On July 13, while at the Roanoke Fire Station, in Roanoke, Virginia, President Barack Obama reminded business owners that if they had a successful business, it was not solely because of their hard work but was also because there were a lot of people out there helping them.
The event was hosted as part of Obama’s campaign for reelection this November. While there he explained that he didn’t want to provide more tax cuts to the wealthy business owners of America because they had already been given a lot of help in developing their businesses. He said:
“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help . . . . Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive . . . . If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen . . . . The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”