President Obama told supporters, "If you've got a business, you did not build that--somebody else made that happen," speaking Friday evening at a campaign event in Roanoke, Va.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I am always struck by people who think, "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 are 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 did not build that--somebody else made that happen. The Internet did not get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off of the Internet. The point is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.