Deconstructing Elizabeth Warren and You didnt build that Most of you recall Elizabeth Warren (and then

Barack Obamas) line about Nobody got rich on their own. If you dont, you can watch it here. http://youtu.be/hOyDR2b71ag Warren used an interesting rhetorical device in personalizing the successful business person but socializing the source of public works. She basically used Alinskys 11th Rule for Radicals:
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Dont try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.

If I had been a wealthy business owner in the room (in fact any business owner) I would have listened politely as she ranted about how we didnt build the roads our goods went to market on, how we didnt educate our work force and how we didnt hire our own private security force to protect our businesses. We didnt do that. They did.
Business Person Ms. Warren. You say we didnt do any of those things? Who did? Elizabeth Warren We did. BP So everyone in this room is either a construction worker, school teacher or a policeman? EW Of course not. Dont be stupid. When I say we did I mean the people, the Government.

BP

Well since you want to speak for all the people, permit me to speak for all the business owners in Massachusetts. You say the people, the government did it? How did government pay for all of this building and educating and policing? EW With tax money! BP And where did their tax money come from? EW From their income. BP And where did their income come from? EW From their wages. BP And who paid them their wages? EW Their employers. BP You mean me and the rest of the business owners? You see Professor, government has nothing of its own. It can spend no money that it doesnt first extract from the private sector. With capital, I can find a field, call a real estate broker and buy it. He earns a commission and has to pay taxes on that. The previous owner, if he makes a profit has to pay taxes on that too. Then I hire an architect to design my factory. He has to pay taxes on the fees I pay him. Then I hire a contractor who hires construction workers to build it and they all pay taxes too. I have to buy the building materials which have to be manufactured which takes employees and they all pay taxes as well. Now once my factory is built on which I pay property taxes, I go out and hire

people to make my product and they pay taxes. Finally my product is being made and I start selling it and pay taxes on the profits. It doesnt end there but you get my point. So with all due respect Professor Warren, take 1000 of the most highly skilled, highly educated workers out into a field with no factory, no tools and no materials and then call me when youve built a Prius.