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+--- Thread: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? (/showthread.php?tid=138917)
Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - swampy - 07-17-2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8XhQfvpW8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Huh? Somebody else built my business? He makes it sound like the things it took to build and maintain my business are given to me for free. Yes, I use the telephone, Internet, postal service, shipping services, manufacturing services, and many other things to run my business, but I _PAY_ those other businesses for their use. When I need letter head and envelopes, I go to a printer and PAY them. When I log on to the Internet, I pay both the phone company for the DSL connectIon and the ISP for email service, I PAY taxes for the building of roads that my goods travel over. All the goods and services that I use are businesses in and of themselves that required someone to invest their money and take the risk to set in place so they could SELL them to to people like me so they could make a PROFIT.
How can this man fix our economy when he doesn't have a basic understanding of what makes it work?
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - Wild eep - 07-17-2012
Now let's put it in to context.
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, 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. (Applause.)
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. 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. 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.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires. wrote:
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - Gutenberg - 07-17-2012
Why don't we allow people to comment on the full context of Obama's speech?
We’ve already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can make some more cuts in programs that don’t work, and make government work more efficiently…We can make another trillion or trillion-two, and what we then do is ask for the wealthy to pay a little bit more …
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me, because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -look, 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.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. 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.
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.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for president – because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together.”
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - Gutenberg - 07-17-2012
The point being, it's pretty lame and ridiculous to excise 10 seconds of a speech about America's greatness and use it to pound our President.
Your success is the combination of a lot of effort by a lot of people--your parents, your teachers, the guys who maintain the roads, the people who run the water works, the people who maintain the power plant and grid. It doesn't matter if you pay your rates for these services. You could not possibly have built all these things yourself. It took a lot of effort and considerable expense by a lot of people--and the evil government.
Obama is absolutely right. We are all in this together, and when this country was much stronger than it is now, it was the result of a more equitable distribution of income and resources. When this country is brought to its knees, as it is now, it is mainly because of a greedy upper class.
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - Pam - 07-17-2012
No one lives in a vacuum. An honest business person will tell you it takes smarts, hard work, and some luck to be successful. They'll also be quick to credit mentors, teachers, parents, and the good old USA for making it possible in the first place.
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - Avenger - 07-17-2012
I always wondered how Apple came about until last night. The answer was right in front of me all along; roads and bridges. Even if Steve Jobs came out with the idea for Apple I, how could he get out of his house without roads. Throw in Safeway too. How could he survive without food? We would still be on our IBM PC/XT. There are no shortages of people like jobs. They are all over the place. They just don't have roads leading to their door steps. There is no telling what they could do.
Then I started pondering about myself. How did I move here, get a job, raise children and become a successful person that I am today? Last night I found my answer: KLM. That's right, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. I would still be groveling in dirt in some far away land if it wasn't for KLM.
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - $tevie - 07-17-2012
If you don't agree with the President's view of a country as greater than the sum of its parts, that's fine. But that's merely a difference of opinion which hardly merits all the storm und drang.
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - mick e - 07-17-2012
Mitt Romney wrote:
"Corporations are people, my friend."
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - Avenger - 07-17-2012
What made you successful Stevie? Your driveway? How else would you get out of your house?
Re: Another Joe The Plumber Moment? - swampy - 07-17-2012
I'm not saying we don't need teachers, roads, electric grids and all the rest, I'm just saying we PAY for these things either through the free economy or our taxes. It's not like teachers work for nothing. My business depends on other people DOING THEIR BUSINESSand doing it well.
The government doesn't build roads. People and businesses build the roads. The government, with my tax dollar, PAYS for materials and labor. It's all about COMMERCE. Obama wants it to be about altruistic warm and fuzzy, caring and sharing. Is that's what they teach in economic classes at Harvard?