Mitt Romney continues his assault on the president for the comment he made about business owners or any successful person not doing it on their own. The reality is any thinking person knows that their success is dependent on many things. Hard work is very important. However the country you are in, the access you have to capital, the access to roads, airports, electricity, networks, and much more are instrumental as well. The immediate truth is the successful person depended on many others to build most of those things.
Moreover if you have a growing company, it is dependent on others who are exchanging their hard work, knowledge, and value to you for a paycheck. We are interdependent.
I immigrated to America in 1979. I built a software company because I paid a fair price to be educated in a public American University that taxpayers invested in. I stood on the backs of those who collectively built a country from the ground up both from private and public investments. We live in a safe country because we collectively pay taxes that allow us to have a robust defense.
Unfortunately Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are taking individualism to the height of selfishness that is a detriment to this country. Once we start believing we can be an island within ourselves we create islands of isolation. An America made up of several islands is inefficient and unsustainable. The idea that one earned millions and one owes nothing to the society that provided the market for said earnings is the height of hubris and selfishness.
I found the piece below to be the perfect articulation of the average successful business person’s reality. James C. Roumell does an excellent job in personalizing his experience which illustrates why the Romney narrative is so out of touch with middle class reality.
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What I built with government help
By James C. Roumell, Published: August 17
I was born in Detroit in 1961 and grew up in a working-class neighborhood just south of the famed 8 Mile Road. My block was stable; most of the fathers of my friends worked in the auto plants. In 1968 my parents divorced and my mother, armed with a high school degree, was thrust into the workforce. We were taken out of our Catholic school and moved into public schools. Dinner was often breakfast foods, which was fine with us. Mom is still a great cook.
Today, I own a small business, an asset management firm with $300 million in assets. Last year we launched the Roumell Opportunistic Value Fund (RAMSX) and hired three more people. We’re growing and creating jobs. I suppose I could pound my chest and take credit for my journey from Detroit to Chevy Chase, from working class to professional. I could say I built it myself. But this wouldn’t be true.
In 1967, Detroit’s riots came to our neighborhood and our dry cleaner was burned to the ground. The National Guard was called in, and peace was quickly restored. Mom found a good job with a trucking company and was able to adequately care for our family on a union wage fought for by the Teamsters in an environment supported by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.
I went to college with the help of Pell Grants and government loans. Twenty years ago I met Claiborne Pell and was able to thank the former Democratic senator from Rhode Island for introducing the Higher Education Act of 1965, which allowed me to go to college.
My business has been made possible by the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. These laws created practices and transparency that enabled a financial services industry to emerge. After the stock market collapse of 1929, the public rightly did not trust Wall Street and needed assurances that the industry would operate within a reliable set of rules.
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