Poster of the Day
CARPE DIEM
Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Thursday, July 19, 2012
About Me
- Name: Mark J. Perry
- Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
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30 Comments:
So when a business fails, does Obama take "credit" for that also?
So when a business fails, does Obama take "credit" for that also?
No that is probably Bush's Fault. Possibly the Tea Party, or "the failed policies that caused the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression"
Clearly not Obama's fault at all.
I own a small business and I can honestly say that Mr Obama is completly respondsible for all of my success.
It is now evident to me that I took credit for everything simply because I have a big ego.
I'm sorry Mr President.
It's time for Obama to go out and get a new job and really have to work for a change.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Obamanomics [noun]
1. Ignorance of economics; throwing as much money as possible at problems; forcing the Federal Reserve into quantitative easings; creating and maintaining a deep depression; raising taxes to pay for massive failures; taking over multi-trillion dollar industries; fast track to national bankruptcy.
I take it no one hear has actually heard the speech Obama was being quoted from....
He was directly referring to public works like roads, not private business....
(sigh)
You're all victims of FOX news.
He was directly referring to public works like roads, not private business....
He may have been intending to say that, but he didn't.
Here is the video of the speech.
His exact words are "If you have a business, you didn't build that (1:40)." If he was talking about roads and schools, he should have said "you didn't build those." However, considering there has been no effort to claim the President misspoke, I cannot assume that he was referring to roads, etc. You may say I'm playing a game of semantics, but I am not. Grammar is important.
But, let's just assume that the President did mean roads, schools, and the American system. He is wrong on that count, too. We did build that: our taxes have already paid for these roads, schools, and bridges. Why do we owe more?
I take it no one hear has actually heard the speech Obama was being quoted from....
He was directly referring to public works like roads, not private business....
Pretty sure that everyone who reads and posts on this blog took the time to read the speech. Yes, the great orator was referring to infastructure, but his elevation of roads and bridges to equal importance with the efforts required have a successful business shows his ignorance. He always betrays his true feelings when he goes off script.
Even so his statements wouldn't be so egregious if he had continued to say that some less successful people need to take some personal responsibility. There is a reason that unemployment is so much higher for highschool dropouts. Obviously he doesnt believe this.
Michelangelo, you carved that statue, but someone else made that chisel and quarried that stone.
First Rank
Please get a clue - you must get your "news" from PMSNBC...Obama meant what he said and said what he meant. Reading your blog, it's obvious you are a far left loon who just doesn't get it.
I travel roads and cross a bridge every day. I pay a toll for the bridge and I pay for the roads every time I fill up my tank. Why is it that I'm supposed to pay extra tribute to government for paving those roads and erecting that bridge? Isn't that what those tolls and taxes are for?
And you know what? Thousands of other people travel those roads and bridges every day, too. They pay for them as well. Some of them have built successful businesses; some have not. Why exactly would those roads and bridges be a pertinent factor?
"So when a business fails, does Obama take "credit" for that also?"
no. it's a sign that you needed MORE help.
reagan:
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help"
obama:
"'I'm from the government and I'm here to help""
nuff said.
Thank you, Itchy and Murphy, for the intelligent comments.
I'm not actually a fan of Obama (far from it, didn't vote for him, either...) and I disagree with the vast majority of his policies.
It just seemed to me that he's been unfairly reamed lately for a very minor comment taken out of context. But you're probably right in that most people who read this blog would have taken the time to see the original speech in it's entirety.
Obama's spin doctors are furiously trying to explain away "you didn't build that!" but I haven't heard them come up with an explanation for why Obama felt the need to attack successful business owners when he said this:
"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!"
As James Taranto noted, the greatest orator on the planet apparently cannot construct a clear sentence when he goes off teleprompter, at least that's what his apparatchiks are now saying. But his 4 yr war on free enterprise gives us all the context we need to understand what he meant.
paul-
and let's not forget that he went on to claim that the government invented the internet etc.
"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."
government research created the internet?
this is a longstanding canard that the statists love to trot out.
some of the early internet applications were USED by the government, but they did not create it.
packet switching came from MIT.
the first computer connected by a phone line were private. that was 1965, 4 years before arpanet.
the government did not create any of this. they were, at best, a customer.
all the big key jumps were private.
packet routing, fiber optics, wave division multiplexing.
tcp/ip was developed by bbn.
reading the whole speech makes the context worse, not better. it makes it sounds more like the rearden metal speech from atlas shrugged.
"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."
this is pure populist pandering to the worst instincts of the class warriors.
sorry, but the context of this speech does not make me feel any better about what he said, and it is NOT at all clear he was just speaking of roads and bridges.
jon already laid that out.
the rest of the speech is full of "you owe the government for..." and bad logical slights of hand like somehow google owes the government.
worse, things like roads and internet are available to all. what's the rationale for those who use them better to be made responsible to those who do not? they already pay more for them.
Of course, all this hooplah aside, the point the President is trying make is legitimate: people prosper because of interactions with other people. This is one of the central lessons of economics.
People prosper because of other people. No one builds a car by himself. Someone mines the ore, someone smelts it, someone ships it, someone shapes it, sells it. But that is why we trade. When an automaker buys his steel, he pays the price and then the obligation between the two is ended. When a worker shapes the steel, the employer pays him, and then the obligation between the two has ended.
The point is correct. The conclusion is wrong. Someone is successful because is has fulfilled his prior obligations (paying suppliers, paying workers, providing a good product to the consumer), not because he took out credit, so to speak. So he does not, nay cannot "owe" anyone else for his success. He's already paid his obligations.
jon-
i think you leave something VERY important out of your analysis.
people prosper because of VOLUNTARY interactions with one another.
voluntary is the key word there and you cannot leave it out. omama is not talking about voluntary. he's not saying "you guys should go find people and trade with them".
he's saying some of you succeeded and i think we should coervicely take from you to benefit those who have not.
that is very, very different from voluntary transaction form both rights and an economic efficiency standard.
the granting of pickpocket licenses is not even zero sum, it's negative sum.
If some people are rich because of the government building roads and bridges, why isn't everyone rich?
Morganovich,
"this is a longstanding canard that the statists love to trot out."
Exactly. Obama infers the government planned the internet ".. so that all the companies could make money off the Internet." Government had a part in the evolution of the internet, but as a national security project, not a conscious, planned out effort to give the private sector a gift.
“In America, the guy looks up at a mansion on a hill and says, ‘One day, if I work really hard, I’m going to live in that mansion on the hill.’ In Dublin, they look at the mansion on the hill and they say, ‘One day, I’m going to get that bastard.’ “
~Bono
I guess Bono hadn't yet met Obama or any of this kool-aid drinkers when he said that.
think you leave something VERY important out of your analysis.
people prosper because of VOLUNTARY interactions with one another.
You are absolutely right, Morganovich. I had thought "voluntary" to be self-evident, but I should have said it regardless.
First-Rank:
Thank you for comment. As you can see you have provoked some highly intelligent and thoughtful responses.
It is irritants like you that make this blog such a great read.
"I had thought "voluntary" to be self-evident"
alas, in today's political climate, that may be quite a dangerous assumption.
First rank......
Many people tried to cover up the Bush-isms too, give up brah. Enjoy
Well about a year ago a great and wise man said: "I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool"...
firstrank says: "I take it no one hear has actually heard the speech Obama was being quoted from....
He was directly referring to public works like roads, not private business"...
Only if one is not even remotely tethered to reality do those lines make any sort of sense...
firstrank doubling down says: "I'm not actually a fan of Obama (far from it, didn't vote for him, either...) and I disagree with the vast majority of his policies.
It just seemed to me that he's been unfairly reamed lately for a very minor comment taken out of context. But you're probably right in that most people who read this blog would have taken the time to see the original speech in it's entirety"...
Taken Out of Context?!?!
Juandos,
Loved this from your link quoting Obama: "They know, the other side knows they can't sell their economic plan because we tried it and it didn't work."
Wow, just wow. The balls on this guy...
We've all heard his spin on the infrastructure, and I believe that is his view. The problem is that he still misses the point: every half assed lazy bum also had those roads, access to teachers, and the internet. So, since the infrastructure is common to all of us what separates the successful from the rest... They built something, they took a risk, they made sacrifices. The scary part of this is that even after it blows up and he spins it he still misses the point, that's how different he views things.
And while I am here ranting let me also point out that he has run his presidency this way. Healthcare, I just give speeches, boxer you just fill t full of shit cause I ain't gonna build that, somebody else will make it happen. What, economy falling apart at home, I will hire Canada to build me. Bad ass bus and will go on a campaign sai g at taxpayer ex
Autocorrect is killing my iPhones the point is he has had voluminous plans of what he wanted changed. However he had adsolutly nothing regarding g how the new plans should work. For him it is automatic. Somebody else will make tht happen.
Classic. I want this in Poster Size for my office! All Hail the King!
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