You didn´t build that

The above quote from the American presidential election campaign, which stirred quite a lot of people, lead me to think further on the different perceptions of the origins of our successes. Of  course I don´t want to defend the exact wording here. The more correct sentence would be "You didn´t build that alone!"

So called self-made men (and women) all around the world tend to think that their achievements stem solely from their own efforts and decisions. In doing so, they disregard the influences other factors have for their success. It´s a simple truth that no wealthy person living today in one of the so-called developed countries could have become so without a whole bunch of premises being there in the first place. To give but a few examples:

- schools, colleges and universities for these people to receive an education as well as for the people they employ

- means of travel and transport for people to get around and to ship goods

- telecommunication and postal infrastructure as the basis for any communication

- a political and legal system which sets and enforces the rules we all act on and without which no business could operate

Now think of all the people involved in the areas mentioned, the teachers, professors, construction workers, engineers, truck drivers, train operators, pilots, postmen, politicians, judges, police officers and so on. So even before any business can operate, all these people have to be there and do their work and they have to continue to do so for as long as the business exists.

And this is just the institutional side of it. Think about all the persons who influence any one of us personally on our way through life: parents, grandparents, tutors, friends and so on. We all wouldn´t even be there if no-one cared for us when we couldn´t do so ourselves, which is true for quite a few years after we are born.

Add to that the people the business-owners employ directly and whose work is the basis for most of the revenues of businesses today.

And last but not least: contingency. Call it chance, luck, fate or providence; oftentimes all the difference between a successful and a failing business lies in opening it in a slightly different place or at a slightly different time.

Taking all this into account, how much of a person´s success is actually his or hers? It´s up to anyone´s guess, but I personally would put the number beneath the 33 % mark.

In direct consequence thereof, the often stated view that taxation is taking away what is rightfully the property of the one who "earned" it, is not feasible. Giving back to the society that enables us to do what we do is equally fair and necessary. Our ancestors with their efforts created the starting conditions for the present generation and it is our duty to preserve the society and thus in turn set the starting conditions for the coming generations. Besides that we also have the responsibility to care for the people who tried to get by just like us and failed. For there can be no free-market economy without people failing and companies going out of business.


To close with a quotation from Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach: A proud man demands the impossible of himself, an arrogant one ascribes the impossible to himself.


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