You Didn’t Build That

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are fond of saying, “You didn’t build that” when it comes to business owners. They imply that government was responsible for the infrastructure such as roads, police and fire protection, etc., that allowed the business to happen and be successful.  Without it, there would be no business.

But isn’t that the function of government, to build and maintain infrastructure?  And where does the money come from to build this infrastructure?  It comes from us.  We pay taxes to the government for this purpose.  The government didn’t “earn” this money.  The government didn’t decide to do these things out of the kindness of their heart; this is what we pay them to do.  And often, they don’t do a very good job of it.

I own a house.  I pay taxes.  Sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes, gasoline taxes and the list goes on.  I pay these taxes so when I leave my taxed property in my taxed car, bearing a government required license plate, to buy some taxed gas,  there will be a road for me to drive on.  While I am away, there will be police protection for my home.  Should it catch fire, the fire department my taxes support will do their best to save it.  I and all of my neighbors pay for these services.

Now, if I decide to start a part time, bicycle repair business in my garage, all of the sudden these roads and protections that exist to me as a citizen, that my taxes pay for, now become some kind of free government benefit? And as a business, I would pay even more taxes and fees just for the privilege of working.  So explain to me again how the government built a bicycle repair shop and I didn’t?

The biggest indicator that government has little to do with the success of a business is that if the business is run like most government agencies, it would fail.

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