And you thought is was just the VP that had a bad habit of lifting other people’s ideas
“He didn’t invent iron ore and blast furnaces, did he?”
“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?”
Part One, Chapter Nine Atlas Shrugged
That sounds an awful lot like this
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
It sure seems like Ayn Rand had some kind of crystal ball or something.
Hey, guess who invested in roads and bridges? You did. I did. We all did. And that business that someone else built invested the most. Greedy Capitalists created this unbelievable American system that has allowed anyone to thrive. People like our Narcissist in Chief are doing everything in their power to tear it down. I remember when we had a President that tore down walls to advance independence rather than tearing down the successful to advance dependence.
I’ll leave the last bit to somebody that helped create our unbelievable American System
To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.