"You Didn't Build This"

“You Didn’t Build This” By Randy Vice 

President Obama enraged Conservatives and some moderates by his statement that many private business owners and entrepreneurs didn’t build their business on their own. This eats at the core of the American ideals of self-sufficiency, accomplishment and creativity. However, let’s take a deep breath and look at the basis for the statement and ascertain its truthfulness without wrapping it in ideology. For the sake of this analysis, let’s use the fictional product, Widgets. 

Sam Johnson went to a state college (Atlan State University) working 30 hrs. a week at Widget World to help pay his tuition and expenses. At minimum wage, Sam was not able to pay all of it on his own and he secured a Pell Grant from the Federal Government and borrowed some funds with a government backed student loan. 

 While a student at Atlan, Sam was exposed to a universe of marketing, management, and entrepreneurial courses. He learned how to expand existing products ideas and how to construct alternative ways of achieving similar goals. He also studied efficiency and finance.

 Working at Widget World exposed Sam to the retail side of the Widget industry and he decided there had to be a better way. Collaborating with several of his fellow students at Atlan, Sam came up with the Widget Net Market, an online repository of everything involving Widgets.

 To finance his company, Sam and his group of friends secured a Government Technology Grant to lay the groundwork for their enterprise. 6 months after the Widget Net Market opened, it had over 1 million users. Widget producers paid a commission to the Market for every widget sold and consumers paid at $50 annual membership fee in order to use the Market’s financial service, WidBuyNow .

 Confederation bank, the nation’s 4th largest bank purchased WidBuyNow from Widget Net Market (WNM) using funds secured from the Federal Reserve and Insured by the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation.

The $20 million dollars paid to Widget Net Market for WidBuyNow was reinvested to build a warehouse to store inventory from producers who wanted to auction excess supply and to create a shipping division to coordinate shipping and receiving operations.

 The warehouse and company headquarters were constructed on a 50 acre parcel of land near the Interstate 59. Sam and his partners recognized the importance of Transportation infrastructure in their selection of this site.  While the site was near the Interstate, access was limited.

 The State of Alabama, working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Transportation agreed to construct a dedicated on and off ramp to make access to the warehouse easier. They believed the large distribution center and headquarters in the area would provide employment and eventual tax revenue.  This would help the local educational districts and help raise the standard of living for the entire area. Federal and State cooperation were vital in this endeavor as well as advisor from private Transportation consulting firms.

 The State also provided a 5 year tax incentive to Widget Net Market with a corresponding occupancy tax agreement with the City of Gadsden. The city decided that the increased income obtained by residents would create more spending which in turn would increase sales tax revenue.

Widget Net Market hired 400 workers from the surrounding area who had been trained as part of a worker’s reeducation program funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. Within 3 years of Widget Net Market’s humble beginnings it had achieved a profit of $400 million dollars.

 Widget Net Market began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the greatest stock market in the world. A market made possible by a stable and secure environment maintained by Federal, State, and Local enforcement agencies.

 This is a fictional but very realistic portrayal of how many if not most modern businesses are started. Sam Johnson worked hard and achieved wealth and fortune. Did he do it on his own? Did he “build this” on his own? Should his “fair share” of tax revenue be more in order to support the infrastructures and programs involved? You be the judge.