KEITH HENNESSEY: The Policy Consequences of “You Didn’t Build That.”

Here the President dismisses the importance of intellect and effort as contributors to success. Is there any more charitable way to interpret this text?

While in the Roanoke remarks President Obama stresses the importance of government as a contributor to the economic success of businesses, in other contexts he emphasizes the importance of luck in economic success. He frequently refers to the rich as “blessed” and “fortunate.” . . .

In these cases and many others President Obama describes the rich as passive recipients of blessings or good fortune. He rarely credits skill, intelligence, savvy, hard work, or risk-taking as contributors to economic success. According to the President’s language, the rich are that way because they are blessed and fortunate (i.e., lucky), not because they worked harder than others, or were smarter, or savvier, or took bigger risks or sacrificed more. In this framework, success is given to you, not earned by you.

The key policy implication is that if he can convince enough people that you didn’t earn your success, he’ll face less opposition when he tries to take the fruits of your success for himself. And that’s what this whole “you didn’t build it” thing is about. I’m not taking your property away — it was really mine all along!