President Obama's Friday afternoon special in Virginia was a hymn to the achievements of government. When Obama said that if you have a business you didn't build it but "somebody else" did, he clearly meant that it was government that deserved the credit, not those pesky entrepreneurs.
After a few days of percolating, the Obama remark has engendered all sorts of responses. Nearly all of them are negative, although that could hardly surprise anyone who understands the American work ethic and the American Dream. One of my favorite response, however, has not gotten that much attention.
Obama seemed to be crediting the government for building roads and bridges that allowed the business to function. So let's examine that claim a bit further. There are roads and bridges in countries like Russia and North Korea. There are governments that function in Syria and Iran. Fut these countries are not free, and their businesses do not, for the most part, prosper. In North Korea, the government is involved in every aspect of life; under the Obama view, that country should be a paradise on earth. Instead, North Korea is a virtual prison camp in which the people live as captives of their government. The people there just keep getting poorer, thinner and shorter. Malnutrition is a way of life. But government is in everything, just like Obama wants.
The truth is that government is not the solution to our problems; it is the problem. We all know that, but some ideologues like Obama reguse to recognize reality.
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