The Corner

‘Obama Against the Self-Made Man’

I write today about President Obama’s “you didn’t do it on your own” riff, borrowed from the redoubtable Elizabeth Warren. At one level, of course, what the president said is simply a banality: All of us rely on others to make us what we are — our families, our communities, etc. At another level, it is profoundly disturbing: It denies pride of place to individual achievement and creativity. Pace Obama, roads and bridges aren’t the key ingredients to business success. All of us drive on the roads; very few of us have the vision and determination to become successful entrepreneurs. Taken to its logical extreme, the Obama point of view is warrant for socializing the rewards of a free economy. 

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