Rugged individualism. Stark self-sufficiency. And anti-communalism. All of these ideas are part of the national myth that some leaders of the United States of America like to tell about their nation. The U.S. is supposedly the land where anyone can make it, if they just try hard enough–work hard enough, get married before having kids, and make sure to graduate from high school. For the most part, the idea that America is the land of unlimited opportunity is still true. Compared to the rest of the world (in particular, I’m thinking of large swathes of Africa and Asia) the US is doing much better than many nations when it comes to providing opportunities to excel and achieve. However, it is equally important to understand that the opportunity to excel and achieve greatness doesn’t come out of the sky and alight on worthy individuals like manna from heaven–there is an entire system at work that creates the fabric out of which those opportunities for greatness arise. And without that fabric, it doesn’t matter how great you are, it will be almost impossible to achieve anything of note.

Elizabeth Warren, Chairperson of the Congressional Oversight panel and challenger to incumbent Scott Brown for the Massachusetts United States Senate seat, became a youtube superstar when a video of her speaking last year went viral. Warren was the originator of the ‘you didn’t build that’ phrase that President Barack Obama has been taking heat for as of late.

“You built a factory out there? Good for you,” she [Warren] says. “But I want to be clear: You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.”

President Obama recently repeated Warren’s turn of phrase–not as eloquently as she originally said it, unfortunately–and those who disagree with the Presidents’ policies, namely Mitt Romney, took the president to task.

But Warren (and Obama) are absolutely correct. The U.S. is one of the richest nations–and many would the world’s last remaining superpower–because of the blood, sweat, tears, and yes, government largess, that all members of this nation have poured into making this country a success. If you built it in America, you did not build it on your own.

Police are public workers. Most teachers work for public schools and universities. The roads and highways were paid for by taxes. Miranda warnings which in part state that “You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed”–well, that attorney is part of the legal system that is paid for by public tax dollars. In short, America got to be so great because the people paid for services, subsidies, and a legal system that make it possible for individuals to achieve greatness.

There are plenty of intelligent, hard-working people living in poor nations in Africa or Asia. But because those people live in desperately poor nations all of their hard-work often goes to naught: How can you save and invest money to start a business when there is no functioning banking system? How can you move your goods to market when there are no paved roads? How can your child become a doctor when there is no public school and you are too poor to pay for private school?

I suppose some rich people dislike the phrase “you didn’t build that” because they feel that all of the credit for the business that they built is being taken from, as if all of their hard-work is for naught because now the credit for their success is being handed-off to some nameless, faceless government entity. Another reason the rich and those who buy into the national myth that America is the land of rugged self-sufficiency may not like that phrase is because the natural extension of that idea (their success is not all their own) is that they may owe a debt to the rest of society–and that can only be paid in the form of high taxes which will the system which allowed them to thrive.

Anyone who lives in a developed Western nation is the beneficiary of a system that has been put in place and paid for by the people who came before him or her. If you live in the U.S. or any other wealthy western nation then yes, you did build it, but you built it on the investments of those who came before you and you could not have built it without those investments. So sure, give yourself a pat on the back; but don’t forget to give back to the system that made your dream possible.