Obama to business owners: 'You didn't build that'

[Don]

Just to tack on:

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.

This is true. The statement is so generic it must be true. But successful business people don't think of help "along the line" as being what Obama describes. Successful business people give credit to mentors that helped them in their specific business endeavor, or else give credit to investors, or else to family members that encouraged them to follow their dreams of owning a business.

Absolutely. As you were growing up, as you were going to school, as you were receiving advice, these were all the same people who told you: Work hard, and you'll get ahead.

Somebody invested in roads and bridges.

Well, duh. BTW, it's not an investment it's taxing the citizens and spending the money for the greater good. Nobody gets inspiration for creating a new product by contemplating how wonderful the interstate highway system is. Notice again that Obama is giving credit to a government program.

Um...roads and bridges are for the benefit of all people. Our forefathers didn't wait for roads and bridges and trains to be built. They forged ahead. And if you want your business to succeed, you don't wait for the government to build a road; you make it 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 internet wasn't originally conceived for commerce. But someone had a brilliant idea to adapt a government run entity for profit.

Absolutely correct; the president has told an out-and-out Al Gore-ism. The internet was created to share research. It was later adapted for communications. THEN someone came along and started using it for commerce.

It wasn't "cause and effect"; it wasn't "government research" that caused the use of the internet for commerce. It was entrepreneurs who took what was once a simple, stove-piped, single-use system and saw its potential, and turned it into something much, much more.

Really, this whole "it takes a government to be successful" is sickening. Obama ought to be ashamed at himself.

But we can't establish socialism without it....

 

[OldRegular]

CTB sez:WOW!!!!

CTB actually said something worthwhile & believable.
Now let's wait and see if he practices this new-found knowledge!!???:sleep::sleep::sleep:

I thought he already excelled in that practice.:smilewinkgrin:

 

[OldRegular]

This all boils down to the fact that the government never created one penny of wealth. Then the government (Obama) spends money on a bailout or making a job, the money was handed to them on a silver platter called tax dollars.

Or the Federal Reserve prints money which creates inflation, perhaps the worst tax of all.

 

[Jerome]

The Small Business Administration apparently really helped this business owner:

SBA Success Stories

Gary Skrla was laid off from his corporate job and headed to the SBA office in Seattle to discuss his business ideas with Ed Milan, a SCORE representative. After a few counseling sessions, he decided to follow his dream and open a hardware store.

“Gary is a perfect example of what can be done with an SBA loan. He has an incredible range of experience including working in the hardware, lumber and nursery business. He has always wanted his own business. The Silver Lake area is growing and was ready for additional services and the 20 jobs the new store will generate are welcome, too.”

SBA temporarily eliminated fees paid by the borrowers in the 7(a) program. The bank decision to provide an SBA 7(a) loan for $879,000 resulted in a savings of $19,777 in waived fees. This helped to get the inventory needed and provided the working capital to have the store open on time. “I wish I had done this sooner,” Skrla said.

 

[InTheLight]

Or the Federal Reserve prints money which creates inflation, perhaps the worst tax of all.

Is that so? What would you say is an acceptable annual rate of inflation?

 

[HankD]

Is that so? What would you say is an acceptable annual rate of inflation?

Zero.

Had we adhered to the constitutional principle of a gold and silver as our currency standard that is what we would have today.

An ounce of gold was valued at $20.00 from 1776 to 1933.

Thanks to FDR we abandoned the gold standard in 1933 and fiat money inflation spiraled out of control:

On April 5, 1933, Roosevelt ordered all gold coins and gold certificates in denominations of more than $100 turned in for other money. It required all persons to deliver all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve by May 1 for the set price of $20.67 per ounce. By May 10, the government had taken in $300 million of gold coin and $470 million of gold certificates. Two months later, a joint resolution of Congress abrogated the gold clauses in many public and private obligations that required the debtor to repay the creditor in gold dollars of the same weight and fineness as those borrowed. In 1934, the government price of gold was increased to $35 per ounce, effectively increasing the gold on the Federal Reserve's balance sheets by 69 percent. This increase in assets allowed the Federal Reserve to further inflate the money supply.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-takes-united-states-off-gold-standard

So it started with a .67 cent pacification carrot.

Today a Saint Gauden's $20.00 gold piece is intrinsically valued at about $1600 fiat USD.

While it is true that an ounce of gold still has the approximate buying power now as then, the concept of the authorization of fiat money and a moving target dollar value is a sign of economic instability and corruption into socialism by government tyranny (illegal seizure of property by FDR administration).

It was a form of theft by imposing a hidden tax (inflation: a tax without representation) on we the sheeple.
Every time there is an incremental increase caused by overextending the money supply, we the sheeple are robbed.

A direct tax would be more efficient and honest.

Congress should have stood up to FDR and denied his crime against the constitution and the citizenry

Today (IMO) we have an even worse situation with the "Health Care" Bill when we were told by the Speaker of the House to shut up and ("lets pass the bill so we can see what's in it").

Maybe the DNC should adopt this statement as their campaign slogan.

HankD

 

[InTheLight]

Zero.

Had we adhered to the constitutional principle of a gold and silver as our currency standard that is what we would have today.

An ounce of gold was valued at $20.00 from 1776 to 1933.

The price of gold, which is set by government decree, has little to do with price inflation. Furthermore, people do not go around with bags of gold dust and make purchases, nor do store owners have scales in their shops.

 

[HankD]

The price of gold, which is set by government decree, has little to do with price inflation. Furthermore, people do not go around with bags of gold dust and make purchases, nor do store owners have scales in their shops.

Well, not anymore ITL but when the constitution was a reality they did.

The whole underframing of today's economy is based upon a soap bubble - a fiat money system whose value is a moving target determined day-by-day by a statistical fabrication called the GDP.

Even that determination is skewed by the fact that "money" can be legally counterfeited by the government at will.

Pehaps a paper money system would allow for a stable economy if it were undergirded with gold and silver as were the gold and silver certificates pre-1933.

HankD

 

[InTheLight]

Well, not anymore ITL but when the constitution was a reality they did.

The whole underframing of today's economy is based upon a soap bubble - a fiat money system whose value is a moving target determined day-by-day by a statistical fabrication called the GDP.

Even that determination is skewed by the fact that "money" can be legally counterfeited by the government at will.

Pehaps a paper money system would allow for a stable economy if it were undergirded with gold and silver as were the gold and silver certificates pre-1933.

HankD

I'm still not seeing a connection with the gold standard and the prevention of price inflation. Why would there be zero inflation with a gold standard?

 

[HankD]

I'm still not seeing a connection with the gold standard and the prevention of price inflation. Why would there be zero inflation with a gold standard?

OK, I meant by reason of the government and their manipulation of the GDP and yes then my statement is an oversimplification but I believe the root of our economic problems today comes out of the policies of the FDR administration (and following including Republican administrations).

Going off the gold standard eventually resulted in events that fulfill the definition of inflation: A rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.

The cost of living adjustment (cola) should folks get one is usually well below the rate of inflation.

Average price of gold in 2008 - $872.00/ounce.
Today's price - $1600.00/ounce.

Average price of a gallon of gas when Obama took office - $1.95
Today - $3.50.

Did your salary increase proportionately?

The delta is what you have lost due to inflation which is flattened a little more by the variants used to calculate the GDP.

So, admitedly if we were on a precious metal standard then inflation presumably would be far less (from the 1933 marker) than it is but not zero.

Also,
OK, so the price of gasoline also depends on foreign cartels which is another 21st century issue seeing that we have the potential to be independent of OPEC.

HankD

 

[carpro]

The Small Business Administration apparently really helped this business owner:

SBA Success Stories

Gary Skria is a minority.

Nuff said.

 

[Jerome]

Huh? What do you mean?


Skrla credits a government bureaucrat with motivating him to start the business:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090626/BIZ/706269907

Gary Skrla turned 60 in January, right around the same time he lost his job as a director of human resources for OfficeMax. Not quite six months later, he's stocking the shelves in his new hardware store.

Skrla, a poster child of sorts for SBA loan programs, saved $19,777 in waived fees on his SBA-backed loan, issued by Seattle-based Fortune Bank.

He credits his mentor in the SBA's SCORE workshop program, designed to offer counsel to entrepreneurs, with pushing him to open the store.

 

[carpro]

Skria is an ethnic minority. Otherwise, no SBA loan was likely.

That's the world we live in.