Friday, October 30, 2009

"...the only way to assert your human dignity is to walk away."

Stuart Schneiderman: Is America Going John Galt?:

They do not know and do not care that the productive human beings who make the economy run are about to walk away from it all. They are not seeing things in terms of human beings and in terms of policies that might or might not work. They are seeing a golden opportunity to right what they perceive as a decades-old wrong. They are not going to miss the chance.

So,the new governing class is constantly attacking the productive class, vilifying them, disrespecting them, doing everything possible to lower their status. When someone is taking away the fruits of your labor and using you as their whipping boy the only way to assert your human dignity is to walk away.

Labels:

9 Comments:

Blogger Cham said...

The trick isn't necessarily to be less productive, the key to everything is to give less financial resources to the government. The government, regardless of who is running it, is getting bigger at an exponential rate. It keeps printing more money. Eventually, sooner or later, the printing press income generation is going to catch up with the government. China is going to ask the government to make good on its loans and that will be impossible.

When that time comes the government will either implode on itself or get the money from somewhere. If you are confused as to where they will find the money please don't hesitate to look in the mirror. This is why it is always good to think very hard about waving that American flag around, and to have an exit strategy handy. I'm not trying to make anyone paranoid, all you have to do is look at the numbers. The situation is untenable.

Federal government salaries are increasing far faster than those in the private sector. Pensions in the federal government are more lucrative and easier to get than anywhere else. Federal healthcare benefits are better than anyone else gets. The only rosy workplace left is the government. It feeds on itself.

As a single law-abiding person living quietly, well below my means, the government foams at the mouth to get its hands on my money. To them I'm a potential cash cow who is expected to pay for everyone else. I've learned to tiptoe very carefully around government employees, LEOs, teachers and defense contractors. These types get highly offended that I'm not willing to pay what I once did, I've downsized my tax bill. They're right, freedom isn't free, but I don't see too much of it anyway.

6:06 PM, October 30, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

First the night, then the country.

7:44 PM, October 30, 2009  
Blogger David Foster said...

I think what will be much more common is that people who previously would have done economically-productive things will elect to do subsidy-sucking things, instead. For example: significant amounts of venture capital money are now being directed toward "green technology" companies, and while some of these may be viable on their own, many of the companies have government subsidy as an explicit or implicit part of their business plans.

These VCs aren't "going Galt"...I guess you could say they're at least partly "going Jim Taggart."

8:40 PM, October 30, 2009  
Blogger Dr.D said...

I think Cham is definitely correct about the way many responsible individuals are going to respond to all of this. They will do everything possible to conserve their resources in a form that will make it very difficult for the government to get it money-grubbing hands on those resources.

We are looking at hard times ahead, and anyone who appears to have enough, who is not a government dependent, will become suspect. To preserve any degree of our freedom at all, we must remain independent of the government, so this becomes a precarious balancing act. The great objective of socialism is to make all dependent on the government so that they can be readily controlled.

10:51 PM, October 30, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The very wealthy have been doing this for a long time. It is called not paying taxes (loopholes) and banking offshore.

5:34 AM, October 31, 2009  
Blogger SteveinTX said...

So,the new governing class is constantly attacking the productive class, vilifying them, disrespecting them, doing everything possible to lower their status. When someone is taking away the fruits of your labor and using you as their whipping boy the only way to assert your human dignity is to walk away

Their next step will be to tell us how immature and afraid of committment we are.

SteveinTX

11:13 AM, October 31, 2009  
Blogger Sad_Dad said...

The government already has their hands in the cookie jar! For Example my life: The government garnishes 65% of my pay to give to my ex-wife in child support which she recieves tax free and clear, I have to pay that! I don't get any tax shelters at all I can't claim my children or the daycare deduction on my tax forms. I was made to pay my ex's government student loans and the government won't work with me as to set up a payment plan I can live with they just want their money. And because I'm broke all the time without any tax shelters I owe $2,500 a year come tax time to the IRS claiming single zero. Do I have any choices? None at all! I live in poverty one paycheck away from going to jail. And I have no choice Uncle Sam just has his hand out taking more of my needed money. I have no other debt no credit cards or car payments or other loans at all and I'm totally destituted by our government. It already here folks.

6:59 PM, October 31, 2009  
Blogger delagar said...

You've been whining about this for years now. When do you plan to stop whining about it and go Galt already? Jeez.

5:55 PM, November 05, 2009  
Blogger Keyester said...

There's a tipping point approaching. The typical middle class worker sees about 1/3 of their income go to government. Within a decade it could easily be HALF. Liberals seem to know what's best for the proletariat. The more taxes we pay, the harder we'll work. When citizens of the more fiscally sound states funnel money to the feds, only to be redistributed to social welfare states, we'll have reached a point of revolt. Oh, wait, it's already happening isn't it?

4:59 PM, November 18, 2009  

Post a Comment

<< Home