Friday, June 5, 2009

Obama as Master "Social" Entrepreneur; U.S. Taxpayer as Sap

The free markets are about to lose another word to socialists.

The signal came in President Obama's speech in Cairo. At one point he said:

On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries. And I will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.
What the hell is a business volunteer? You volunteer to do work for a charity. When it comes to business, you get paid. The words business and volunteer could only be spoken by a president who really doesn't understand business.

The President also went on to talk about a Summit on Entrepreneurship and in the same sentence talked about "social entrepreneurs". Again, Obama doesn't get Adam Smith. He doesn't understand that the invisible hand is about entrepreneurs and others serving their own interests, which ultimately result in those entrepreneurs creating things of value that they can use in exchange to create profit for themselves. Social entrepreneurship sounds like training someone to ignore their own interests and to think of others interests first, by, of course, trampling on the interests of most citizens by taxing them and regulating them. Social entrepreneurship? Huh, may the most aggressive up and coming control-freak leaders win.

Of course, Obama, as ultimate social entrepreneur, has much practice in determining what other people need. This time, for Muslims, it is "a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries... and...new Science Envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, and grow new crops... "

In all seriousness, I have to ask, "Is this guy wacky or what?"

He flys to Cairo to tell Muslims that America is starting a new relationship with them, while he has military actions going on in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and possibly covert activities in Iran.

His grand Muslim technology funds and all kinds of other programs are coming at a time the Treasury and the Fed are attempting to figure out how to finance $2 trillion in debt, without planting the seeds for a Weimar style inflation. How exactly is the U.S. supposed to commit to these new plans for Muslims worldwide?

Of course, any programs for Muslims will be conducted in concert with the usual suspects. PEU Report makes the correct observations and asks the important questions:

Public-private partnership? That's an ambitious agenda, one that will provide multiple opportunities for American branded multinational corporations. Private equity underwriters (PEU's) targeted the Middle East/North Africa. The Carlyle Group has a $500 million MENA fund and is aggressively courting Libya. Will Carlyle benefit from the new corps of business volunteers?

The Obama Summit on Entrepreneurship comes after Tony Blair's workshop on
entrepreneurship for the Palestinian people. Israel followed up Blair's education with a different kind of lesson. It razed Gaza...

Why should the U.S. play global Santa for commerce, education, technology development and health care?

U.S. foreign aid could soon have a PPP [Public-private partnership] component. The richest people in America recently conferenced on philanthropy. Word has Uncle Sam considering a match of tax dollars for private donor projects. Could Obama money end up supporting an international effort of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation?
Bottom line, any time Obama opens his mouth he is "saving" somebody, with U.S. citizens picking up the tab, for the benefit of the ultimate insiders, Carlyle, Goldman and the rest.

7 comments:

  1. Okay, I give up.

    Obama the Altruist is going to save the US, the environment, General Motors, the UAW, Afghanistan, homeowners, the financial markets, the minorities, the Muslims, the poor that need healthcare, the poor that need credit, the poor that need education, Goldman Sachs, assorted crony Democrats, assorted random constituents, the american dream .... why don't he just come out and say it : He is the master of the universe, so if we all just kindly hand over the resources he'll make sure they are distributed fairly and save us all from everything.....

    Atlas is Shrugging.

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  2. Wenzel,

    His speech was pretty absurd but I think the thing that demonstrated how truly out of touch with everyday reality he is was his proposal to create an online social community that would allow a teenager in Kansas to instantly connect with one in (I forget which country he used as an example... but somewhere in the Arab world).

    It sounded a lot like the idea behind Facebook/Myspace, and I am sure teenagers in those parts of the world can access those websites already so... is he just absolutely stupid and has never heard of a web technology that millions of Americans use and which is featured on the news almost daily, or is he proposing something more subtle and ultimately more nefarious, like a worldwide Obama Youth League website?!

    Also, the speech sounded exactly like a Bush speech, I don't know why it's being hailed as historic, moving, inspired, new, etc.

    Similarities to Bush policy mentioned: Muslims and Americans are not antagonistic cultures, we both want peace, we're both full of good people, extremists want to derail our happy future, however we can and will strike wherever we need to to stamp out terrorism, Islam is a peaceful religion, working with our friends and allies, we will not bow down to dictators and threats from malicious foreign governments.

    Nothing to see here folks, move along.

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  3. Geez...give Obama a chance. It is funny how we all want "change", all want something great...but we can't give the new guy a chance. This is a new century, and what Obama is offering is for this new century of real innovators, not complainers like you and others on this page. If you can't get that we will have to make a start in building Muslim relations, even though we don 't necessarily like all the players, then you are going to be behind in this century. I feel sorry for you and the people on this page. We can't always have our preferred leaders, we can't always have everything perfect, but we can sure change our "attitude", and stop being arrogant, and start being a global participant.

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  4. Being a business volunteer, to actually go beyond our own selfish and greed to boost the economy and create a more civilized global society, will be crucial, those who can not understand that will be left far behind. Most do not trust corporate, but Corporate America can sure do a better job if members can become socially responsible leaders in the business world..those are the ones who will be on a much higher platform.

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  5. Christi,

    Define "social responsibility" and explain how that's different than providing consumers with goods and services they value.

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  6. Isn't it "socially responsible" to provide people with decent jobs? Perhaps the SEs should work on THAT in THIS country!

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