‘Going Galt’ Got Going Last Summer
My PJ Media column last week hasn’t generated a lot of leftist love.
In it, I had the unmitigated gall to note that the federal government has collected far less in tax receipts during this fiscal year compared to last year than an economic contraction of less than 1.75% would seem to predict (not annualized, the economy contracted 0.125% in the third quarter of 2008 and 1.61% in the fourth).
I also “sinned” further by suggesting that the “going Galt” phenomenon has contributed to the shortfall.
That suggestion has plenty of support beyond “mere” anecdotes cited by ABC and those recited by several PJ Media commenters during the past few months.
April 2008 saw an all-time record for federal tax collections of over $400 billion, largely buoyed by final 2007 tax payments and first-quarter 2008 estimated tax remittances from business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs who pay taxes as individuals. It was a performance I characterized at the time as a “supply-side stunner,” because it showed, five years on, that George Bush’s investment-related tax cuts of 2003 still had growth-generating legs.
The collections record occurred as the economy was in the midst of recovery after a difficult fourth quarter of 2007. First-quarter growth was a tepid 0.9%, but the second quarter’s 2.8% was just short of the 1958-2007 median of 3.1%. The real (i.e., not seasonally adjusted) economy added jobs, though not as many as in previous years, from February through June.
Thus, we were not in a recession as normal people define it — not numerically and not mentally. As I wrote at the time of the high producers who were generating so much cash for Uncle Sam: “many … are thinking, in the face of relentless media harping to the contrary, that 2008 will be at least as profitable [as 2007].”
But a short time later, receipts began tailing off and went comparatively negative:
What triggered the sudden shift? It was the beginning of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy in mid to late June.
Lefty outrage at your opinions? My take on this is – I am delighted that other people’s opinions are different from mine, so why aren’t those other people delighted too?
Left confused perhaps?
Does anyone think that Pelosi, Obama, and Reid are up to doing what it takes to make that happen?
No.
For starters these creeps hate the United States as it stands and want to push it off the cliff into socialism, Europistan style. The three stooges of the ledtarded left will do
everything and ANYTHING to push this country into the waters of ever escalating energy price increases that will be felt by the ones who can least afford them, me and you, us “average” Americans that the three stooges are so out of touch with. Instead of using ALL of energy sources we have here at home, coal, natural gas, hydoelectric, oil, wind, solar and other energy sources, the Obuma administration plans to punish us with ignorant and stupid carbon credit and cap and trade policies.
Next, Never let a good crisis go to waste: And they are not. This administration has been corrupt from day one and continues to flaunt it’s tax cheats, racists and anti-semites at every turn.The Gov’t taking over at GM and the banking industry is just the tip of the iceberg.
What’s next: taking away my 1995 Suprechrged Bucik Riviera because it only gets 30-34 MPG on the Highway and is a large car by todays standards? Will the gov’t tax and force me and you into tiny obama mobiles becuase it’s the green thing to do?
We can thank that idiot left for the likes of the Community Reinvestment Act, Acorn and being mostly responsible for the mortgage lending crisis. The ilk of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Geitner and others have made millions off this disaster they made. They have no interest in trying leave the “wilderness” because in doing so they might be held accountable(as they should be), and not be able to continue the fleecing of the American public which has lined their pockets with our hard earned money. Obuma owes all these losers for helping him get elected, and he is not about to stop paying back all those favors until the country has been driven into the ground or hopefully, he gets impeached and all the crooks that support him , go out with him.
This is good news, because hopefully the people who produced things will now spend the extra time they no longer waste on overworking on thinking a little about the new situation and find some time for themselves and their families, and hopefully, grass root level politics.
The reason the left is so successful is that they have all lazy day long to talk rubbish and spam us all into submission thus.
Most people make more money than they actually need, don’t fall into this trap, free time do your thing and spend with family and friends is the real wealth in life.
Let there be time for tea and parties!
I defer to no one in my loathing for POR, but don’t you think the huge job losses had something to do with the lower tax receipts?
We are again repeating the mistakes of the 1930′s. The myth is that government actions from massive increases in spending to direct interference in the affairs of private business somehow saved our country. The facts are quite different. With all the meddling, regulation and demonizing of business by FDR and his cohorts, business leaders simply stopped taking an actions or risk that they perceived would make them a target of government. The continous tinkering with the price of the dollar, government directed central planning and controls made business investment decisions even more perilous – thus they simply didn’t do it.
With Obama we are repeating the same mistakes and worse. The so called stimulus package argued for government job creation centered around 1930′s thinking. What made these fools think that people who were losing their jobs in a knowledge based economy would gladly trade that off for a shovel and a pail? These same fools are expecting businesses to start investing and creating jobs to get the economy going again so that they can then impose one of the most harshest and costliest tax increases and regulatory scheme on the American economy through the cap and trade nonsense. These people think everyone is as maleable as the voter in the last election.
I don’t know if people are going Galt or if they are just looking elsewhere for investment and growth opportunities. Either way we all lose.
ica is business as a far better President once said while successfully leading us out of a recession. Businesses are not hiring or investing domestically because of uncertainty over regulations and taxes and hostility coming from DC..
“The business of America is business” as a far better President once said while successfully leading us out of a recession. Businesses are not hiring or investing domestically because of uncertainty over regulations and taxes and hostility coming from DC.
Mr. Blumer,
Excellent article and keep it up despite the left wing howls. The chart speaks for itself and we are going to end up with deficits as far into the future as we can see. Wait until the inevitable inflation gets going when the dollar starts to really loose value.
Yeah, right:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0825-06.htm
(This is reprint of a Reuters article.)
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/02/12_akerlof.shtml
(Not the typical lefties thinking ill of the consequences Bush’s tax cuts.)
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12931660
(This is long, detailed, but you could skip down a bit.)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_08/b3871044.htm
(So did Bush really inherit a recession when he became President?)
“I defer to no one in my loathing for POR, but don’t you think the huge job losses had something to do with the lower tax receipts?”
But according to Tom all those businesses cut those jobs on purpose because of the Democrats. Some of them even went out of business to prove a point.
Ayn Rand wrote fiction, guys, and her ideas were as stale and thin as her characters.
So, after digesting all that information, wow. How does this impact real forcasts about upcoming budgets. All the government numbers I see assume static reciepts. Are we going to be in debt double what they are saying? Triple? So does that work out to 8 trillion, 12? OMFG. It will destroy our currency.
#4 and #10:
The relevant sentence reads “The “going Galt” phenomenon and the recession itself have also sent federal receipts into a frightening free fall.”
Please do readers here a favor and comment on what is there, and esp in #10′s case, not what you wish to make up.
“Maybe, just maybe, if this administration and Congress would decide that economic growth is more important than environmental purity, class warfare, and de facto government takeovers of large corporations, those who have “gone Galt” might come in from the wilderness. Does anyone think that Pelosi, Obama, and Reid are up to doing what it takes to make that happen?”
You must be kidding.
The WANT what is happening to happen. It’s their plan. It will get worse. They want it to get worse.
Any reasonably intelligent person can see this, and any modestly courageous person will say it out loud.
“… those who have “gone Galt” might come in from the wilderness.”
Sorry, bub, but I’m not buying what they’re selling.
Republicans AND Democrats are and have acted together to alter our country and move it from its foundations as a Republic, a Democracy and a meritocracy. Our economy is systematically being stolen by the governing elite and it would not matter what political leader steps up from either party to promise more changey hopey.
I’ve Gone Galt permanently.
Ayn Rand was an extraordinarily insightful observer of humanity, and of the ideas that drive history for good or ill. Atlas Shrugged is an exciting fictional story with all varieties of compelling characters, but the frightening fact is how many parallels there are between the events of the novel and US history over the last fifty years.
Boris, you couldn’t be more wrong!
I do hate POR. These are the Soros puppets that lead the agenda against the country for the sake of an election. Look at the sub prime mortgage crisis. Look at the anti-American stand these traitors have taken from defense to energy. These economic terrorists should be in prison with Bernie Madoff.
As for Galt. I truly doubt you have read Rand. Yes, she wrote fiction based on HER knowledge from living under communism. He characters were very interesting and the theme was personal freedom. Rand lived under communist rule and warned us of exactly about what we are starting to see under the communist Obama regime.
Boris,
You missed the point. Productive people engage in business to make money. The the fear that the government is going to tax away your profits or make a hostile business environment has those people reassessing the risk-reward ratio. There are thousands of people every year who make the decision to start a business or not. Those anywhere close to undecided are going to decide against.
Boris, Boris, Boris! What can I say? You are completely out of touch with the fundamentals of human desire and the unique environment America provides for those desires to be realized to the benefit of mankind. Your ignorance is DEAFENING!!!
Hey Boris, ya ever heard the phrase, life is stranger than fiction?
Some of those companies that were “proving a point” could see the whats coming a got out while they could as opposed to just watching their profits and equity circle the drain to nothing.
“economic growth is more important than environmental purity”
Ha Ha Ha.
What? With the climate creationists predicting that the Arctic waters will, like Santa Claus, be coming down our chimneys by Xmas.
Not Likely.
I do believe that the P-O-R economy was a contributor to the problem but the final push off the cliff came from gas prices that drained spending for consumers. What hasn’t been fully appreciated is how the drop in gas prices is possibly one of the main reasons we avoided an entire melt down.
I work in the trucking Industry. Bush Tax Cuts saved my company in 2002. We starting buying equipment again to take advantage of the incentives. Our trailer Mfr in Arkansas had to add another shift to keep up with the demand. Subsequently, we had record profits even after purchasing new Trucks & Trailers. Since Obama & his gang starting spouting their Rhetoric of Regulation & Wealth Redistribution, we havent bought a single new trailer. We are in Survival Mode. No expansions, no new hires, no new investments. I help make the decisions & trust me Obama’s name is brought up everyday. Everyone of my colleagues are doing the same thing. We are all circling our wagons as we watch Companies that we’ve done business with for decades go under. Obama & his Cronies cant relate to Business. Business has always been their enemy has they have lived off the Govt Teet & our tax dollars.
We know who is responsible for the down turn & we make sure our employees know also.
Early into this, I saw a piece by Amity Shlaes which said that the worst thing the government did under FDR and it might do this time around is to build uncertainty. The recession that became the Great Depression was made longer and deeper by FDR’s penchant for surprising everybody and attacking the rich, including prosecutions of businessmen. He only changed that stance when war became a near certainty.
I don’t recall that he pushed any bills through before anybody had a chance to even read them, however, or tried to run Treasury with a skeleton crew.
AFAIR 2/3rd of all personal income tax revenues are paid by those making over $150K. In addition to the taxes on personal income, another healthy slice comes from corporate income taxes. If you call corporate taxes 1/4 of all income taxes collected that means those making under $150K contribute about 1/4 of all income tax revenues. Receipts are down 28%. If “huge job losses” accounted for all of this drop, then we would have to be running unemployment rates of 20-30%.
Yet total unemployment has increased to 8% nationally, up from 5% last year. So, reducing employment from 95% of the workforce to 92% (or maybe even 90%) has yielded a 25-40% lower tax collections.
If huge job losses alone account for this drop (rather than some employers and self-employed “going Galt”) that implies that all of the lost jobs involved those with salaries higher than $150K per year.
Possible, I suppose, but unlikely. On the other hand, a small businessman “going Galt” by cutting back production (reducing the total hours that the small business operates in order to convert income into extra leisure for the owner) will likely end up laying off several individuals paying little income taxes. Two-thirds (or more) of the government’s losses in tax revenues come from the employed individual who has reduced personal working hours. The remainder comes from the several now-unemployed individuals laid-off due to the cutback in hours.
The employer experiences a minor reduction in income which is balanced by 10-20 hours more leisure time each week. (If prices drop due to slack demand — not unusual in a recession — that individual may even have the same or greater purchasing power as when they were working 60-70 hours per week.) OTOH, the lower-income employees — who were essentially getting a free ride on the income tax system — now have no income, and represent a net drain on government revenues (due to unemployement and relief payments). And since their spending goes down, so does demand for goods and services that they consumed, which leads to still greater unemployment.
I know — we will increase taxes on the “wealthy” and employed to make up the shortfall in tax revenues. Which makes it even less attractive to work hard, and reduces the money available for purchasing goods and services leading to yet more unemployment. Pretty soon you get to the Soviet system where the government employs everyone and “we pretend to work while they pretend to pay us.”
Since last November, I’ve been watching the economy and telling anyone who’d listen that tax revenues would be down at least 40% and as much as 60% in 2009. As an example, on my own tax return this year, the government is getting 54% less tax money than last year because of investment losses. Add unemployment on top of investor losses and the government is down in the -60% range – wonder if Tim (I can’t run TurboTax) Geithner even has a clue about what’s going to be really obvious in July and August after the IRS finishes all of the tax accounting…
I’m still amazed that the Liberal Left hasn’t figured out yet that when you raise taxes on job creators they QUIT CREATING JOBS. Why is that simple idea so hard to grasp?
Tom, I commented on your piece last week, and apparently it bears repeating:
When small businesses — those of us who provide 75% of the private-sector employment in this economy — perceive regulatory uncertainty and expect (as we were told to expect) inimical changes to the tax code, we tend to go conservative and become very risk-averse. When we “went Galt”, it wasn’t necessarily from ideological motives, though they played a role which I’ll address momentarily. We simply battened down the hatches in order to weather the storm, a rational practical response to (at least partially) artificially induced negative economic activity.
The lefties who howled about your article last week once again demonstrated how little they really understand the coarser principals of macroeconomics. I remember in particular one who said, “Fine, go Galt. More there for others to pick up the slack.” or words to the effect. This isn’t a zero-sum game as they seem to like to think. Walter Williams put it best: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” Unless of course you’ve shot a hole in the bottom of yours, as this government seems determined to do.
From a less practical perspective, we don’t accept the moral or ethical responsibility to bail out those institutions that are “too big to fail”, especially when it involves taxing the crap out of those of us too small to have the political capital to insert ourselves into the greed-corruption-pay-to-play cycle. We’re using the only legal means available to avoid doing so. That this has other consequences, some pleasant and others less so, is incidental.
And no, this economy is not somehow entitled to the proceeds of my intellectual and entrepreneurial effort, particularly when the utlimate result is punative taxation. Had we not taken some rather drastic steps during the final quarter of 2008, my total (not top-marginal, TOTAL) tax liability (Federal, State and local) for the year would have been well over 45% of my gross income.
Dear Leader is promising me that that figure would get worse, not better, were we to proceed with less caution this year.
So we won’t. Clear enough, lefties?
‘Berg
Most everything stated in this article hits right on target. As a small business owner with many years behind me I can say definitively that I made a conscious choiced to slow down when I saw that the POR regime was the most likely “winner” in the election.
Many non-business people seem to have a misconception about business. They need to learn that business is run by humans with emotional and intellectual agendas of their own. It’s not all about facts and figures (money). It IS a great deal about personal desires and motivations. Many of us are smart enough to have saved and invested wisely during the previous 8-12 years and now, since the direction of the country is painfully clear, we are willing and able to wait it out for a few years. Our business knowledge, investments and profits can be put to use in other countries if we grow tired of waiting. It’s a global world now and we have choices.
#1 westerncanadian:
You are probably a normal, decent, good, intellectually and morally real person.
The Left are not. They are none of those things. Not one of them. If they were any of those things, even one, they would not be on the Left.
You cannot reason with the droids. Another solution is required for them.
The Left is always outraged about something.
Starting in June and all the way through to Election Day, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid repeatedly told the country that they were ready, willing, and would soon be able to starve the country of the conventional sources of energy it needs to keep its economic engines running, regardless of the consequences, bowing before what may be the greatest hoax in human history.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the clear, simple statement of the actual unvarnished, no-sh*t-sherlock truth. Please keep it coming –the world is in great need.
MO @ #22: Ditto, small biz in the oil patch in south Louisiana & Texas. USA itself produces 5mm bpd oil, and 1mm of it is from wells producing 15 bpd or less. O & crew have taxed this end out of biz –we’re making plans to fold up all over the landscape. The O folks haven’t the foggiest notion of what it takes to make an honest buck appear (if they couldn’t grab yours, they’d be all be lounging around a pool hall somewhere downtown Chicago).
What could be worse? That they DO know what they’re doing.
Higher takes lower the opportunity cost of leisure. This was the first year in 8 that I have not paid the Alternative Minimum Tax, due to the fact that my wife-unit was not working due to the birth of our first child. For those who don’t know, the AMT is a parallel federal income tax system instituted in 1969 to capture more tax from high income earners who had a lot of deductions. It was never indexed to inflation, so more an more middle class people have fallen into that tax.
I went back and looked at prior year taxes. My wife was effectively paying nearly a 70% marginal rate on her earnings due to California’s radically progressive marginal tax rates and the AMT which is not a marginal tax, but a tax on every dollar above an exemption amount. Guess what? We have a future housewife. Why kill yourself at work and pay a nanny to be able to work when you effectively pay 70% of those marginal dollars to the government? We’ll get by on one income and cut our discretionary expenses thank you very much. There goes the tax receipts and one more unemployed person (the nanny) onto the public dole. Fix the AMT and you will have people working again. The whole argument about marginal tax rates is all a smoke screen. All the middle class people I know who work in Silicon Valley are paying AMT anyway. Fix the AMT and you can get people working again.
“Republicans AND Democrats are and have acted together to alter our country and move it from its foundations as a Republic, a Democracy and a meritocracy. Our economy is systematically being stolen by the governing elite and it would not matter what political leader steps up from either party to promise more changey hopey.”
That’s where I’m at. The Repubs had their shot to slash spending and blew it. Given that I remember the couple of decades before that, I didn’t hold out hope that the Dems would be any better (though I didn’t think they’d be as bad as they’re turning out to be).
I wonder if it has dawned on anybody in Washington yet that the current spending plans may end the country?
“I’ve Gone Galt permanently.”
Not me. Mine is just temporary. I’ll kick it up again once they figure out how to spend less. If they keep spending more, or even keep spending the same, they won’t have an option soon. You can’t spend what doesn’t exist.
@ #32 buddy larsen,
“What could be worse? That they DO know what they’re doing.”
They surely do know what they are doing, and are doing it on purpose. Has to be, right?
These are smart people. They know the inside game from the inside. They have assistants out the whazoo to fill them in on every detail, and help them plot every strategy.
It is WHAT THEY DO FOR A LVING!
You know the Oil Biz? They know their business.
That is the truly demoralizing part.
They won; we lost; game over.
Pretty soon you get to the Soviet system where the government employs everyone and “we pretend to work while they pretend to pay us.”
I’m only one person … but I think my experience isn’t atypical.
8 months ago, I was a net tax contributor to our various governments of approximately $45,000/year in taxes of various kinds (single, no dependents):
Federal Income Tax (about 17% effective tax rate)
Social Security Tax (about 7%)
Employer Part of Social Security (about 7%)
Medicare Tax(1.75%)
State Income Tax (5.5%)
Sales Taxes (About 3% of annual income)
Property Taxes (about 5% of annual income)
Do the math. I made just over $100,000/year and paid about $45,000 a year in taxes of one sort or another to our various governments.
Now, the government is writing me checks totaling about $30,000/year after taxes for various programs I’m now eligible for since my unemployment began. The only tax I’m currently paying is sales and property taxes; and since my income is down I’ve stopped spending and since my house is worth 70% of what it was last year, I’m appealing my property taxes.
The net loss to the government(s) is conservatively $70,000 to $75,000 per year.
Good luck with that math, Obama
Buddy’s, right – what would be worse is if they do know what they are doing. I still flip-flop between They’re Evil and They’re Incompetent. The 2 are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Historically the Left (with the Alinsky playbook to follow) knows exactly what it is doing. The political leaders on the Left know what they are doing, although looking at Reid, Pelosi, etc. I still think some are dumber than a box (Boxer) of rocks. Obama is superficially intelligent but when pressed cannot articulate a single coherent thought – no, really, watch and listen when he speaks extemporaneously. Stale air.
The issue of inserting uncertainty (FUD) into the system and raising taxes and not comprehending that revenues fall as a result: these people a) are not good economists and don’t understand business, and b) truly use the tax code (so do RINOs) as social policy to redistribute income and reward special interests. When asked during the campaign about lowering taxes to raise revenues, Obama stated (paraphrasing): “It’s not about raising revenues, it’s about fairness.”
Understanding what the Left and Marxists mean by “fairness” is what we all really have to do fundamentally to comprehend what is going on here. It’s not about raising revenues, it’s about fairness. Fairness is not equality of opportunity, it is equality of RESULTS. If fairness results in a broken society/economy/country, that’s ok with them. You have to break some eggs to make an omelette, in their view. If the rich become poor and the middle class are out of work and broken, well, read Alinsky because that IS THE DESIRED RESULT.
However, they will be creamed politically before it reaches total destruction. Too many of us in this country while going Galt will also be taking our revenge. Incidentally, I’m in IT and scheduled to lose my job this year. Part of me rejoices at the thought of all those taxes this un-Constitutional government will not be able to confiscate from me.
Excellent piece, Tom. Enjoyed your PJTV video on this as well. Keep taking it to the statists!
–Recovery Begins when Obama Loses His Job–
So RightWingHippyChick is that an invitation to join you for tea ? If so, when and where ?
AST: Exactly! We are also in wagon circling suvrival mode waiting for hope and change to end.
I was watching some Economists debate the New Deal – one argued that the New Deal didn’t end the Depression, and WWII just sent the unemployed offshore in uniform. The Depression ended the day FDR died and stability returned to the economy.
Maybe, just maybe, if this administration and Congress would decide that economic growth is more important than environmental purity, class warfare, and de facto government takeovers of large corporations, those who have “gone Galt” might come in from the wilderness. Does anyone think that Pelosi, Obama, and Reid are up to doing what it takes to make that happen?>>
————–
Why would they want to? As far as Hussein the Marist is concerned, the worse things are economically in America the better. More power for him.
Hussein is out to destroy America and pave the way for a Caliphate under Sharia law.
“if this administration and Congress would decide that economic growth is more important than environmental purity, class warfare, and de facto government takeovers of large corporations, those who have “gone Galt” might come in from the wilderness. ”
Puhlease, those things you are asking them to give up are their sole objective in politics, their life’s purpose, their own “meanning of life” stuff. They’ll *never* give them up. Heaven forbid they ever admit (even to themselves) they. are. Wrong.
“Does anyone think that Pelosi, Obama, and Reid are up to doing what it takes to make that happen?”
Not only are they NOT up to capacity to do what needs to be done, encouraging a capitalist free market, without undue regulation or burdensome taxes on the producers goes against *everything* they believe in. Which all boils down to one word – POWER, as in their own power. They are so wonderful, it is their god (note small “g”) given right to rule over the starving masses, while they eat lobster, waygu beef and drink champagne.
I never thought Marie Antoinette would be the inspiration for the “elites” in the US.
4. Economist:
I defer to no one in my loathing for POR, but don’t you think the huge job losses had something to do with the lower tax receipts?
~~~~~~~~~
Why do you think there have been, and will continue to be, huge job losses?
(because companies recognize this administration is going to tax them into submission, so they started laying people off, to REDUCE their employment expenses, as soon as it looked likely bambi would win. The MSM was harping on that last summer.)
PatriotUSA
- With Obama we are repeating the same mistakes (as FDR) and worse.
~~~~
Well, the MSM and the current occupant have been comparing him to FDR since before the election, and how going on about how “we are in another 1930′s type depression”. Of course, what he forgot to mention was that HE was going to create it – and may well be doing so by reenacting the same type of policies as FDR.
that should have been “historicalcontext”. Sorry. We agree anyway.
26. AThinkingPerson:
I’m still amazed that the Liberal Left hasn’t figured out yet that when you raise taxes on job creators they QUIT CREATING JOBS. Why is that simple idea so hard to grasp?
~~~~~
they’re too busy counting their eggs, and salivating at the thought of more, to notice they left the door open and the chickens are leaving.
readerer, I agree – I don’t think your situation is atypical. What’s more – and this goes to Tom’s overall point – I think your situation is indicative of a trend that actually started in early 2007. But the trend seems to have three general sub-trends.
The first is where CEOs and small business owners cut back on hiring and expenses because the fedgov is, essentially, screwing business from every angle – just as they promised they’d do and just as Democrat economic policies have done pretty much throughout the last century.
The second is where people effectively ‘go Galt’ in a manner most closely related to Rand’s thesis – given that there’s no real-world Galt’s Gulch to which anyone can repair. That is, withdrawing their efforts from society as a whole because an increasing portion of the population (now greater than 50% of American citizens) has come to feel they’re entitled to the fruits of others’ efforts.
The third is the case you describe: dropping out of the work force and leveraging the welfare state for support. (Note: I’m not assuming you did this on purpose or saying I disagree with it in principle.)
But my question is this: don’t you think that third trend (i.e., yours) plays directly into the Cloward-Piven Strategy of overwhelming social services to the point of breakdown and economic crisis? If so, does that figure into your thinking? If not, why not?
I like your idea of appealing property taxes. I think if more property owners did that, en masse, it would send some clear messages to local governments.
The second is where people effectively ‘go Galt’ in a manner most closely related to Rand’s thesis – given that there’s no real-world Galt’s Gulch to which anyone can repair. That is, withdrawing their efforts from society as a whole because an increasing portion of the population (now greater than 50% of American citizens) has come to feel they’re entitled to the fruits of others’ efforts.
It looks to me like the estimated tax receipts are tracking with the stock market. This would reflect an expectation of the capital gains taxes due, not necessarily the business expectation.
The plural of anecdote is not “data”, but it may be indicative. Just for background, I am a retired Peace Officer in a small town in the mountains of Colorado. I personally know of 4 small businesses in my county that made the final decision to shut down on the morning of November 5 based on what they saw as coming from Obama and an out of control Democrat Congress. These are businesses that had successfully survived the fuel price spikes of the summer and which had believed the worst was possibly over.
Looking at the prospect of being taxed into bankruptcy as part of the “rich” [Sub-Chapter 'S' corporations which impute the income of the business to the owner, like most small businesses], it was no longer worth the effort. The choice became a) try to outlast both the government and a bad economy and have an overwhelmingly high risk of losing everything to bankruptcy, or b) liquidate the business, shut down, and have the assets from an orderly liquidation that could be used to try to survive the bad times to come. Having something with a chance of keeping it, rather than being dead broke and unable to support a family is what they chose. Starting November 5 they shut down their businesses, finishing before December 31 so that no new tax laws would affect them.
That assumption was before we found that Congress would happily pass ex post facto laws; so they may end up being tried for being Kulaks yet. I assume that they are taking whatever steps they can to protect their assets and families. A couple dozen employees total were put out of work. I am sure that not everyone is “going Galt”, but that has to be a factor in the current collapsing economy. By the way, between the two, my county has the highest unemployment rate in the state. Nobody is hiring for anything, except for a shortage of CNA’s for the nursing homes in town.
Is it deliberate or is it incompetence? I think both, plus more than a bit of criminality. Keep in mind that the politicians who are in charge of the “recovery” are the exact same ones who caused and profited from the collapse and now with total power, they are surely getting paid off even more. None of the business men who bought off the politicians are being prosecuted. And the appointees of the Executive Branch have the common factors of successful tax evasion [without the penalties we would have to suffer after it was discovered] and in many cases investigations and/or indictments for official corruption. Kleptocracy is not an inapt term.
The devotees of Central Planning and “5 Year Plans” are always amazed that the capitalist exploiters of the proletariat actually try to predict the future, plan, and react accordingly. Right now, there are NO stable factors to plan around. A business cannot assume the value of the currency and therefore prices. They cannot assume the availability or cost of both raw materials and the energy to manufacture or transport goods, except that they may not be available or be priced beyond reach. They cannot assume a stable tax regime, other than they are going to get higher [Obama promises one thing, his actions all point the other way]. They cannot even assume a stable legal regime, as what they do and have done in the past, in strict accordance with the letter of the laws, may become illegal and felonious retroactively at the whim of the government.
Right now the only constant is that the sole protection for your business lies in personal, political, or financial ties with Democrat politicians. Given that at least 1/2 of American businesses are not run by Liberal Democrats, or cannot afford, or are morally unwilling to pay Guanxi; the only rational response is to hunker down and be ready to bail if it seems your industry is about to be targeted by the State.
Not exactly a formula for economic boom times.
Subotai Bahadur
26.AThinkingPerson
Yeah. It’s not that complicated, is it?
The biggest problem I see driving so much of what is happening right now is that POR and their cohorts are exactly like the armed robber who has a gun to your head. As long he’s holding the gun, it doesn’t MATTER that you tell him there IS no money in the house.
They have the smug sense of sense possessed by the older brother who’s holding the book high over the head of the younger sister, who’s yelping, “Give me my book!” and he just looks down at her and says, “Can’t make me!” They care that their doctrine can be factually shot full of holes. They ARE shameless and this empowers them.
This morning hubby and I got a postcard thingy from Social Security that started out with the words, “Good news!”….and then told us that in May we will be receiving a $500 additional, one time deposit to our account as part of the idiot’s porkulous package. All I could think of was, “Thanks for nothing, fool. You’ve just increased our share of the national debt by $500 and we’ll be paying for it in taxes the rest of our lives.”
The leftists have LIVED angry and full of rage. They’re used to it. One of the issues for conservatives may be learning how to use our anger effectively OVER THE LONG HAUL. We’re not used to “living angry” and don’t find it particularly attractive. But this is NOT going to be a short, quick fix.
We’re going to have to get at it, and stay at it, stay angry and stay focused and be effective in what we do with that anger. I don’t doubt we can do it. Just sayin’.
A key word I saw mentioned in many of your posts was the word ‘uncertainty’.
If most businessman and consumers could trust the current administration to do what they say they are going to do; we’d have a reasonably better economic atmosphere. If they would keep the personal tax bite where it is, cut corporate and capital gain taxes, a lot of the money sitting on the sidelines would enter the market.
But Nooooo. the rocket scientists in the administration can’t even agree on their strategy and it is clear to anyone who watches what they do. For sure, they have proven you can’t trust what they say. When Obama told the CIA he had their back, all they needed to think of was Rev. Wright, Ayers, Tom Daigle, his brother, his aunt, his Grandmother etc. If he ever tells all of us citizens he has our back, run for the hills!
“They care that their doctrine can be factually shot full of holes.”
correcting my own post here. Obviously meant “They DON’T care that their doctrine can be factually shot full of holes.
I don’t mean to upset anyone, but most of what has been posted here is nuts. Obama and Pelosi ARE making things worse, but it didn’t start in 2007, any more than weight problems start the day you get diabetes.
economic contractions start for a reason: this one was a spreading realization that the housing bubble has been pushed about as far as it would go (after the high-tech bubble had popped a few years before). The fed aided and abetted the bubble with low interest rates; wall street types fanned it with pre packaged BS securities that Bush’s SEC and FDIC allowed to grow out of control. The Democrats were in on it too: the money supply started to grow under Clinton you know. Barney Fife–I mean Frank and his ilk pushed the banks to lend to people no one should have lent to.
The street brokers in your neighborhoods fanned it even more. Soon the median price of a house was beyond the reach of 65% of the state of California–did you think tis could go on forever? Who did you think was going to buy the houses (marked up 20%) next year?
Banks that should have known betetr went nuts-just as they did in the 80′s. And the 60′s. Rememebr all their loans to Mexico?
So the bubble popped–about the same time people went to a negative savings rate and maxed out their 2d (or 3d) mortgages.
BOTH parties are responsible. BOTH of them. THEY are all a bunch of partisian crooks. But there is no question that Obama is making it WORSE.
So what is going to happen? I’ll tell you. When I inherited inflation from LBJ at 6% in 1968 I did the right thing: I suffocated the inflation which caused some unemployment. The Democrats were as partisian then as they are now. They called me inhuman. And won the 1970 midterm elections. So I did then what Obama is doing NOW. I inflated the economy, made it all seem good for a while and was re elected in 1972. But when we cut back on the inflation—becasue we had to stop sometime befor the dollar became like some south american currency–the bubble popped. The roof fell in: we had suppressed the inlfation with wage/ price controls..that caused shortages, then they took off the controls, and you had … Stagflation. Remember all that? No? Go read a book.
You’ll see it all again because Obama IS making it worse. But don’t assume for a minute that this is only a Democratic problem in its origin. Its not. But he and the congress ARE making it much worse.
PS: you could learn about all of this by ignoring the newspapers: their idea of “history” and “perspective” is all of 30 days. They are like small kids–”are we there yet?”
PS: Could I run again? I didn’t finish my second term. You can be sure I wouldn’t be shaking hands with Hugo or apologizing for the US in europe. I won’t use any more tapes either. Promise. “Nixon’s the One.”
The only debate here is weather this OPR economic downturn was by accident or on purpose. At the risk of giving them too much credit it certainly would be in keeping for them destroy the economy as a matter of political strategy. Remember how we watched while the same group deliberately did all it could, short of taking up arms with the enemy, to lose a war we we were obviously winning. Leftlib jerks prove time after time they are perfectly willing to tank the country for political advantage. It’s not coincidence, it’s their modus operandi. The only concern they have about picking up the pieces is that they will be the only alternative to do so.
I agree with the general point of the essay. But you let the Republicans off too easy. Bush got Bailout Nation rolling. The P-O-R axis just accelerated the process. McCain was and is no friend of freedom, favoring restrictions on everything from free speech (McCain-Feingold) to carbon. And don’t even get me started on California’s disaster of a governor.
Businessmen (and the rest of us) looking at all of these leading indicators have good reason to hunker down, if not actually “Go Galt”. With regard to businessmen in particular, Peter Schwartz says it well: “Perversely, the rights of captured Islamic jihadists generate greater concern in Washington [than the rights of businessmen].” (See here: http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=22995&news_iv_ctrl=1021.)
46. Goy,
Reading your post got me wondering. Could the Cloward-Pivens strategy be used against Socialism? If the wealthy go Galt and the socialist programs go bust, wouldn’t that prove that socialism doesn’t work? We could also use Ayer’s teachings, just flip them…
i am a retired expat.
i do not collect ssi, i do not want it or medi scare.i buy all my own insurance and have lived for almost 10 yrs 100% on long and sort cap gains and rental income. i have earned zero working income on purpose for almost 10 years. in 2002 i faced combined income taxes on my self employed income well over 60%. this includes the self employed version of ssi, i.e. double, plus state income taxes and required bonding and state insurance. i closed the business. i did not need that when paying 60%. it was stupid to have that much exposure and work so hard to pay morons to waste it.
the bush tax cuts on cap gains had me convert all my income in that direction, retire and leave the country. suddenly the trading platforms for small gains in commodity trading made economic and tax sense. for years i had great earnings with low taxes that kept my significant principle in the USA working for the economy, and generating not insignificant taxes. since this is all i earn. my life. my future. i saw the obozo lie right away. many many millions of Americans will be paying much higher taxes and earn far less than 250k. they are retired people like me. the increase in LT cap gains taxes, which begins on dollar 1, will be in excess of 100%. from 15% to 38%.
lets be very clear here obozo. the raising and lowering of taxes is the primary predicate of changes in behavior!! you hear that fool? to the dems, it is not about raising money, it is about there sick ideas of justice. a la robin hood, nothing but misguided thieves. to people like me it is not about paying the money, it is about my personal freedom. taxes change behavior.
seeing the future as i must. about 15 mos ago i began the change. reducing my investing principle, taking advantage of low foreign prices and purchasing properties abroad. my income has been reduced by 2/3s. i did not need the month to month.i paid almost no taxes his year. nor will i. my principle is secure. no matter what that jerk does.
if you raise taxes, we change our behavior. one investor at a time. galt that.
Another factor that has not been covered here is outsourcing. Large multinational corporations continue to export jobs formerly held by Americans to foreign countries where the cost of doing business is less. Proposals like EFCA and cap-and-trade accelerate this process, as they will make doing business in the USA even more expensive if passed.
33. Greg Olen:
You can count me as one of those housewives who would rather remain that way, with two kids under the age of 3 and an upper-middle-income-earning husband, than to go back to work and watch as about half of my paycheck disappears, thanks to the government.
The POR economy will kill the golden goose!
Eventually, the “rich” will be leaving like **** through a goose. Speaking of going Galt, other wealthy may seek to emulate Francisco D’Anconia or Danneskjold. Francisco represents those who would rather destroy their businesses than support the looters; think of the Wall street guys going to Singapore. Danneskjold the pirate represents the underground free marketeer.
Also, we should look at stats for US citizen renouncing citizenship.
@56. Ms. Attitude: - Could the Cloward-Pivens strategy be used against Socialism? If the wealthy go Galt and the socialist programs go bust, wouldn’t that prove that socialism doesn’t work?
Hmmm… lots to think about and respond to in those two sentences…
Generally speaking, stressing a particular system beyond the limits of what it’s intended to support does not prove that system doesn’t work. It only shows where the system’s limits are, and only for that particular case (i.e., that time, place, culture, etc.). This is true whether you’re stressing a database, a bridge, an aircraft design or capitalism. Stressing a nation’s economy in such a way isn’t idealism – it’s sabotage. And it’s treason, if one wants to get technical. Would that it were treated as such.
What you’re describing is something different – something more along the lines of Rand’s thesis in Atlas Shrugged. When a system is fundamentally flawed to begin with, it really doesn’t take much at all to show that it’s flawed. Per your scenario, in America’s present state, a wholesale cessation of productivity by the 90-odd million American citizens currently shouldering the bulk of the tax burden for the entire country would demonstrate that our present system no longer works. The reason is that our system employs a form of government that was never given the authority to force its citizens to support it or to support each other. If you take away an individual’s incentive to produce, you will either have to force them or rethink your strategy. Historically, governments have chosen the former. And once a significant portion of the population goes from being productive to being ‘entitled’, the government will cease to be relevant unless it resorts to institutional militarism (as during Woodrow Wilson’s administration) or outright force, as in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Khmer Rouge Cambodia … etc. Whichever route is chosen, this will no longer be the Constitutional Republic of the United States of America – it will be something else entirely.
Things weren’t always this bad, and that’s one of the things that has fascinated me so about our capitalist economy and Constitutional, Republican Form of Government. All the stress that’s been applied to America over the last two centuries only seems to have made the country stronger. And that strength – both inner and outer – has grown at a rate exceeding most if not all other preceding cultures. It’s only recently, as we’ve strayed from those principles, that we are threatened with economic, moral and geopolitical decline. And as we stray from those principles – with plenty of help from the moral adolescents on the left – America becomes more flawed, and more vulnerable to breakdown through C-P sabotage.
So, what I’d point out is that C&P’s goal was not to prove that capitalism didn’t work. Rather, they were proceeding from the morally adolescent assumption that it doesn’t work. Rather than use their education, intellect and talents to truly understand capitalism (and its relationship to property and individual liberty), and teach the “poor” and the “downtrodden” how to make capitalism work for them, C&P instead set about devising ways to destroy capitalism itself. Most ironically of all, they intended to do this by destroying the welfare state and shredding the social safety net by overloading them and the capitalist economy that made them possible in the first place.
As gcblues correctly observes, the overarching goal of all leftist ideologues is to save the world – with other people’s money, other people’s efforts and other people’s property. Their stilted moral development misleads them to the false conclusion that this is the ‘correct’ way to improve the human condition, guaranteeing maximum ‘social justice’ (which, like the terms “assault weapon”, “hate speech”, “hope”, “change” and other malleable newspeak terms, has no inherent meaning whatsoever). Thus, the fatal flaw in the C-P ‘strategy’, which grows out of this fundamental misunderstanding of human nature, is the blind assumption that out of economic breakdown, social chaos and complete lawlessness, somehow a viable socialist State will emerge – one that will finally ‘get socialism right’ – and facilitate redistribution of wealth from the ‘haves’ to the ‘have nots’.
Unfortunately, the best historical examples we have demonstrating what would most likely follow in the wake of a successful application of the C-P Strategy is Cuba under Castro and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. As recent statistics demonstrate, we’re largely heading in that direction anyway. With each generation, increasing numbers of Americans are failing to mature morally to the point where they are capable of representative self-government. Narcissism, corruption and rampant leftist ideology have been the result. And when a culture regresses to the point where it’s populated primarily by the moral equivalent of children, you eventually get one variation or another of the society made famous in Lord of the Flies.
Sorry – did I type “…90-odd million American citizens…”?
I meant to type 9-odd million.
I say “Stand and Fight”. We are witnessing a systematic destruction of our institutions and economy and the Republicans in the House and Senate are whimpering in their chairs. Every single Republican should walk out of their offices and gather in front of the Washington Memorial and DEMAND that there be a full accounting for every dollar spent on the TARP and in the STIMULUS BILL before another item is taken up in either house. Shut it down. Make this boycott the lead story every day. Ask the citizenry angered about this incredible irresponsibility to come out and join them. Make this about accountability. Every day until everyone in this country understands that the Congressmen and Senators that voted for the TARP and STIMULUS have betrayed the public trust. There are already 20 investigation underway involving fraud with the TARP funds. And this is only the begginning. This is going to blow up like a giant rotten carcass. The Republicans must do this now before it is too late. Stand and fight.
Somewhat off topic: I have been an information junkee for most of my adult life and wish so much I could kick the habit. Life would be so much more enjoyable if I did not know what is going on in the world.
I strongly believe that the majority of the american media decided in early 2008 that they were going to do whatever it takes to make BHO the next POTUS. Hillary had to be devastated, afterall it was her turn. The MSM along with groups like ACORN demoralized me and made me realize that the process is broken and may never be repaired. I was not a Palin fan like many conservatives, but what they did to her was shameful.
A pew poll released just before the election revealed that 62% of Dems and 90% of Pubs believed that the MSM was in the tank for BHO. So the vast majority of voters realized that they were being manipulated by the media, but went along like little sheep. Again, I wish I could just tune out the rotten b**tards in the agenda driven MSM.
#24
Possible, I suppose, but unlikely. On the other hand, a small businessman “going Galt” by cutting back production (reducing the total hours that the small business operates in order to convert income into extra leisure for the owner) will likely end up laying off several individuals paying little income taxes. Two-thirds (or more) of the government’s losses in tax revenues come from the employed individual who has reduced personal working hours. The remainder comes from the several now-unemployed individuals laid-off due to the cutback in hours.
What I’ve noticed in the whole debate about “going Galt” in the real world, as opposed to in Rand’s novel, is that the left seems to assume that “going Galt” is some sort of binary decision, wherein one decides to work or not to work. It’s much more complex than that, as your analysis of the drop in tax revenues shows. Economic growth happens at the margins in a modern economy and in that context “going Galt” for a high earner can literally mean something as simple as billing five less hours a week or taking half a day off on Fridays. Of course the core of the economy remains, but even those small changes kill any growth.
“And when a culture regresses to the point where it’s populated primarily by the moral equivalent of children, you eventually get one variation or another of the society made famous in Lord of the Flies.” ***Shudder
Being an expat brings great advantages, namely Form 2555, which allows exemption of up to about $120K of income. If you can retire abroad (tough, especially since cheap places are cheap for good reasons), what’s Uncle Sam going to do when you quit paying taxes and filing returns? Of course, when you’re a foreign resident, you probably don’t have the right to vote what happens to you there.
mwl, I work for one of those multinationals and this is 100% true. The goal of my company is to get rid of all American regular employees not in upper management or director/v.p. positions. They’ve been getting rid of 3 – 6K U.S. employees per year for several years. When I lose my job I will say good riddance. It’s become a living hell working for this company.
The best thing any business owner can do when faced with the decision of which employee to lay off is to pick one who voted for Obama.
Same thing with all that follow.
These clowns want economic warfare, they should get it.
Don’t announce it, of course, lest you get sued. Just do it.
Obama’s whole tax the rich theory is flawed and this article helps prove it.
He constantly berates supply side economics and “failed policies” of the past 8 years. Yet, his tax revenue predictions assume we (Americans) are going to do just as well as we have during the past 8 (or 25) years.
Tom, when are you going to “Go Galt?” I really want Obama to fail…
We need brave heroes like you to forgo your own self-interest for the good of the right wing! Please, Tom. I’m begging you…
Do all us sentient folks a favor and skedaddle on outta here.
Your biggest fan,
Herb
Herb,
See post 65. Growth happens at the margins. Tom doesn’t need to skedaddle, all he needs to do is stop working a few hours a week.
I now know how Diogenes the Cynic felt wandering the streets of Athens looking for an honest man, only I’m looking for a leftist with a clue.
“71. venividivici:
Tom doesn’t need to skedaddle, all he needs to do is stop working a few hours a week.”
Well, that’s a start…
Heck, I’d pay him to go away myself, but we’re trying to sabotage the economy here. You know, show No-bama who’s boss.
72
You know, show No-bama who’s boss.
Actually, the citizens of this country are the bosses of the government. You can look it up.
And all the snark in the world isn’t going to prop up the economy if the most productive cut back on their hours worked. I’m in an entrepreneurial situation right now where the option value is so high that I won’t be cutting back on work, but if I were further along in my career, I’d definitely do it. None of my work, thankfully, involves interacting with Obama supporters, so at least the workday is tolerable.
When Obama crashes the markets again, and he will, I plan on shorting for a significant payout, at which point I’ll probably pay my exit tax and go where success isn’t demonized by the likes of lefty scum. Even my entrepreneurial venture won’t be enough to keep me here once I have “F*ck you money”. Galt’s Gulch, for me, is probably more likely to be found in Switzerland.
The height of irony would be if those hours not worked were then put into political organizing to change the tax code, which would arguably be the highest payoff way to spend that extra time because it would increase the future value of time worked. In fact, I think that’s part of what’s driving the tea party phenomenon, people consuming less entertainment and more politics in their leisure time.
The thing about capital gains taxes is that they’re supply side on steroids because the tax based is the change in prices of securities that will themselves be repriced based on the change in tax rates. Consequently, cutting them causes revenues to soar, and doubling them can cause the revenues to drop to 0.
- I think that’s part of what’s driving the tea party phenomenon, people consuming less entertainment and more politics in their leisure time.
Very likely. Also, as unemployment continues to rise and begins to hit a larger portion of the citizenry that isn’t perennially on the dole – that is, the 90-odd million of us who actually pay income taxes – it’s a safe bet that those freed up hours will be spent doing what lefty academics, “community organizers”, college students and unemployed radicals have been doing full-time for decades: directly pressuring local, regional and federal government.
If this cap and trade fiasco goes ahead as planned we could see a lot of people just pull the plug and go “Ellis Wyatt”. Leave Nothing for the Looters.
75
goy,
If you look at the pool of eligible voters who don’t vote, you’ll find a lot of taxpayers who’ve always just “put up with it” because, on some level, they thought the tradeoff between what they pay and what they get was fair (perception is reality, so I’m not going to debate the point). Obama is radically changing that payoff calculation, which will pull some of those eligible voters into the booth, where they’ll make their decision on whether or not Obamaism is in their best interest. The left doesn’t really have a potential ‘growth market’ of similar size. They may even have reached their high water mark with the turnout they got for Obama, which definitely pulled in some people from the sidelines in a similar fashion.
How many millions of angry Dems are there out there that didn’t vote versus how many people is Obama and Congress angering as we speak and who will vote, even if just one time?
“AThinkingPerson:
I’m still amazed that the Liberal Left hasn’t figured out yet that when you raise taxes on job creators they QUIT CREATING JOBS. Why is that simple idea so hard to grasp?
Apr 23, 2009 – 7:06 am”
Oh, they get it. It’s not about prosperity. It’s about control.
I am still wondering if the fall financial crisis was the October surprise that Democrats cooked up the last two elections before. Isn’t it an odd coincidence that it all fell apart just when McCain had pulled ahead in the polls. And the initiators of it all, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are packed with Obama supporters. Given their fanatic support it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Obama supporters would deliberately sink the economy in order to get their messiah elected if they could.
Granted the makings of the crisis have been around for a long time, but did building burn on its own or did someone light the match that made the tinderbox go up in flames? It seems like something that should at least be investigated. If it wasn’t possible then fine, but again it seems like a very odd coincidence.
As poiticians, these Dems have proven they are unmatched in the entire world. Unfortunately for our country, the realities of the political profession are that perceptions are more important than facts. We are now swimming upstream against the tide of propanganda, routinely labeled as “The News” and taught in our schools. This is causing a surreal world to gain power over the real world of the economy. Who, in their right mind, believes the government can produce anything resembling a stable economy? Only through totalitarianism, and we can look to see how they live in Cuba to see our future in that.
don’t waste your breath on the blithering and blinding ignorance of posters like Boris and his moronic ilk.
“I never thought Marie Antoinette would be the inspiration for the “elites” in the US.”
God willing, they will enjoy the same fate.
73. venividivici:
I can’t begin to tell you how wrong your thinking is, but let me try:
“Actually, the citizens of this country are the bosses of the government. You can look it up.”
Yes, the citizens of this country elected Obama into his position of totalitarian dictator, it’s true. And alas, he holds the same position as George W. Bush before him: Commander in Chief, Leader of the Free World, CEO of the government. Something tells me you weren’t always so down on the office of the presidency…
“I’m in an entrepreneurial situation right now where the option value is so high that I won’t be cutting back on work, but if I were further along in my career, I’d definitely do it.”
Oh, I see…going Galt is good for other people, but yourself…you’re going to keep working because you can’t afford it. Sorry, bud, but that doesn’t fly. Do you think you’re the only one in this position?
You ever heard the phrase, “Put your money where your mouth is?” Since you’ve already admitted that you’re not going to do that, then maybe you should can the “Going Galt” talk, huh?
“None of my work, thankfully, involves interacting with Obama supporters, so at least the workday is tolerable.”
Ah, insulation…keeps you warm and protected from the elements. But don’t you ever get tired of listening to the echo chamber?
I can’t imagine that galting has much to do with it. Lost jobs and low dividends are the story.
Galting is just a personal mirage of control over the uncontrollable.
Personally, I’ve stopped working as much and cut my hours drastically. Why shouldn’t I ? maybe I should just quit and get on Welfare and work “Off the Books” like a lot of people do.
There’s always bartering or just taking what’s left of your 401K and moving to another country. Quit feeding the Troll and the Troll will die.
The first step to fixing our political system is to stop paying the “politician tax”….
Politicians are not like the rest of us…. they are keenly obsessed with “getting elected” as a measure of success, but although this would seem to suggest that they should care about representing the views of the electors — the people — it doesn’t work out that way. With extremely rare exceptions, politicians preserve their interests by serving their party (whichever one it is) over the people, and by serving corporate interests and other special interests next to that, also over the people…. so where do we fit in?
They see us as votes and money, and many of us are suckers…. how many of you donated money to a politician or a party last year? The sad truth is that whatever you did donate was actually a tax imposed by the system through blackmail, one that you didn’t have to pay at all, but volunteered…. I have to admit, I’m in that crowd, even though I only gave to Libertarian candidates (who all lost) and the amount I donated amounted to pocket change even in their meager coffers…. but I’d take it back if I could….
Look at it this way: imagine there are two bullies on your block, and both want to take your lunch money…. each says that if you “voluntarily” pay him, he’ll protect you from the other one, and each one talks up how dangerous the other one is in order to convince you to buy protection… but the truth is, if you learn to defend yourself you don’t have to give a penny to either of them.
That’s what the Republicrats do — each side uses the other as a threat to pry your dollars away in the form of campaign donations, and the first and biggest thing WE can do to eliminate donation-driven corruption from the system is to turn off that voluntary faucet of cash flowing out of our pockets.
In short: DO NOT GIVE ANY MONEY TO POLITICIANS!! not to a candidate, not to a campaign, not to a party, and if you can help it, not to an organization or company that will pass it on to any of those (even a company that will hedge its bets by giving to both sides; in fact, especially such a company)…. clean up our politics, do NOT pay the politician tax!!
Well, job losses occur when companies lay off. A very big International financial service company saw the handwriting on the wall in late 2007. They moved a bunch of operations to India a number of which had been done in the US. Then they laid off people in the US. Then they dropped their consulting contractors. Then they put in a hiring freeze in the US. Most of their money now comes from overseas operations and it is not being exposed to US taxation. Not only did the Feds lose revenue from this company but several states did also.