For some background on the concept, check this post from Michelle Malkin.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

OK, so now that you understand the basic idea (summarized for those that didn’t follow the link):

It’s a reference to the famed Ayn Rand novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” in which protagonist John Galt leads the entrepreneur class to cease productive activities in order to starve the government of revenue.

So, I have decided to “Go Galt”, and I recommend that everyone that cares about this nation do the same.

What I am going to do?  After all, I am no John Galt.

But I am a productive citizen, and consumer, and I intend to leverage that power.

As a consumer, I will no longer patronize Chrysler or GM.  Ever.  Not one more dime.  I loved my Saturn Sedan, and I am still planning to buy a largish crossover vehicle (to support my business).  While the Saturn Outlook was a possibility, it is now off the list.  I will encourage everyone that I interact with to also move away from those brands.  If you must buy American, I recommend Ford.  I need to check out the Ford Edge, and see if it will meet my needs.

As a small business man, my business plan for 2009 included building sales to support another one or two salespeople.  That plan is now shelved.  I will grow sales to a sustainable level for myself, and leave it there.

I have almost completely stopped flying for business (goodbye, Alaska Airlines MVP Gold), and renting cars.  I have downgraded from business hotels (hilton and marriott families) to budget chains.  I have seriously cut back on customer entertainment – no more dinners, less lunches and breakfasts.

I am canceling my last remaining land line (though it is VOIP).

If things continue to decline on the government tax and spend binge front, I may close the doors, and return to the workforce, filling a job that would have gone to someone less qualified.

I will reduce consumption overall, to reduce the sales tax load I pay to the state of Washington.  I will put off purchasing any “big ticket” items until absolutely necessary, and then only to replace an existing (defunct) device.

I have already increased my planting of vegetables over last year, and have planted some nut trees to supplement my fruit trees.

I know that these things do not apply to everyone, but there is something everyone can do. 

Your government, and the American Aristocracy (that is, the Political Class) not only have no respect for you, but they have no fear of you.  We need to remind them that this is a Reprentative Republic, and they are answerable to the people.

Going Galt is a first step, to get their attention, and take away one of their favorite tools to remain in power:  Money.  Your money.  From YOUR effort.

The next step is to let your elected representatives know that you will refuse to vote for (and will actively vote against) anyone who does NOT pledge to reduce government expenditures, and work to return the government to its proper Constitutional role – which does NOT include owning part of a car company, or bailing out banks and insurance companies for making bad business decisions.

Thnik about it.

Technorati Tags: Going Galt

Courtesy of Pravda:

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our “democracy”. Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the “winning” side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

USA Today has a wonderful (and interactive graphic) piece today, which presents some truly horrifying numbers about the Average Liabilities Per Household in the USA Today!

Taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover
rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement
benefits, the national debt and other government promises, a USA TODAY
analysis shows.

The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record $546,668 per
household in 2008, according to the USA TODAY analysis. That’s
quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car
loans, credit cards and other debt combined.

Bottom line: The government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations in
2008, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion.

So, again, using the numbers USA Today has, the average US household owes $121,953 in personal debt (mortgages, cars, credit cards, etc), and their share of the federal debt is $546,668.

That gives each US Household, on average, a debt load of $668,621.  Right now, today. 

And what makes up that huge Federal Government Debt component?

$284.288 (52%) is Medicare.  $160.126 (29.3%) is Social Security.  $54,537 (10%) is the General Budget Debt.  Military Retirement is $29, 694 (5.4%).  Civil Service retirement adds $15,851 (2.9%), leaving another $2,172 (.4%) of miscellaneous “other” debts.

And this assumes that the money was set aside TODAY, earning interest, to meet these future commitments.  Which, of course, it’s not.

Now, here is some Fun With Numbers.  You would have to collect Social Security for over 13 years (at the average $12,098 annual benefits) to get back your share of just the SS debt load.  This does not count any of the money you have paid into the Ponzi Scheme.

The Median Household Income in the US in 2007 was pegged at $50,740.  So, the average household would have to work over 13 years to payoff the their total debt load, today, if they contributed 100% of their income to their combined debt.  Over 27 years, if they gave 50% of their income to debt reduction.  Or more than 54 years, if surrendering 25% of their income.

The average household owes almost twice as much to Social Security debt than on their home mortgage.  More than their total annual income to the Federal Debt.  More than 5 times their annual income to the Medicare Debt.

And the budget deficits, even after cosuming the trust funds, is still looking at over $1,000,000,000 per year.

But look on the bright side.  As of next week, we all own 72% of General Motors.

One – Courtesy of Doug Ross:

Red State, American Thinker and Joey Smith provide anecdotal and
quantitative evidence that would appear to confirm a decided bias
against dealers who donated to GOP causes or to anti-Obama Democrats.

Consider the partial list of Chrysler dealership owners, listed below.
You’ll notice that all were opponents of Barack Obama, most through
sponsorship of GOP candidates and organizations, but a handful through
Barack’s Democrat rivals (Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in 2008, for
example).

• Vernon G. Buchanan: $147,450 to GOP candidates and organizations
• Wallace D. Alley and Family: $4,500 to GOP.
• Robert Archer: $4,600 to GOP and conservative causes.
• Homer S. Higginbotham and Family: $2950 to GOP.
• James Auffenberg and Family: $28,000 to GOP; $6,000 to one Democrat candidate.
• Michael Maroone and Family: $60,000 to GOP; $8,500 to two Democrat candidates.
• Jerome Fader: $6,500 to Democrats; $2,500 to Independent Joe Lieberman.
• Stephen Fay and Family: $13,500 to GOP.
• William Numrich: $20,000 to GOP.
• Robert Carver: $10,000 to Democrats including $1,950 to Hillary Clinton, nothing to Barack Obama.

Lot’s more at the link.  More research ongoing.  Anyone have any info on the local dealers, and their political leanings?

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, a couple of hundred times is Democratic Hack action…

Two – Courtesy of the Washington Post – Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate

President Obama is expected to announce late this week that he will
create a “cyber czar,” a senior White House official who will have
broad authority to develop strategy to protect the nation’s
government-run and private computer networks, according to people who
have been briefed on the plan.

Now, I don’t have a particular problem with having a “point man” for Cyber issues, but I am about feb up with the whole “Czar” thing, and not just because the name is massively and inappropriately misused, but because I am sick to death of Presidents creating these positions out of thin air, with absolutely no congressional oversight or reporting criteria.  These people weild very real authority and influence in the administration, but answer ONLY to the President.  In Obama’s own words:

Obama pledged during his presidential campaign to elevate the issue of
cybersecurity to a “top priority” and to appoint a national
cybersecurity adviser “who will report directly to me.”

Three - Courtesy CNS News:

According to an analysis of climate legislation performed by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the cap-and-trade system favored
by President Barack Obama and many congressional Democrats could
potentially damage the U.S. manufacturing sector and force jobs to move
overseas.

This is so deep into the “No Duh” category that I am almost shocked (though not amazed) that they actually had to do an official Study on it.  The failure of Leftist politicians in general, and the Democrat party in particular, to understand even the basics of economics and human nature has moved far beyond stereotyping into near parody.

China has been playing a dangerous game since the end of the Mao Dynasty, and the advent of the reformers.

Not that they had a choice.  The stark reality of China today, like all nations, is a culmination of Geography, Climate, and Politics.

China has been trying to limit population growth, while transforming a largely agrarian society into a modern technological one.

The problem is that they have many decades of work left ahead of them, and time is running short due to the aging of the population, and the costs that will incur to society.

China had 153 million people aged 60 or over by the end of last year, accounting for 11.6 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion population, said Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu at a plenary meeting of the China National Committee on Aging (CNCA) Friday.

While Industrialization has been beneficial for some regions, the workforce is shrinking, with many workers leaving rural provinces to work in Special Economic Zones.  These workers typically leave the parents behind – though they send money back home to support the elders.  This is leading to “aging villages”, where most of the inhabitants subsist off of remittances sent back from their children, and government benefits.

Many smaller factories have moved inland as the government, aiming to spread development more evenly, uses tax breaks and looser pollution
controls to lure enterprises to poorer central provinces from the traditional manufacturing heartland near Hong Kong.

This, in turn, is creating a nascent labor shortage, and increasing the cost of labor for manufacturers.  And while China still enjoys a wage advantage over Mexico, and Latin America in general, that will evaporate over the next few years.

But even as China tries to spread Industry, the shortcuts that made them a manufacturing giant are coming Ho-ome, as Rev. Wright says, To Roost!

Two years of disastrous quality-control breakdowns, from foul fish and lead-tainted toys to poisoned drugs and dairy products, are taking their toll on China’s allure as a manufacturing platform. A new study by supply-chain consulting firm AMR Research found that quality concerns are among the chief reasons U.S. manufacturers are scaling back plans to source more goods from China.

Instead, U.S. companies are looking harder at Mexico and other locales closer to home when exploring where to put new capacity.

China was an attractive place to manufacture because of the tax advantages of the Special Economic Zones, coupled with a low wage work force, and inexpensive transportation costs. 

Today, though, with Transport costs fluctuating wildly, and a steady rise in wages, other issues are accumulating to lessen China’s desirability as a manufacturing locale.

Now, the biggest concerns over China are quality and theft of intellectual property (BusinessWeek.com, 4/27/06). Half of respondents to the survey cited China as the biggest source of “risk” for product quality failure. Fifty-seven percent rated China as the biggest risk of
intellectual-property infringement.

“China is in a league of its own in terms of risks associated with intellectual property and quality,” says Kevin O’Marah, AMR’s chief strategist.

In fact, China ranked highest in 9 of the 15 risk factors. Rising labor costs are still an important factor for businesses, with 35% citing China as the leading source of concern. Other risk categories where China ranked highest included regulatory compliance, commodity price volatility, supply-chain security breaches.

And china has not effectively dealt with issues that are damaging to the image of companies manufacturing there:

Quality problems, rampant piracy (BusinessWeek, 10/2/08), allegations of sweatshop abuses, worker protests, and other factors not only drive up costs but also harm the value of brands and corporate reputations. “Companies are realizing that the fully loaded costs of importing from China are a lot higher than they imagined,” says O’Marah.

But China is running out of time, and skilled manpower to get a handle on these problems.  By encouraging unchecked growth with a near total lack of oversight, they have been left with a nation of factory workers, and a rapidly aging agricultural workforce.  They have serious environmental pollution issues to deal with, and a serious lack of quality controls on food production, piracy, and a myriad of other ills that other societies, with longer transition periods, have dealt with.

Now, with the prospect of a dwindling foreign investment, the question becomes whether China can build up a Middle Class (read: Consumer Class), to support the existing Manufacturing base; while converting from family/village based agriculture to large scale automated agriculture (to feed that middle class); while caring for the increasing number of aged (and no longer productive) citizens.  If not, they are looking at more than just an economic crisis…  The chance that the Communist Party that still runs the country can solve these problems in time is slim to non-existent.

The first failure of Socialism in the America’s occurred at Plymouth Plantation, in the 1620s…

From a piece by Rick Williams Jr.:

On December 16, 1620, the tiny ship loaded with “tools and weapons, a stock of dried and salted foods, a few goats, pigs, and chickens” landed at Plymouth Rock. Their hardy Christian faith and work ethic enabled them to hang on with tenacity, despite battles with the elements and Indians. The Pilgrims also experienced the devastating “Starving Time” when half of them perished from malnutrition, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. This time of want was due primarily to their unbiblical economic system.

For the first two years of the settlement, the colonists labored under an economic system that they called, “The Common Course and Condition.” This was a primitive and simple form of socialism. The family households commonly shared whatever products they could produce. If one family worked diligently, rising early, working hard until sundown, and produced a bumper crop, while his neighbor lay in bed until noon and produced little, they shared equally the sum of both. There was no incentive to work hard and apply one’s God-given talents and abilities. This system produced consistent shortages. There was never enough food for everyone. It also produced squabbles among the colonists. There was resentment and envy—predictable results in socialist economies. Fortunately, the colonists had elected a young, but wise and godly governor for the colony—William Bradford. In 1623, Bradford recognized the failure the “Common Course.” Bradford would later write that this failed economic system “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment.”

Bradford had a better plan. Each family would be given a piece of land based on the size of their family. Larger families received larger tracts. Each household was allowed to grow corn for their own families and to do with it what they wished. The results were phenomenal.

“This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use.”

While under the original system, the women of the colony had complained that they were “oppressed.” The Pilgrims experience proved that a biblically based economic system could provide liberty and a “family-friendly” means of production: “The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn.” Bradford had recognized that “the primary agency of economic planning is the family, as the primary owner of property.” Bradford realized that the family and ownership of the means of production were an unbeatable economic formula. This recognition caused the economy of the fledgling settlement to flourish and when 60 more settlers arrived in 1623, there was more than enough food for them as well. And despite continued challenges from Indians, pirates, and sometimes harsh weather conditions, the little colony prospered as God blessed their steadfast faithfulness.

The best (and unkindest) teacher is cold, hard, reality.

Bradford and the Pilgrims learned the value of Capitalism over the inherent failure of Socialism (that some people simply will not contribute if the can rely on others to do their part) and the end of a veritable blunt instrument.

Given how many people in this nation voted for a man with an undeniable Socialist stand on most economic issues, it is obviously a lesson America will be learning again soon…

Too bad they don’t require Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged in high school…

I despair of ever being able to comment on things with the flair of Bill Whittle, or the ability to phrase complicated issues in easy to understand ways, like Walter Williams:

Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution, or caring for the less fortunate. Let’s think about socialism.

…This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible, but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive.

This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one’s fellow man. Helping one’s fellow man in need, by reaching into
one’s own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into anothers pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation.

Some people might contend that we are a democracy where the majority agrees to the forcible use of one person for the good of another. But does a majority consensus confer morality to an act that would otherwise be deemed as immoral?

I don’t believe any moral case can be made for the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.

You should read the whole thing yourself, to get the meat of Williams’ argument.

Oh, but here is his parting shot:

The bottom line is that we’ve become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” Tragically, today’s Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail.