Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
Much has been written about President Obama’s recent speech in Roanoke. In case you missed it, here are some excerpts:
[I]f 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.
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.
Despite all the discussion devoted to his speech, as far as I’m aware, no one has yet mentioned the double-counting aspects that Obama invokes when discussing “help.” Specifically, he has an odd notion about what you do or do not owe for any help that you received in reaching your success.
This may be best illustrated if you think about how a teacher might have contributed to your success—especially if you think about that help, and any debt you may owe, from the perspective of your teacher
As a teacher, I believe that I have indeed helped many of my students—at least in minor ways—achieve success. However, even if that’s true, it does not follow that those students owe my anything for their success. They already paid any debt when they paid their tuition (or perhaps when they had that tuition paid by their parents or by another benefactor). I expect nothing more.
In contrast, President Obama seems to have a very different attitude. Under his notion it’s as if I, a teacher, make the following deal with you, my potential student: “You pay me (or more accurately, my employer) tuition money. In return, I’ll teach you (say) some political science concepts that will help you get into a good law school. Further, if afterward you get a job at a great law firm, you’ll owe me again for my teaching. And if you make partner at that law firm, you’ll owe yet again. And if you achieve further success, you’ll owe me once again.”
That clearly was not the deal we made. To treat our relationship as Obama treats it is to double-count my teaching.
In fact, if anything, the opposite is true. When I see my students succeed, I feel it is I who owe them, not the other way around. That is, when my students succeed, I look good as a teacher. It allows me to brag about their success, and it actually causes my salary to increase. In a truly just universe, it would be my unsuccessful students who would owe me additional money or gratitude, not my successful ones.
Something similar is going on with the rest of Obama’s speech. If you own a business, yes, it’s true, that you probably didn’t build it all yourself. However, if people helped you, you surely paid them for the help. You don’t owe them any more. Similarly, if your business was helped by roads or bridges that government built, you probably already paid taxes for those roads and bridges.
Yes, it’s good to recognize the help of others. But it’s not accurate, nor appropriate, to double-count that help. Obama and his supporters seem to miss this point.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
The government is an obstacle that most businesses must overcome, not a helping hand. Except for crony capital ventures (e.g. Solyndra) I suppose.
Jul '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
Obama has been creating tortured theories of obligation for a very long time. In fact, it may be his foremost career skill. It goes hand in hand with the tortured theories of race discrimination and the tortured theories of social "justice".
Our country gave this man the football. For four years.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. -- TJ
Apr '12
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
It makes a strange sort of sense if you think in terms of bigger results mean you were given more in the first place.
If you accept the notion that there is only one pie, it's not getting bigger and the only way you have more is by being given more,then it makes sense that those who have a lot must have been given a lot, and thus owe it to the folks who weren't give a lot.
This theory doesn't stand up to actually looking at what happens, but it doesn't screw with the "it's not your fault you're poor" junk.
Aug '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
Excellent post, and it really highlights the difference between the mentality of those who believe in free people and markets, and those who believe that people are part of a community or a collective.
I believe that my obligation to those around me is defined by how I have contracted with them. My mere existence does not build up some long tail of obligation to everyone around me who may have had a positive effect on me.
As you say, I don't owe my teacher because my teacher was already paid, and so the contractual obligation between us is over. I don't owe the road crew who built my road, because I paid taxes for my share of it.
If I buy a metal detector and use it along with my own brains and labor to discover a million dollars in treasure, It's true that I couldn't have done it without the metal detector. However, I still don't owe the metal detector inventor or the company that sold it to me, because my obligation ended when money changed hands in the original deal.
Oct '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
The flaw at the heart of Obamism is this: we don’t ‘thank’ our government because it’s of the people, by the people and for the people. We’d only be thanking ourselves. Our govt only exists because we will it and consent to it, precisely so it can serve us.
Obama thinks of the govt as an external, inorganic entity. To him, we should be like ancient Greeks and Romans who bowed before their gods as grateful supplicants. But do farmers thank their oxen for pulling the plow? Obama’s ideas in this area are demeaning to a free people in a democratic Republic. His speech speaks volumes about his fascistic tendency, meaning his idolatry of the State.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be grateful for the wisdom of the Founders. But it’s now our common legacy. We show gratitude for that wisdom by taking seriously the need to nurture our constitutional republic and pass it to our children stronger and more vibrant then when we inherited it.
Jun '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
That's so true. That's exactly how it works in Pyongyang, North Korea:
http://www.totorotimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/pyongyang-busy-street.jpg
Dec '11
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
1. Last I checked, that "whole bunch" of hardworking smart people ALSO had teachers, ALSO had road, ALSO had help from other people. Some of them had even MORE help. So what does that say?
2. If the people who got us where we are, are so danged important, why is it we were never allowed to ask Obama about the people who helped him get where he is?
Edited on July 20, 2012 at 7:25amMay '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
The more successful you are, the more you contribute to paying for teachers and roads, both directly through your own taxes, and indirectly by hiring people who in turn pay taxes. The unsuccessful should be grateful to you for pulling their weight.
Oct '11
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
Good point, Tim. I saw Peter Schiff quoted in the NY Post this morning making a similar point.
Edited on July 20, 2012 at 12:50amSep '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
What I find most off-putting about Obama's remarks and the mind-set they reveal is the materialistic view they take of the 'help' we all receive. The teacher has no doubt been paid, but I don't believe most teachers go into the field for the money, or take most of their satisfaction from it. And there are lots more people who are essential to the success of the successful, who aren't paid at all: parents, clergy, coaches, scout troop leaders, etc.
Obama's entire riff about how you didn't succeed just because you're smart and industrious is just another straw-man: who maintains that the successful owe absolutely nothing to anybody? But the tone that he uses demonstrates his disdain for that which the individual DID have to do for himself, which is to say, for most of what makes him successful.
And that makes sense, since Obama himself has not deserved the success he has achieved any more than he did the Nobel Prize. He knows he's a fraud, and he assumes everybody else must be as well.
Apr '12
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
It's obvious that the President wants to lionize government and shortchange small business owners, and it's perfectly reasonable for them to be offended. I still get rather discomfited by the ongoing clamor for a society with less communal ties, less gratitude and less interdependence.
I've recently seen many small business owners articulating reasons why they should be respected and thanked. They provide jobs, supply goods and services, keep the economy going, and so forth. I agree, and I do greatly appreciate them and their tireless efforts. But by the logic expressed herein, perhaps I should stop. Perhaps I should say, "Pipe down, small business owners! If I want your services I'll pay for them. And then you should be grateful to me for the opportunity to help me flourish!"
Why can't we just all try to be more grateful to everyone (including even those darned road crews and bridge-builders... they're actual people, you know, not just numbers on a document), rather than getting so up-in-arms about what we're "owed"? The correct response to the President is to point out the many ways in which government hinders business, rather than helping.
Mar '11
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
It requires a lot of capital, risk, and time away from friends and family to start a business. 60% of new businesses fail. If teachers deserve credit for successful businesses, then do they also get blamed for businesses that fail?
May '10
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
The only thing Barack Obama has created in large amounts in the last 3 1/2 years, besides debt, is an army of straw men.
This time, I believe, like Pat Sajak, that he has created a moment, whether it was what he meant or not, that has led a lot of suspicious voters to say, "I knew it."
It wouldn't be resonating if there wasn't fertile ground for believing that this is one of his core beliefs. Fair or not, this is karma for our socialist president.
Edited on July 20, 2012 at 3:52amDec '11
Re: Double-Counting "Help" in Obama’s “If You’ve Been Successful” Speech
The thing is misses here, and it underscores his utter cluelessness when it comes to the free market, is that it is not intelligence or hard work that creates success (though it helps) - it is ingenuity and the willingness to take risks. I'm a bright guy and I work hard, but I became a teacher in part because it was a safe career path. I am very risk adverse, always have been. I know people who have put it all on the line and lost, and those who have reaped great rewards. I respect both, and envy neither.