A friend of mine posted this on his FaceBook page. Proud of his accomplishment, and apparently devoid of reason, then proceeded to defend this statement. You would think that one with a bit of reason and common sense could look at this and just laugh a little, remember that Liberals as a whole from base are incapable of producing outside of academics, and just dismiss this woman as someone who has never successfully managed a business. But no, sadly, this is not the case. So, I'm going to take this quote, break it down piece by piece, and dispell it one misgiving at a time.
"There is nobody in this country that got rich on their own. Nobody." Partially true, and mostly not true. This statement implies that in order to get rich, you had to have help. You are incapable of doing it on your own. The only part of that statement that is remotely close to true is that nobody makes money without the help of people either purchasing their goods or services. That very narrow part of this statement is in any way remotely true. Here's the sheer ignorance of that comment. Nobody was there when your receipts were higher than the take home. Nobody stopped by Steve Jobs' garage and said "hey Steve, here's your light bill money. I'm sure this pear or grape or whatever fruit you're naming this place is going to take off but until then, send your bills to me and I'll pay them for you while you're living your dream." That conversation never took place. Meanwhile, buying the gas that paid for the roads, Steve Jobs drove Steve Jobs up and down the road pitching this thing long before an Apple II or Lisa ever graced anyone's home. Oh yeah, and Steve Jobs paid Steve Jobs' taxes all along too. No one, NO ONE, paid his way. This type of comment is the kind of comment made by someone who has never done what someone's done to get where they are. This is the kind of comment made by someone with a very perceptionally deficient view of just how a business get started and becomes successful.
"You built a factory out there -- good for you" Yeah it's all the rage these days. Let's just go build a factory. I mean it's not like we're not taking all the risk. Remember, no body ever got rich on their own. Right?! This woman makes it sound like you can just walk into a bank and with nothing more than an idea and a cup of coffee, you get this money, build this factory, and whoop there it is. You didn't put your name on the dotted line, you didn't risk your entire financial future at all. Remember, you aren't doing this on your own at all. You had to have help, the underlying statement here is government had to help you. You're incapable of doing this on your own. No risk on your part whatsoever, you just got the money and ran off to build your factory. Nevermind that if this goes belly up, you're going to be a soup kitchen come Monday morning, you just walked in there and they let you have it. Not quite the most ignorant part of this quote, but it's certainly in the top five.
"You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for." This one's in the top three and shows she has no knowledge whatsoever about how interstate commerce works. Also shows a complete lack of knowledge of how tax structures work. I move my goods to market on roads that not only I pay for, everyone that works for me pays for, the guy that owns the truck pays for in triplicate depending on how many miles are logged on the trip, through various registrations, licensing fees, inspections, and tags, it's conceivable that the average person that needs a fleet of only ten trucks pays more for the roads they use than 100 private motorists pay for in a year. The costs are astronomical per rig to put one on the road. Around 900 dollars a day in fuel alone keeps a truck on the road. Balance that against your hybrid, or even my Malibu four cylinder which runs me about 36 dollars a week at 3.40 a gallon. Make no mistake, Elizabeth, each truck on the road pays MORE than its fair share a day to get you the computer you use to write this garbage.
"You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate." Lump this one in with the last paragraph. My parents have been paying for the last 25 years for education that I will never use. When I went to a private school, no one told them hey you can hang onto this money. So, they paid twice for me to go to school the first ten years of my education. They're not in a boat by themselves. I've been paying for the last 20 years for education that I will never be able to use. And if I do actually go to a JC or a CC, I pay them as well. That's in the top two for comments made out of ignorance.
"You were safe in your factory because of the police forces and fire forces the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come in and seize everything at your factory..." This one is tied for number one in the ignorance factor. Once again, this shows a glaring lack of understanding of the tax system and what it's there for. I pay a certain amount of property tax. My property tax goes to fund police, fire, and trash pickup. Guess what, Elizabeth? Someone who owns commercial property pays three times as much per square foot than I do. Why? Because it might need more of said services, so it costs more. That's why. And to all the people who agree with her and think I might be off my rocker? Call your local mayor and have them explain to you where your taxes go. They'll be happy to tell you the features and benefits of property tax and why it's going up again next year by one to six percent depending on where you live. But before you flame me, make that call. I dare you.
"Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea -- God Bless!" This ties for number one in ignornant comments because you led off with nobody ever got rich on their own. Now all of a sudden I did something and it worked? Really?! You're going to let me take credit for doing it now? I appreciate that.
"Keep a big hunk of it." I'd love to keep more of it than 62%, which, after it's all said and done, taxes are paid, expenses are covered the product, holding some back for capital repairs that will be needed to please OSHA, the power to make that factory run, the water so workers have a place to get something to drink and a place to relieve themselves on break, now I get to make payroll. Gee, thanks for that hunk. Oh, here comes the best part of it all. I'm about to create a taxpayer with this thing called payroll. And those people are going to be assisting me as well in paying it forward as you put it. At the end of the year, if I show just three percent growth, Wall Street makes me a solid buy.
"But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along." They've been doing that. What you need to understand is there's something out there that's bigger than you. Their "hunk" as you put it, possibly in terms you can understand as well as your listeners, readers and worshipers, equals about 700 years of your paycheck. And that's just one year of their hunk as you put it.
Bottom line is this. The money is there. It's up to the government you are so fond of to learn how to use it in a more wise manner. Everything that you listed there was once private enterprise. Roads were once private enterprise. Schools were once local enterprise. If you want it to be fixed, stop asking for more money and start holding the people who spend the money responsible for the money spent. You can throw a million dollars per person into education. If the teacher isn't educating, you're wasting money. The answer is not to throw more money at it, it's to make the recipients of said money accountable when students can't read. If someone graduates illiterate, twelve people failed that student and no amount of money is going to fix that. If a road falls through, 300 people are responsible for that and no amount of money is going to fix that. If police and fire are inadequate, 24 politicians are responsible for that and no amount of money is going to fix that.
That's the bottom line, Elizabeth.
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