ObamaLegacyPart6 <– PDF
Returning to Mr. Obama’s governing principle, as noted in the first edition, it is evident that his domestic policy was founded on economic and political socialism. It was seen early on in his confrontation during the 2008 campaign with Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber”. On 16 Oct 2008, Mr. Wurzelbacher asked Mr. Obama about tax policy regarding small businesses, and Mr. Obama responded a long roundabout answer in which he concluded that “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody”.
Pretty weak response for a Messiah, I might add. In any case, Mr. Obama’s remark was often cited as symptomatic of the kind of “politics of envy” practiced so well by socialists. Under the notion of envy, Joe is regarded as evil because Joe enjoys a higher economic status than other people. But it is worse than that — this remark was evidence that Mr. Obama has bought into the false notion that if one person gains, it is only because another person (or group) has lost. He fails to see, as do all socialists, that every exchange is made because everyone benefits at least indirectly. If we apply that correct principle to Joe the Plumber it works out like this.
When Mr. Obama goes into his kitchen and turn on his tap water, he enjoys fresh water because of the efforts of Joe and all the other plumbers for the last several centuries who have figured out how to provide fresh water, collect the dirty water, transport it to a purification station, clean it up and recycle it, and pump it back to Mr. Obama’s kitchen tap. All the efforts of all those people over that time has led to fresh water for nearly all Americans (unless you live in Flint MI, where the illustrious local government poisoned it). Joe did not invent the science of plumbing; he is a focused, specialized practitioner of the accumulated science. His benefit to society manifests itself such that that if someone in the community has a plumbing problem, it is much cheaper, more convenient, and faster for him to call a professional plumber than it is to fix it himself (at least for most people). That is because most people live by specialization themselves — whether they are doctors, electricians, mechanics, or social workers. Everyone benefits from specialization because those services are, in the long run, cheaper than doing those things oneself. In other words, if one earns a profit from some activity or profession, someone else gains. The person who needs plumbing work generally gains because Joe is available to do it cheaper than he could do it himself.
This whole notion that the profit of one is also a profit to another is counter to the socialist maxim that one who profits does so only at the expense, or loss of another. The fact that Joe the Plumber worked hard and has a successful business is evidence to the socialist that he is an exploiter of his customers; failing to realize that if Joe really were exploiting his customers, he would soon not have any left due to competition in a free society. This blind spot on socialist theory has led them, including Mr. Obama, to conclude that it is the government’s duty to prevent “exploitation” by private enterprise in order to ensure equality for all. A socialist never reveals how he will achieve equality, or in what manner equality is measured and verified. Government can only do things by force: it has no moral compass. “Equality” is reached in a socialist society when the ruling elite continuously takes as much as it can without provoking a revolution.
Mr. Obama had made an earlier speech (13 Jul 2008) about small business, in which he pointed out that although businessmen work hard, they also benefit from roads and bridges and other infrastructure, concluding “you didn’t build that”. It is true that everyone benefits from those latter categories, not just Joe: did not Mr. Obama also benefit? Of course: but Mr. Obama accuses Joe and other successful people of ignoring those common benefits (i.e., what was called “the common good” in the U. S. Constitution, if he had read it), and uses them in his exploitation, conveniently forgetting that while the government may have managed the building of that infrastructure, it was the working people like Joe that paid for it. They continue to pay for it; but Mr. Obama apparently wants us to believe that thinks that the governmental ruling class provides these for free out of their own pockets.
Socialists believe that someone must lose when someone else profits. But he himself has made a great deal of money by publishing several books, although he did not invent papermaking, or typesetting, or binding or editing, or all the other efforts that go into publishing a book. He didn’t build publishing any more than Joe built plumbing, yet he claims Joe is the exploiter. Mr. Obama took advantage of the copyright laws (established for the common good) just as Joe took advantage of the public utilities. Now, if Joe is an exploiter who caused people to lose when he gained from his plumbing business, maybe Barack the Messiah can give us a list of names of those who lost because he gained on the publication of his books.
