To begin with, it is asinine to attempt to tell the founder of a business that he or she did not create that business. The also not so subtle implication is that they didn’t create the jobs that follow any business.
Try telling that to Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Did Henry Ford not create Ford Motors? I seriously doubt he would accept that denunciation if he were alive today. And what about the over 7 million patents issued by the US Patent office. Did those listed as inventors not conceive the idea that became the patent?
Well, who did create those businesses then? I believe Obama, Warren, and the socialist left would like us to believe that the government did this all by itself. What hubris! What arrogance! What stupidity!
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak saw the vanguard of microprocessor development and decided to risk their meager fortunes on creating a computer for use by everyone. That idea became Apple Computers, which is arguably worth over 1.4 trillion dollars today and employs some 110,000 people in well-paying jobs. This, incidentally, was a new twist on the same idea Henry Ford had when he created the automobile everyone could afford.
So how much money did the government put into developing these companies? That would be none! How much assistance did the government lend to get these companies off the drawing board? Again, none! All right, did the government give tax incentives to get the companies started? Nope! Did the government loan the businesses money to build their plants? You have to be kidding!
Warren and Obama can only offer the lame argument that the government provided roads to transport goods and a safe secure country for the business to thrive in. Well, sure, the goods these businesses use may come in through government run ports and over government built roads; the same roads and ports their products need for distribution. And yes, this is a great country in which to have a business. But these things are not exclusive for businesses. We all use them. It is part of what a country does.
What the government doesn’t do, and frankly can’t do, is provide the spark of creativity that spawns a new business. Government doesn’t fuel the drive that makes a business grow. Government doesn’t create companies and doesn’t create private sector jobs. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not a measure of government productivity. It is purely a factor of private business output!
Many countries have found that the way to kill productivity and subsequently productive jobs is by nationalizing what used to be private businesses. When a government gets involved in business in any form, it results in reduced productivity, fewer meaningful and productive jobs, and ultimately a lower GDP.
Although there are millions of people working directly for the government, we need to keep in mind that the government produces nothing. You can’t buy government made cars, government made food, or anything made exclusively made by the government. The government has no products and therefore, is not even a factor in our GDP. And as communist China, Vietnam and even Cuba are finding out, private businesses and free trade are the lifeblood of any country.
Kill businesses through government takeover, excessive regulation, high taxes, and dictated wages, and you will kill the geese that lay the golden eggs.
