Reagan: Entrepeneurs Contribute Far More To Society Than They Ever Recover
“You didn’t build that,” our current President says of entrepreneurs and their businesses. “Somebody else made that happen.” According to Obama, if you’re successful, it’s not because you’re smart of hard working. It’s because society, by and through the government, brought prosperity to you.
This is why President Obama and Democrats/liberals are always talking about prosperous Americans giving something back (usually through higher taxes). As if they took something from the rest of us to make themselves prosperous in the first place.
These are comments that set off a firestorm of criticism and debate this week. To put them in context, let’s listen to how Ronald Reagan (who Obama has often cited as one of his favorite Presidents) talked about entrepreneurs (via Jim Hoft):
“Small business is the gateway to opportunity for those who want a piece to the American Dream,” said President Reagan. “The character and conscience of small business built this nation. You know, in his book Wealth and Poverty George Gilder wrote something about entrepreneurs that I’ve long believed. He said that most contribute far more to society than they ever recover. And most of them win no riches at all. They are the heroes of economic life.”
Reagan believed that entrepreneurs created prosperity for others simply by making themselves prosperous. That’s absolutely true, and if you don’t believe it, here’s a challenge.
Name one entrepreneur (not a despot or a criminal or a lottery winner but an actual entrepreneur) who ever got rich without creating jobs and prosperity for others along the way while simultaneously providing their customers with goods and/or services they wanted.
You can’t name one, because in a free market you don’t get rich at the expense of others. You get rich by providing others with what they want, and engaging in a lot of job-creating commerce along the way.
If I get rich selling donuts, it’s because other people want to buy my donuts, and the only way I can provide them with those donuts is by buying ingredients and equipment from other businesses and hiring other people to help me make them.
The left believes that we can’t let people get too rich because getting rich comes at the expense of others. But this isn’t based on reality. We should want more rich people, because rich people make other people prosperous.
Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, free markets, ronald reagan
