Likely voters believe that entrepreneurs who start businesses do more to create jobs and economic growth than big businesses or government.
72 percent of likely voters, according to Rasmussen, also believe that people who start and grow their businesses are primarily responsible for the success or failure of those businesses.
This brings us to the "you didn't built that" Obama comment that has now been heard or seen reported, hundreds of times, across the country and how taken in context of his other comments that day or out of context, both show that "Obama doesn't understand prosperity."
Jason Hughey, policy analyst for Americans for Prosperity:
Americans have long understood that success is earned, not given. Poll data shows
that Americans consistently believe that an individual’s hard work is, by far, the best determination of success. We deserve to be rewarded for the projects we successfully complete, for the services we provide, and yes — for the businesses that we build. Such endeavors are not easy. In fact, running a successful business operation (large or small) requires monumental levels of individual perseverance. No amount of personal coaching, friendly instruction, government-paved roads, or police protection will cause businessmen to succeed. To do so, entrepreneurs have to go to the next level and take ownership of their business endeavors, develop business models, make numerous mistakes along the way, and ultimately work extremely hard.
But on Friday, President Obama declared that this traditional American vision of earned success is fundamentally wrong. It would have been one thing had he merely said that social influences, such as teachers, parents, and policemen, helped to create the conditions under which businessmen could succeed; that’s obvious and no one disputes it. However, President Obama went much further, asserting that successful businessmen did not build their own businesses, but that “someone else” did it for them. To get the country out of these economic doldrums we don’t need people sitting around waiting for “someone else” to do it for them; we need hardworking individuals to step up.
Members of the business community are understandably outraged by the president’s remarks. The National Federation of Independent Business commented that, “unfortunate remarks over the weekend show an utter lack of understanding and appreciation for the people who take a huge personal risk and work endless hours to start a business and create jobs.”
Ultimately, taken in context with the rest of the speech, President Obama’s rhetoric was an inarticulate attempt to drum up support for his goal to increase taxes on the wealthy. At a time when the top 10% of income earners already pay 71% of the nation’s taxes and the U.S. has the highest corporate income tax in the world, the president has resorted to dangerous rhetoric that implies Americans are not entitled to the fruit of their own labor. With this mindset, it is no wonder the president’s policies have failed to create jobs and sustain economic growth.
Polling shows that Americans disapprove of Obama's economic policies and job performance, and perhaps his disconnect, his lack of understanding of Capitalism, prosperity and how the free market works, can explain why his economic recovery efforts have failed so spectacularly.
