"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States"
About this Quote
George W. Bush frames prosperity as the product of private enterprise, with government cast as gardener rather than producer. The line reflects a core tenet of modern American conservatism, inherited from the Reagan era: markets generate wealth through entrepreneurial risk-taking, while the state should set fair rules, keep taxes and regulation in check, protect property rights, and maintain the conditions that let businesses grow and hire.
The timing matters. Bush took office amid the dot-com bust and then the shock of 9/11. His administration pursued broad tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 to spur investment and consumption, arguing that freeing capital and rewarding risk would raise employment. The rhetoric celebrated small businesses and startups as engines of the “job rate,” a clumsy phrase pointing to steady job creation rather than mere job preservation. He also signed reforms after corporate scandals to shore up trust in markets, revealing the dual role he envisioned for the state: promote enterprise, but police fraud.
The word environment does a lot of work here. It points to predictable rules, stable inflation, sound infrastructure, education, and access to capital, alongside light-touch regulation that lowers compliance costs. It imagines government as referee and enabler rather than direct spender in productive sectors.
Critics counter that public investment can and does create wealth: federally funded research seeded the internet and GPS; the GI Bill expanded human capital; infrastructure and public health underpin productivity. Even jobs in the public sector deliver services without which private activity would stall. The financial crisis late in Bush’s tenure further complicated the claim, as government guarantees and stimulus proved necessary to stabilize markets that had embraced risk too freely.
Still, the statement captures an enduring American faith in individual initiative. Its practical challenge is balance: cultivate a climate where taking risks is attractive and rewarded, while building guardrails and public goods that make those risks socially productive and broadly shared.
The timing matters. Bush took office amid the dot-com bust and then the shock of 9/11. His administration pursued broad tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 to spur investment and consumption, arguing that freeing capital and rewarding risk would raise employment. The rhetoric celebrated small businesses and startups as engines of the “job rate,” a clumsy phrase pointing to steady job creation rather than mere job preservation. He also signed reforms after corporate scandals to shore up trust in markets, revealing the dual role he envisioned for the state: promote enterprise, but police fraud.
The word environment does a lot of work here. It points to predictable rules, stable inflation, sound infrastructure, education, and access to capital, alongside light-touch regulation that lowers compliance costs. It imagines government as referee and enabler rather than direct spender in productive sectors.
Critics counter that public investment can and does create wealth: federally funded research seeded the internet and GPS; the GI Bill expanded human capital; infrastructure and public health underpin productivity. Even jobs in the public sector deliver services without which private activity would stall. The financial crisis late in Bush’s tenure further complicated the claim, as government guarantees and stimulus proved necessary to stabilize markets that had embraced risk too freely.
Still, the statement captures an enduring American faith in individual initiative. Its practical challenge is balance: cultivate a climate where taking risks is attractive and rewarded, while building guardrails and public goods that make those risks socially productive and broadly shared.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wealth |
|---|
More Quotes by George
Add to List
