Ask Dr. Helen: Is it time to "go John Galt?"
My PJM colum is up:
I found commenter's responses to my recent post on this topic fascinating and expanded it to include PJM readers. Take a look.
As Ayn Rand foresaw, productive Americans are fed up with supporting the unproductive and may not take it anymore.
I found commenter's responses to my recent post on this topic fascinating and expanded it to include PJM readers. Take a look.
Labels: PJM column
posted by Helen at 5:25 AM
31 Comments:
Talk is cheap. Are you really ready to walk the walk, Helen? Because downsizing your life takes work, hard work. It means reducing the size of your home and relocating, and maybe not having the most well-behaved neighbors. It means eating foods with which you may be unfamiliar. It means that some of your friends will be less than impressed with your choices (and will readily voice their unsolicited opinions). It means wearing more sweaters in the winter and less clothing in the summer. It means walking or riding your bike instead of motoring in air conditioned comfort.
Talking about it and encouraging others to do it is one thing, making those changes yourself is quite another. What are the changes you plan to make?
Maybe it's just time to start nominating viable candidates who value liberty and responsibility.
When John McCain represents the voice of liberty in an election, we're doomed.
It's time to break the Republican party.
Cham,
My lifestyle is already downsized. I have a paid for car that gets good mileage, don't spend much and frankly, don't need a lot.
I lived in NYC for 7 years in a rat infested apartment (rats the size of small cats) and had very little there. Not much could be that bad again.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Going John Galt does not have to be a binary process. It isn't either make a ton of money, or live in a grass hut.
You can completely opt out, but you can also scale back to a comfortable living.
One of the nice things about scaling back is you have more time to be involved in trying to change the government, and to change society.
I am scaling back in a different way. I am voting in a few hours. I will vote for Palin and the old geezer she is running with, then I will vote against every sitting politicain I can find. I am gonna vote all over the place, it will be fun!
Then I am going to REALLY cut back on reading the crap that passes for journalism. I am tired of being outraged.
Trey
To my shame, I had heard of Atlas Shrugged but have never read it. I had no idea what it was about.
One thing I had wondered, though, that seems Galt like.
What would happen if the top 10% of tax payers, who pay an inordinate percent of the taxes, didn't pay them. What if they all filed for an extension on April 15.
They'd probably have to pay a penalty, but it would certainly be a shot across the bow to the government.
and less clothing in the summer.
I'm beginning to like this idea.
What would happen if the top 10% of tax payers, who pay an inordinate percent of the taxes, didn't pay them. What if they all filed for an extension on April 15.
If you read the IRS instructions for filing an extension, you'll find out that you must pay on 15 April, even if you don't file till later.
The tax man always gets his cut.
I'll guess most of those people are paying estimate taxes, 4 times a year.
And if they simply stopped that? the IRS would start slapping leins on their property, or seizing them outright.
Talk is cheap. Are you really ready to walk the walk, Helen? Because downsizing your life takes work, hard work. It means reducing the size of your home and relocating, and maybe not having the most well-behaved neighbors. It means eating foods with which you may be unfamiliar.
My wife and I wouldn't have to do any of those things if we wanted to "Go John Galt." We already live on far less than our income even after maxing out our Roth IRAs and 401Ks. Our house, cars, and airplane are already paid for. The only debt we have is the mortgage on a rental property and the tenants pay that. When you've lived within your means and eliminated debt, you really don't need all that much to live comfortably.
If we had to, my wife could retire tomorrow. That would lower our income substancially but all of her money is going into her retirement accounts. We're living comfortably on my income alone, effectively practicing for the time when she does retire (we're planning on that happening in 3 years).
Further, I could cut back from the 50 hours a week I currently work to 40 hours and still live quite well. With my wife not working and me down to 40 hours a week, I could probably cut our taxes in half. As it is, when you add up everything, we're paying about $50,000 a year in taxes (federal, state, and local). My version of going Galt wouldn't require me to move, just work less. The idea is very tempting.
When I heard Obama tell that man that his plan was to tax the high earners so he could "spread the wealth around", I was reminded of this quote from Lincoln. It just so happens that he said it exactly 150 years ago today.
“It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says ‘you toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.’ No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.” [Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15 October 1858]
"Our house, cars, and airplane are already paid for ..."
---------
*Yawn*
A Zen Buddhist you're not (yet).
And my house is bigger than yours. Guaranteed.
I gathered all of my material possessions together ... much more than any of you here have ... and I had a panic attack that someone is going to try to take them away.
My identity IS my stuff and money, so I will fight to the end.
I am an American ca. 2008.
Friggin' Big-Talking Dopes.
Your wives will never let you cut your income. Losers.
LOL
Helen is also amusing: She'll cut back, sure, as long as the husband keeps the money flowing.
I've touched on that point before, and she always "goes above that" and refuses to answer, although she answers almost everything else.
The sad fact is ... almost all women are either parasites on a higher-earning man ... or want to be. One or the other.
*Yawn*
A Zen Buddhist you're not (yet).
And my house is bigger than yours. Guaranteed.
Who cares how big your house is? Mine is big enough and paid for. I've zero interest in being a Zen Buddist, either.
Friggin' Big-Talking Dopes.
Your wives will never let you cut your income. Losers.
LOL
Just because you're a loser when it comes to women, it doesn't mean everyone is. You don't know me or my wife so your comment is simply ignorant.
Tether,
I don't answer you because you are not sincere. You seem to like to set people up and then deny what they say, so what's the point?
JG,
Why the digs and mean-spiritedness towards commenters on this site? They serve no purpose and you are quite rude.
No, Helen, I think it's honestly more like the banker with his huge snout in the trough of money ... who doesn't want to answer any questions about WHY he should get $100 million extra if he drove the company into bankruptcy. Of course he doesn't want to answer any questions AND: HE DOESN'T HAVE TO.
Just like you.
Women are parasites off men. I really mean that, there is no question about my sincerity.
You know full well what I'm talking about, and your evasive answers are also apparent to a number of readers.
I'm very sincere about what I'm saying. I mean it. I find it disgusting.
Helen sez:
"Why the digs and mean-spiritedness towards commenters on this site? They serve no purpose and you are quite rude."
------------
I admit and agree that I like mocking materialistic people just a bit too much. Since materialistic people usually bully others in a subtle way, I don't have ALL that much pity for them.
As to the purpose: It may help people who don't know they are materialistic to realize that they are materialistic twits. Kind of a self-improvement offering, if you will.
This comment has been removed by the author.
JG,
I think you misread Larry J as being materialistic (and frankly, so what if he is). I think he was just explaining how he has managed to do well by spending within his means. Anyway, calling people losers and "materialistic twits" is hardly a self-improvement offering. It is more like a case of envy.
JG said:
> Your wives will never let you cut
> your income. Losers.
>
> LOL
True for some. I decided to leave the corporate world, making decent money, but was unhappy in the position that I was in.
Had a chance to become an entrepreneur and took it. Being in control of my own destiny, and making out of life what I could, doing something I believed in. Took a paycut to do it, especially in the beginning. Wife made plenty of money that between her money and our savings, we'd be fine for years if the business didn't earn me enough as it ramped up.
However, she was a materialist and while I was trying to downsize my life, I was starting to hear criticism, then her whole family chimed in with her and I was portrayed as a freeloader living off of her. A bum. Irresponsible. The criticisms came immediately. The day I quite the job. And her family didn't want me dragging their daughter down. The encouraged her to demand that I get a "regular job" again. I refused. We got a divorce.
JG might be coming across as critical or rude, but he has a point. There are people who will not tolerate your willingness to change your lifestyle, and it might not just be friends or extended family. It could be your spouse.
Faced with starting up a new business from scratch along with a divorce, I've learned to cut corners in LOTS of ways. To the point that people can't believe how little income I'm living comfortably on. And through my own hard work, my income is rising slowly. And I have independence.
I have to watch Fight Club again. There was some great wisdom in that movie about material things that end up owning you. It's true.
I'm going to defend materialism. How am I a bully for liking the things my labor has earned? My husband’s plane was bought with 60+ hours a week work weeks. His plane was less than my co-workers SUV. My furniture was bought with a bonus from a period when I worked 90 hours a week. These are the fruits of our labor. Please spare me the “I am a bully,” speech.
We live well within our means, we pay more taxes than 90% percent of my fellow Americans. BTW, my husband and I went to State Universities.
I think you have all missed the point of the authors.
Going John Gault does not mean living like a hermit or going Amish. In the book, Gault and his fellows were all men of wealth. To the extent they could, they took their wealth with them into seclusion and simply resolved to live free, rejecting all other claims others had to their productivity. They had supreme confidence that what they could produce would be freely traded to others who had marketable skills.
Going John Gault means rejecting the claims of the looters and refusing to create more wealth for them to take. Existing wealth, voluntary charity, relationship-trade, and barter were exempt.
jg - if you want to mock materialistic people, I can direct you to a couple of leftie blogs where not only are they materialistic but hypocritical. They have audio/visual systems in their houses that cost more than my car and are not particularly generous, but condemn Republicans for being "rich."
...going Amish.
I think the Amish get some tax breaks due to religion but they live quite nicely. There are a lot of Amish in my area. They don't use electricity and most don't use cars or trucks although a few have vehicles and get non-Amish to drive them around.
I've heard of the Amish paying as much as $600,000 cash for farms in this area. The build very nice, large houses for themselves. Their food and furniture products are top notch. With the exception of eschewing some modern "niceties," the Amish live quit well.
I see them in Walmart all the time, which I find a little humorous for some reason. They are as honest people as you'll find and excellent in business.
Should Obama win the day, it will be most interesting to see the societal changes (behavior) that will undoubtedly occur overnight.
tether,
Helen in still married, she hasn't used the courts to ass rape her husband. You have no idea what kind of wife she is, and she may do a great deal that makes him happy. She's also too smart to walk into your trap.
Basically, their financial arrangements are none of your damn business.
You'll have to forgive jg, trust. He is weak and lazy. He probably comments from a library computer, or his mom's, as he obviously can't afford his own.
Dear Dr. Helen,
I just watched your video on PJTV and just want to say thank you for posting it! My immediate family and I (husband and two college-aged sons) are all libertarians of the objectivist/anarcho-capitalist stripe and as such, we certainly appreciate and welcome hearing like views. It's difficult, living as we do, in a very liberal city in Colorado. My husband keeps a blog that may be of interest, and I hope you will visit: http://www.mister-integrity.blogspot.com/ Thanks again, and keep up the good work!
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