Who DIdn't Get Where on Their Own?

The President made an interesting statement the other day in Roanoke, VA.  I will quote it exactly:

"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me - because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t - look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something - there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.”  

The statement is, if taken literally, true.  No one got anywhere on his own.  There are mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, teachers, etc., etc.  There are all sorts of people who help anyone grow and develop in life.

But that is not what the President was talking about.  The President (and his supporters who have rushed to defend him since this statement) means simply that government funded infrastructure, government regulation, government funding of various industries, etc., have all been the sine qua non of economic development in the US.  In short, no government, no economic success.

The President is partly right.  He is also completely wrong.

All economic development beyond the most basic barter economy is predicated on government.  The purpose behind the social contract that we all share is that because we (and more to the point, our ancestors) agreed to come ‘out of a state of nature’ and establish societies that allowed the establishment of governments to perform certain functions (security, money supply, certain public services such as licensing and deeds and standards, etc.), each of us was thereby freer to pursue individual pursuits, to concentrate on one set of skill rather than having to do – in essence – each of those things ourselves.  Aristotle spells it out quite clearly.

No one is disputing Aristotle.  And so, in that sense, the President was right.

But the real issue is simply this: the government isn’t what causes the individual’s pursuit of industry or the individual or collective economic success.  That’s backward.  It is the individual’s industry, and the individual desire for economic success that comes together to develop a collective solution to certain fundamental issues (security, legal framework, standards, infrastructure, etc.) that results in the creation of a government system – and a bureaucracy.  The government is the servant of the people, created by them, for them. 

So, rather than the individual succeeding by standing on the back of government, it is government that wouldn’t exist without the individual.  As I said, backward.  President Obama would have been more accurate if he had said:

"There are a lot of powerful, successful American politicians who agree with me - because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t - look, if you’ve been successful in politics, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by politicians who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something - there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there – people who pay for all those politicians.”

Here’s the point Mr. President: you didn’t get THERE on your own.  You are there, and this government is funded, by a lot of smart, hard working individuals who over 236 years, and still today, have labored and sacrificed and funded this government, and elected officials, and sent them to Washington, and all the state capitals, and all the towns and counties, to do specific jobs, to act as dutiful and conscientious servants of the citizenry, to carry out the tasks assigned, not take from those who sent you, and for whom you work.

President Obama would do well to remember that the Constitution begins ‘We the People.’  The people do not work for the government; the government is not ‘in charge.’  Government is the servant.  He should try to remember that.  As Lincoln put it: Of the people, by the people, for the people.