Comments on Building

I was watching Rep Paul Ryan's (R-WI) speech at the Republican National Convention on YouTube yesterday.  At 23 minutes or so, he mentioned President Obama's "you didn't build that" speech. I had heard about the speech in Virginia in July, but I hadn't watched it.  So I took a peek at the short version linked above to see what the big deal was. I'm going to share a few quotes from the small part of the speech I watched, relay what I think President Obama is saying, and then where I agree and disagree with him.

"If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own." That is the first glaring comment by the President.  He continues on to suggest that one's success is not due to one's intelligence or hard work; there are plenty of smart, hard-working people out there [implying not all of them are "successful"]. "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help." A great teacher, someone who helped to create the American system that allows us to thrive. "...somebody who invested in roads, bridges, if you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." President Obama summarizes the above with, "...when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together." He then continues to provide examples of how the Government does everything that's worthwhile, implying Government is the only way to work together.

Alright, now we get to me interpreting what I think President Obama is saying with this speech. President Obama believes that because any one person is not completely, 100% self-sufficient from birth, one person cannot be responsible for their life (success or failure). The now-famous "you didn't build that" wasn't directly referring to the business; instead it was directly referring to the roads and bridges. Indirectly, he means the business owner couldn't have built the business if the government hadn't built the road to it. Since the business owner didn't personally construct the building, lay the road, and build the power grid he cannot claim full ownership of his business, let alone his life. He OWES part of his existence (if not all of it) to "other people."

I agree with President Obama that one man cannot do everything for himself. I agree that working together is a good thing; we're all better off working together. I disagree with why we work together and the level of indebtedness we incur by working together. In a free society, voluntary exchange rules the interactions between free persons. In a voluntary exchange, each party provides something of value to the other party. By its very nature, a voluntary exchange benefits both parties; a free person would not execute an exchange voluntarily if there was no benefit. Because the parties exchanged value for value, no further debt is owed after the exchange is complete. An employee like a teacher exchanges his labor for a paycheck. Farmers exchange their produce for the market value in US dollars. A business owner exchanges taxes for the construction and maintenance of roads and infrastructure. Beyond these voluntary exchanges, nothing is owed. [OK, taxes are less voluntary, but you get the idea.] In short, people work together because it's mutually beneficial and there is no lingering debt owed to "other people" once we've worked together (completed a voluntary exchange).