Barack Obama The official "You didn't build that!" thread

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misspelled....sorry.
 
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“He didn't invent iron ore and blast furnaces, did he?”

“Who?”

“Rearden. He didn't invent smelting and chemistry and air compression. He couldn't have invented his Metal but for thousands and thousands of other people. His Metal! Why does he think it's his? Why does he think it's his invention? Everybody uses the work of everybody else. Nobody ever invents anything.”

She said, puzzled, “But the iron ore and all those other things were there all the time. Why didn't anybody else make that Metal, but Mr. Rearden did?”

- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
 
“He didn't invent iron ore and blast furnaces, did he?”

“Who?”

“Rearden. He didn't invent smelting and chemistry and air compression. He couldn't have invented his Metal but for thousands and thousands of other people. His Metal! Why does he think it's his? Why does he think it's his invention? Everybody uses the work of everybody else. Nobody ever invents anything.”

She said, puzzled, “But the iron ore and all those other things were there all the time. Why didn't anybody else make that Metal, but Mr. Rearden did?”

- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

My friend also posted that quote on Facebook. Scary how Ayn Rand knew how socialists think.
 
My friend also posted that quote on Facebook. Scary how Ayn Rand knew how socialists think.
In a way it's true though. All inventors and creators stand on the shoulders of the many generations before them. It's just how culture works. Rand was an admirer of Aristotle and Mises, for example. There really are no "new" ideas-only reformulations and realizations of old ideas. If creativity were forced to exist in a vacuum, there would be no progress. That said, the gist of the meme is exactly right.
 
In a way it's true though. All inventors and creators stand on the shoulders of the many generations before them. It's just how culture works. Rand was an admirer of Aristotle and Mises, for example. There really are no "new" ideas-only reformulations and realizations of old ideas. If creativity were forced to exist in a vacuum, there would be no progress. That said, the gist of the meme is exactly right.

again, this is how I took it.

....you are confusing business - the trading/building/assembling/manufacturing/creating/inventing/mobilizing, of raw materials, natural resources, goods and services

with raw materials,natural resources, goods and services.

Obama wasn't saying, 'you didn't build that (product)!" He was saying 'you didn't build that (business)!"
 
So does the president's statement undermine copyright and patent law? If they did not build it they certainly can not request patent or copyright protection.
 
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