OUR VIEW: Businesses 'do for America,' Mr. President (vote)

President Barack Obama gave sound advice Monday in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“I want to be clear: even as we make America the best place on earth to do business, businesses also have a responsibility to America,” Obama said. “As we work with you to make America a better place to do business, ask yourselves what you can do for America. Ask yourselves what you can do to hire American workers, to support the American economy, and to invest in this nation.”

It’s hard to argue with that, but it’s a bit like advising an Olympic runner to run fast. To survive, a non-subsidized business owner must “do for America,” just as an athlete must run fast to win a race.

In a free market of minimal subsidization and regulation, American consumers reward only those businesses that make their lives better. Consumers ignore and destroy businesses that don’t improve their lives. Americans don’t wait in lines to buy iPhones out of obligation to enrich Steve Jobs. They do it because Jobs invented an affordable phone that improves their lives. Jobs, like all great American inventors, found a way to “do for America.”

When Bill Gates sold software that greatly improved American productivity, he did it for America.

When John Mackey founded Whole Foods, he found a way to “do for America” by inspiring a revolutionary upgrade of American supermarkets. When David Jenkins founded Nor’wood Development Group, he did for America by creating innovative neighborhoods that Colorado Springs homeowners love. Most of what makes American life so great is the result of business owners finding ways to do for the country they love. In general, winners in business “do for America;” losers do for themselves and quickly disappear.

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Obama wants businesses “to hire American workers.” Because he says so? Businesses will hire workers when efforts to “do for America” result in the need for assistance from new employees. They will “support the American economy” and “invest in this nation” by providing goods, services and commodities that improve the lives of Americans. They will do for America just as an athlete will run fast. But they won’t enter the race unless they are certain it’s not rigged against them.

When businesses quit trying to do for America, it’s usually because government is choosing winners and losers. When farmers grow too much corn, rather than crops Americans want and need, it’s because government pays them to.

Remember when banks made big loans to businesses that sought to “do for America?” That was back when a bank had to “do for America” in order to make money and survive. Then the federal government, at the insistence of former President George W. Bush, handed out billions in bailout funds — even to banks that weren’t failing. That’s when large banks stopped trying to “do for America.” That’s when their business models changed and they began hoarding cash — without the need to do much at all for America.

President Obama, do what you have spoken of. Work to skillfully extract government from the marketplace. Let businesses fight for their lives, which will force them to “do for America” and hire new employees.

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