I think the sound bite is in fact enough. Not in all cases, but definitely in this particular instance. It was definitely enough by itself to recoil in disgust.
I'll admit that it was a VERY poor choice of words on the President's part, but again, you're missing the point of the speech. He wasn't literally saying that nothing you did mattered in the creation of your business. He was merely saying that you should pause for a second and reflect on the investments that were made, not only in you, but in the infrastructure surrounding your business, and be thankful for them. Could you have gotten where you are in life without proper schooling? Probably not. If you grew up in a poor area where your school system received pennies for funding, would you be as successful as you are now? Maybe, maybe not. What would've happened if that teacher or mentor had never inspired you to join the Army or Marine Corps or whatever. Would you be in the same place you are today? THOSE were the types of messages I took away from the speech. That's not to say that there is no individualistic determination in the process. Far from it. People have free will to make choices. But certain situations, institutions, or people can give you a leg up in the process. If you've ever accepted a small business grant, that's a part of it. That football coach who pushed you to run wind sprints until you puked? He's part of the reason that you're in the NFL now.
Personally, I've benefited a ton from people and institutions that were in place to help me. My high school received a $30 million renovation right when I got there. My Dad encouraged me to enlist when I was 18. When my window for re-enlistment came up, it just so happened to be a year where bonuses were becoming astronomical, and because I did it whilst in Iraq I got to keep all of it. The fact that a member of this very board clued me into the Warrior Scholar Program got me to attend, which in turn helped my essay writing TREMENDOUSLY and is a large part of the reason I got into Columbia. I realize that it took a lot of work on my part to get here. But I also realize that were it not for the things I mentioned, I'd probably still be in my crappy little hometown, fat and depressed. And goddamnit, I'm thankful for that! I am by no means a great success (especially not compared to some posters on here), but considering the alternatives, I'm doing okay.
If his logic one would be able to reverse the "idea":
Poor & uneducated people exist in their current state/status because they someone did something to them.
I disagree. I believe we're all in our current status due to choices we made (to include preparations to strike at opportunity) somewhere down the line.
Contemporary sociology agrees, for the most part, with your flipped logic. Well, not entirely. The general agreement is that social problems (such as poverty) are due to a complex set of factors that you can't just boil down to individual choices. Choices factor into it, but that's not the whole picture. They claim that there ARE institutions (both social and structural) that re-enforce poverty. A few I can think of: corporate influence on congress (the weak and poor can't lobby for themselves), movement and mechanization of low-skill jobs, lack of funding for education in poor areas, the poverty culture, single-parent households, high cost of healthcare, and a few others. On the other hand, there are some institutions that work to break people out of the poverty cycle. A few examples: magnet and charter schools, work and skill-building programs (such as those in community colleges), Medicaid (which attempts to deal with the aforementioned costs of healthcare), church charities, a progressive tax system, and things like Habitat for Humanity (although that's arguably a church charity).
I don't want to derail the thread any more so I'll leave it at that.
