Who is John Galt?
Steve Hayward says that if Barack Obama’s trillion-dollar tax increase is implemented that he will go on strike in the fashion of John Galt, Ayn Rand’s famous lead in Atlas Shrugged.
…my bigger idea is to go all Randian and literally go on strike (and I’ve never really been much of a Rand fan, by the way–Whittaker Chambers had her down right). I’m going to start converting income opportunities into more leisure by deliberately reducing my income. Already between federal and state income taxes, self-employment taxes, the AMT, and phased-out dependent deductions as income rises, I’m at a marginal rate of about 50% on my last dollars earned from writing or anything else. So it will pay to keep below Obama’s high income threshold. I suspect a lot of self-employed people will make similar calculations and adjustments, and the revenue yield will be far below what Obama’s people project.
If the economic disincentives to work are pronounced enough, it’s certainly possible that others will follow in Hayward’s footsteps. Not sure what Steve means by a lot, however.
I suspect that most of the self-employed, who in many ways define ambition by their willingness to forsake the relative safety of corporate/government work, will continue to keep plugging along if only because their ventures require a certain amount of care and feeding in order to produce anything at all. But it also seems likely that small business owners will re-invest in their companies rather than pay higher marginal tax rates on money they pay themselves, thereby achieving some of the same impact as an outright strike.
As many of you know, I am a big-time admirer of Rand. However, it must be said that her work ignores some of the realities of life, the most poignant being children and the love, attention, and costs they bring with them. Pure individualists may disregard such concerns but for most of us they are the reality of why we work. That’s one reason why I don’t think that Hayward’s plan will lead to a mass Galtian movement.
The other is that, unlike the liberal fascist American government in Atlas, I seriously doubt that today’s liberals would: A) recognize that their policies are what is killing western civilization as we know it; or B) have the courage to admit it if they did realize the effect of what they are doing.
Then again, who is John Galt?
As many of you know, I am a big-time admirer of Rand. However, it must be said that her work ignores some of the realities of life, the most poignant being children and the love, attention, and costs they bring with them. Pure individualists may disregard such concerns but for most of us they are the reality of why we work. That’s one reason why I don’t think that Hayward’s plan will lead to a mass Galtian movement.
That argument cuts both ways though, and it’s hard to tell how it will play out.
You’re right that most people work hard in order to give their kids a better life and give them security and comforts. But if the govt is going to be confiscating larger and larger percentages of the amounts we can earn by working longer hours, aren’t we going to start considering whether it might make more sense for one parent to stay home with the kids or for Dad to take a lower stress job where he can be home for the soccer games in the afternoon?
That’s not even necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn’t bode well for economic growth if those are the decisions that people end up making.
Sign seen at today’s Seattle “Tea Party”: “Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Reality in 52 Years.”
Those Tea Parties are real? Heh.
The Tea Parties are quite real, Chris. The Instapundit has photos here, with links to more.
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/71537/
I would estimate the Seattle turnout at between 200-300, and I doubt any five would agree with the other 195-295 on anything except that our government is in the hands of those who want the maximum amount of our money for the purpose of exerting the maximum amount of control over as many lives as possible. One has to start somewhere.
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/02/27/budget-debate-launches-new-tea-party/
Heh… if the antiwar protests are any indication, they wont do any good. Those had numbers in the hundreds of thousands and all Bush did was send more troops.
I don’t think anyone’s deluding themselves that this will cause a change in the current administration’s policies. I would think the idea would be more centered around aiming for a Congressional power switch at midterms and then perhaps there would be some moderation of the liberal agenda, just as we saw in ‘94 (though Clinton was far less liberal than Obama.)
BTW though, I’m mostly of the same mind as Rick Moranis on this.
Turnout has been really low, and they risk making a mockery of themselves if they don’t find a way to drive up larger numbers of attendees. And even if it was a larger movement, it strikes me that it would be a rather incoherent one because I’m guessing there are remnants of the Ron Paul revolution being paired with Michelle Malkin fans here- not a very consistent mix of ideology to support a growing movement.