Posted on 06/22/2011 10:18:02 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The U.S. economy is crumbling. Businesses are collapsing in record numbers. Jobs have disappeared. Tax revenues are down dramatically. Coincidence?
Everything happening today under Obama resembles the storyline of Ayn Rand’s famous book, Atlas Shrugged, one of the most popular books of all time, selling over 7 million copies. Now, under President Obama, Atlas Shrugged has come to life. Rand prophesized a country dominated by socialists, Marxists and statists, where looters, free loaders and poverty promoters live off the productive class. To rationalize the fleecing of innovative business owners and job creators, the looter class demonized the wealthy, just as Obama and his socialist cabal are doing in real life today.
The central plot of Atlas Shrugged is that in response to being demonized, over-taxed, over-regulated, and punished for success, America’s business owners were disappearing — dropping off the grid, and refusing to work 16-hour days to support those unwilling to put in the same blood, sweat and tears. They were going on strike. Because of that the original proposed title of “Atlas Shrugged” was “The Strike.”
They were going on strike to teach that civilization cannot survive when people are slaves to government. That without a productive class of innovative business owners willing to risk their own money and work 16-hour days, weekends and holidays, there are no jobs and no taxes to pay for government. If you punish the wealthy, the risk-takers, the innovators, you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. In Obama’s America, fiction is becoming fact.
The lesson of Atlas Shrugged is that without the $100,000+ earners paying into Social Security, there are no pensions for the poor and lower middle class. Without the wealthy owners of million-dollar mansions paying $25,000 and $50,000 annual property tax bills, there is no funding for public schools. Without the wealthy paying into Medicare, there is no “free” healthcare for the elderly. Without capitalists motivated by profit, there are no discoveries to eradicate polio or create miraculous cancer and AIDS drugs. Without capitalists motivated by profit, there are no jobs, period! That is what happens when the producers of society go on strike to protect themselves from the looters.
Ayn Rand was warning the looters that there are consequences to their overzealous actions. She was warning that if the productive classes felt used, demonized, ripped off, and taken for granted, they would go on strike — stop working, retire early, go underground, or move to places where achievement is celebrated and they feel appreciated.
The latest U.S. Census proves Ayn Rand right. Under Obama the wealthy are striking, voting with their feet. They are moving to low-tax red states in droves, escaping from high-tax blue states where they are being demonized and punished by the millions.
The Census proves that Obama’s tax and spend philosophy is a dismal failure, an economic disaster killing jobs. It is no coincidence that 1.9 million FEWER Americans are working than before Obama’s stimulus. It is no coincidence that jobs are not returning to the private sector. It is no coincidence that tax revenues have dropped dramatically and cannot support Obama’s bloated Big Brother government. The innovators, risk-takers, and wealthy he demonized and punished are on strike.
The high tech revolution has killed the progressive-liberal tax-and-spend dream. Because of the Internet, email, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Satellite TV, I-phones, I-pads, and cell phones, business owners are no longer prisoners of Big Brother. Take a look at states where the latest Census shows Americans moved during the past decade: Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alaska, Virginia — all low- or no-tax red states, states that lead the USA in economic freedom.
Now look at states they escaped from: New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan. Taxpayers, business owners, jobs creators, retirees with assets are fleeing the high tax, big spending, Big Brother states — the states being run like Obama is running the nation.
Progressives be afraid, be very afraid. If Obama is re-elected, these valuable producers will pick up and leave America altogether. There is a big world out there begging them to come. Places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Monte Carlo, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Bahamas, and Cayman Islands are low-tax havens that appreciate business owners and their sacrifices. They welcome wealthy ex-patriots. They celebrate individual achievement. They reward instead of punish business owners and financial risk-takers. They are wonderful places to live and are aggressively pursuing Americans.
I am just one small businessman, a third-party Libertarian political leader. Yet I personally have heard from thousands of fans, friends and supporters who have left America, are thinking of leaving America, are visiting other countries right now to decide where to go, or making preparations to leave in case Obama is re-elected. Just as Ayn Rand predicted, business owners are going on strike. Permanently.
The high tech revolution has freed them to run their businesses from anywhere in the world. The same high tech tools and toys that toppled a powerful and invincible 30-year dictator in Egypt and now threaten to topple powerful leaders throughout the Arab world, also offer mobility and freedom to U.S. taxpayers. Obama better learn the lesson of Mubarek before millions more business people decide they do not need to put up with looters, free loaders, and politicians who despise them.
Atlas is shrugging. Ayn Rand is saying “I told you so.”
The lesson that Obama learns may not bring the response that Wayne thinks is the correct one. Obama is likely to double down and attempt to go after these people and portray them as traitors - he's already gone after the Swiss bank accounts.
With all due respect, Ayn Rand never contemplated the Peoples Republic of China.
The wealthy are not on strike.
They are in bed with communists.
Well said.
Thank you. I appreciate that. His post sounded like Socialism 101 to me. Strange.
In “Atlas Shrugged” it was not the wealthy who were on strike, many of the “Bad Guys” were wealthy, it was the entrepreneur, the creators, who were on strike.
“If you think the employees do the dirty work you must not have ever been an employer.”
Then hire me and fire whomever you have working for you.
LMAO...you should read Rand, Mr. Taggert.
My point continues:
John Galt no longer owns the factory, or that fantastic motor.
Mr. Zhang manages the factory for the real owner: the politboro.
There is an American name on the front of the factory. That is all.
“prophesized” has one more “z” than it needs.
Either you're joking or you don't know what I mean.
This is wrong. Rand's purpose was to encourage producers ("men of the mind") to recognize their right to their own property, to reject the claims of their altruist antagonists and to demand justice from society. In no way is "Atlas Shrugged" meant to be a warning to anyone. She didn't think that way.
All of which occurs in the book...
Except for food, I do not have to buy one thing for I don’t know how many years.
Shoes? Check.
Shirts? Check.
Suits? Check.
Shaving, oral hygiene, shampoo, etc, . Check.
In fact, I have stuff I may never use, like a couple of sets of China that I haven’t figure out the proper setting or the many clothes I purchased and tossed in a closet.
That’s the junk but, important stuff like staples....I will not spend a dime in the next two years except as a habit of just buying extra.
If push came to shove and I “Busted down in Baton Rouge” I only have to keep my car on the road and buy food. That’s after I run out of my SHTF supplies which is around 1-2 years. I don’t actually know how many years because the supplies are in various locations and I haven’t inventoried them in about two years.
Hmmmm.... now that I think of it, might be time to take an actual inventory and put in my calendar so I now what I got.
Project for the 4th.
Here is a bit of my own “going Galt” story, published in AT in Dec of 08 - which also predicted exactly what has come to pass:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/blame_me_for_job_losses.html
Yeah, right. Just send me the bill. I'll be sure to pay it just as soon as I can get around to it.
Wow! That was very prescient of you for 2008. I keep thinking I should not admit to having any marketable skills or pretty soon the 0bama goons will come around and demand that I start a business.
Went Galt years ago.
I know what you mean. I’ve owned my own business myself.
I’ve “gone Galt” and every patriotic American should do the same.
- do not purchase anything worth over $1000 if possible.
-do not purchase any new vehicles and if needed avoid ALL GM products.
- delay tax payments as long as possible.
- earn only enough to “make your nut” then just shut it down.
-avoid travel by air and vacations to California,New York , Florida , or any place that is liberal ( Seattle).
Take every flier, postage paid ad for New York Times, AARP, GM or any other left wing front then get blank sheet of paper and mail it back.
- cancel as much cable, land line phones, newspaper subscriptions, magazine subscriptions as possible.
-stay home as much as possible and avoid restaurants, theaters and any live music or sporting venue.
In other words. ........ Shut down and hunker down for a year or more.
Good luck all.
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