrepreneurs commercialize innovation and create customers. Here’s how it works: Entrepreneurs create customers and customers create jobs.
Government-sponsored innovation by itself doesn't create a single job or a single customer -- not much economic energy at all. In fact, innovation often creates more cost.
What America -- and the world -- desperately needs now are more business builders -- more people to “build that.”
Thursday, July 19, 2012
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18 comments:
As an entrepreneur myself, I couldn't have been more offended by Obama's remarks. I left a very well paying career three and a half years ago and started a consulting business with nothing other than an idea and a passion to help other businesses become more successful. I have never worked harder nor have I ever done anything more rewarding. To hear our president claim I haven't done it myself is actually more than offensive, its insulting.
Jim is exactly right, entrepreneurs and risk takers are the answers to what ails this country, not more government. Government's role should be to reward the risk takers, not punish and insult them (us).
Sounds to me like Kevin & Jim are both pretending to be insulted by President Obama saying that entrepreneurs need government to create the basic societal infrastructure (roads, education, law enforcement) that business needs to thrive. It is obvious the president is right and you are spouting manufactured outrage. If you think a society without those things is so great, may I suggest Mexico as an alternative. No one is insulting you, certainly not me - good on ya for your new business, awesome! But business alone isn't the answer to what ails the country, any more than government alone is the answer.
What do you expect from a Marxist miscreant who never put in an honest day of real work in his entire life but was able to parlay the race card into two fantasy biographies, a brief stint in the U.S. Senate, a Nobel Prize (for actually doing nothing) and, ultimately, the first and only U.S. President to preside over a global downgrade of the creditworthiness of the U.S. government?
Jim:
you may claim that you were not going to wade into politics but you analyzed the quote exactly how a politician would: without context.
let's not pretend we don't understand what Romney meant when he said "I don't really care about the very poor."
The President's comments were taken out of context. If you examine his words, he was talking about the infrastructure, roads and bridges, that entrepreneurs do NOT build, and have NEVER built. Comments on that began before "If you've got a business." That phrase was not the start of a new sentence. I depend on Gallup to be as accurate as possible, and would just like to bring this to your attention. Thank You.
Stop taking Obama out of context.
"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."
Any rational person who understands English will know "that" refers to the infrastructure, not to the business. It refers to everything that both Obama and Romney say contributed to your building a business. Obama did not say you did not build your business. He said you didn't build the infrastructure that made your business possible.
What is wrong about this whole debate is the fact that Jim Clifton refused to post the entire first part of the line in question.
“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. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”
The "you didn't build that" is in reference to the "roads and bridges" that make the private economy move. Now, unless you've physically built all the infrastructure you use to make your business a success, then there is no reason to be offended.
If you watch the video it seems as if the president suffered from a mental hiccup -- one of those moments when you're speaking in public and your mind is moving faster than your mouth and your mouth skips over multiple thoughts to catch back up with where your mind is in that moment. I know that happens to me on occasion when I'm speaking in public without well scripted notes. If you're truly offended it's because you want to be offended, not because there is anything truly offensive in the quote.
I love the rush to defend the indefensible. President Obama said what he said and meant what he meant: Without Washington, the rest of us lowly bourgeoisie would wither and die.
Please.
Only someone in love with government, who has no practical experience whatsoever in creating jobs and creating wealth would make such an asinine statement - and believe it.
Obama's record of job creation is pathetic - which is why the country is mired in 8.2 percent unemployment and 17 percent underemployment. Because he sees government as the driver of our economic engine, and it isn't - and never has been. In fact, it's been an impediment (see unemployment and underemployment figures above).
Obama has it completely backwards. It's not government that facilitates industry; it is industry and innovation that built our country into the greatest economic engine that ever existed, which then, in turn, provides the means for government to operate.
He said during the same speech in question that it would be "ridiculous" for people to have their own fire and police departments, etc. Well, if no such government equivalent existed, that is exactly what would happen: Private industry would step in to fulfill that need.
That is the principle Obama was trashing, pure and simple. Stop trying to defend the indefensible.
This president is clueless about jobs, business and capitalism. It will be tragic if we elect him for 4 more years of doing nothing.Just tell me what he accomplish for his 4 lousy years in office.
Ok Mr Chairman. The government created the internet. But lets get one thing straight, once and for all.
"We the people" created the government.
hmm I'm an entrepreneur and I'm not offended by the internet statement - actually ARPA [ as it was called back then ] was designed for the militry to get launch codes through - from one town to the next even if the town in the middle got wiped out - hence internet packets re-assamble at the destination ... and I'm tired of entrepreneurs who blame anyone for anything - that is for the media or emplyees to blame others - IT IS WHAT IT IS - all I want is for the goverment NOT TO GET IN THE WAY and certainly DO NOT HELP ME !!! let me be and operate with dignity and let me exploit whatever is out there - if it's the internet so be it - if its solar power - I take it - just let us be entrepreneurs
OK, so maybe I just got up one morning wanting to be offended. I've watched the whole clip several times, and the president told me that 1) I think I'm smart, 2) I think I work hard, and 3) my success is the result of infrastructure that apparently only other people's taxes paid for. Yup, I got my wish. I'm offended.
Don't forget that the roads and bridges were built by private businesses. Businesses that, I can almost guarantee, were started by an entrepreneur and risk taker themselves and funded with tax dollars generated off of businesses started by other entrepreneurs and risk takers. Of course there is an inter-dependency, but just because roads and bridges get built, that doesn't mean new businesses get started. That doesn't happen until someone is willing to put it all on the line.
And yes Susan, I think anybody who put it all on the line would be genuinely insulted to not be given credit for everything that happened after that.
OK-- After reading the post again, I see that you, Jim, did not say what is insinuated in many of the negative comments. My bad. Retract previous comment.
Actually, businesses did build the country's infrastructure. Their taxes their employees taxes paid for it as well as for education. If the roads and schools had been directly created by businesses the only difference would be that quality and innovation would be much higher and the price would be much lower.
I completely agree with Jim's statements about the need for a surge in entrepreneurship and the policies and conditions necessary for that to happen, but I don't see how that has anything to do with Obama's remark. He simply praised government's role in an important process. The invention of the internet can't be spoken about as if it was just any other invention like a Snuggie Blanket. It revolutionized the world, and government had an important role in its creation. That's not conjecture, that's fact. But that doesn't mitigate the importance and rarity of entrepreneurs in creating customers, and therefore jobs. And what confuses me even more about this is that he never claimed government's role was more important than the entrepreneur's, he simply stated a historical fact: that the government has played an important role in the past, and can, and should, continue to play one in the future. So what's with all the crazy talk about how he's attacking small business?
After watching the RNC for the last 2 evenings, it has become ever apparent that "The Coming Jobs War" and "The Chairman's Blog" has become required reading for the Grand Old Party. The recurring themes originating from The Galllup Organization's reasearch and your technical translation of that data into common sense and inarguable logic, have been without exception, laced through every speech. It is beyond coincidence. Congratulations, Jim on becoming the "Leading Voice" on behalf for "What Matters Most" to all of us!
Great post.The importance of a technical translation being accurate and efficient can indeed not be overstated. Especially in the ever faster moving world of globalized business, successful information and technology transfer within multinational businesses can make the difference between win or lose.
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