An internet meme I can get behind:

[Firestickfilms]

What then is the end game to the argument of "you didn't build that"? What is the therefore...? To continue the TLG thread since he threw it out there, "Todd you didn't build your business, someone else made that happen...therefore"... ? Todd is overwhelmed by the circular reasoning and breaks down in tears and says OKAY!! I give up! I am nothing without all of these other people offering me untold advantages that the underclass doesn't have!!!" What do you or Obama want from him?

To acnoledge that there is a responsibility to create opportunity for others as was done for him. Now he may voluteer and give to charity and do this in many "personal" ways but he cannot build a public school, or public transportation or maintain an F22 Raptor.

To be clear the "That" in the statement is not reffering to Todd's business, (although bad syntax, makes it seem that way) it's the roads, schools & opportunities that afforded him his business. It's not denying him his accomplishments, just acknowledging that they come with responsibility.

[Firestickfilms]

So in other words, this whole thing is about Obama stating the obvious? Because, yeah, the economy would probably not work if there was only one person on Earth. Hard to be an instructor (or doctor, or lawyer, or general contractor, or garbage man) if there were no other people. Thank God for other people!

He's a politician. Stating the obvious is what gets you (re)elected. More specifically telling a group of people that work for business owners that those business owners have a responsibilty to them is an easy crowd pleaser.

[SecondsCount]

Some context is usually helpfull...

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” Obama said.*“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.”*

You can hate on Obama all you like (I certainly disagree with him about guns) but it doesn't make his point any less valid. BTW I'm a self employed entrepreneur and business owner.

You have to look this in an even larger context than the above statement. This is a man that thinks the United States Government is the greatest thing to happen to mankind.

[LHS]

Government has its place. It's job is to do things that individuals can't, and corporations shouldn't. Things like maintaining a standing army, building an interstate highway system, and creating critical infrastructure like bridges, water/sewage systems, etc. And in truth, we need these things to have the kind of environment where businesses can thrive. Think how much we as a civilization rely on things like mass distribution of water, gas, electricity, etc. We rely on roads for transportation of goods. We have built, over successive generations, an incredibly integrated system of shipping raw materials and finished goods around the nation. It behooves us to keep that system reasonably well maintained, and in the hands of people who are at least theoretically accountable to We The People. The answer isn't government monopoly, but it's not letting GE dictate the price of electricity alone either. We need private industry to keep dreamers grounded in reality, and we need regulations to keep competition alive between industrial corporations in order to prevent monopolization and price fixing. Like most things in life, there's an elusive middle ground that works better than the fringes.

There are a myriad of reasons to dislike Obama. I know I have several. But pulling quotes out of context and then raising hell over them doesn't help our efforts to vote him out of the White House. It only makes us, his opponents, look illogical and easily dismissed. I'd vastly prefer using Obama's attacks on Romney vis-a-vis his role in Bain Capital to revisit the Bill Ayers and Jeremiah White issues. After all, if Romney tacitly endorsed Bain's offshoring strategies in the early '00s by being a silent CEO, doesn't that mean Obama tacitly endorses leftist terrorism and virulent racism by silently standing by Ayers and White?

[Joe in PNG]

If I may use an analogy, no general can win a war by himself- no one person is able to fight an army on their own.
However, it is the general who is either credited or blaimed for the outcome of the battle, and very rightly so. A really good general (Stonewall Jackson, Von Lettow, Caeser) can fight against astounding odds to win victory, while a terrible general (Cardona, Cardigan) can somehow manage to somehow get defeated no matter how many advantages he should have.

[ford.304]

I think both sides are trying to support a nuanced difference in philosophy by torching straw men.

Everyone acknowledges that their lives and businesses would not be possible without the hard work of their ancestors to give them their initial opportunities, the hard work of their business partners and employees, or the whole system that allows the market to work and business to function. No one is disputing that. So why is he pushing the point in a speech?

Because the difference is how much emphasis is placed on the individual action within that framework. Does where you end up depend more on where you start or what you do with what you start? Moe importantly, does responsibility for your relative position lie with you or the environment. Conservatives are entirely willing to admit that a guy from a loW income family is going to have a harder time starting a billion dollar business... But whether you coast on what you were given or build something new out of it is entirely on you. You didn't build the foundation, or the road to get to the driveway, and the size of the house may have been limited by that foundation, but you sure as hell built the house. And you should be able to take pride in that, because a lot of people had the same opportunities you did and are still sleeping in tents.

[NETim]

I believe The One is a collectivist at heart. His comment is part of an ongoing effort to downplay and ridicule the notion of individualism.

All bow before the State.

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them. -- P. J. O'Rourke

[TCinVA]

By building one of the planet's most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity." ~ Barack Obama statement on the death and life of Steve Jobs

My, how time changes things.

[fixer]

So to say that you could have gotten to this place solely on your own is not credible.
You were lucky enugh to be born into a home, community and a country that allowed you to pursue these endevours, and you could not have achieved them without the support of your parents, teachers, community, collegues, software developers and the internet.

So the point Obama's making is again "you didn't build that". "That" being the opportunities that afforded you your business success.

Now, where I think the real philosophical divide is, is who you believe the government should be trying to create those opportunities for? Those that have sucsess already or those in need of opportuinites for sucsess in the first place.

I think you have an extremely naive perspective on what was being implicated by Obama. It is obvious that technology always advances. The advances that come "before" us logically and naturally did not come from us.

What Obama was implying was that success can not happen without daddy government. And that because of this, if some are more successful than others, then they owe more back to government.

[NETim]

http://didntbuildthat.com/