Going Galt Share This:





A few days ago, Brad asked if I'd noticed how often the term "Going Galt" was cropping up on the Internet...in blogs and columns, letters to editors etc. (For "Going Galt" the T-shirt,



Lisa Schiffren of The Corner has



The doctors, lawyers, engineers, executives, serious small-business owners, top salespeople, and other professionals and entrepreneurs who make this country run work considerably harder than pretty much anyone else (including most of the chattering class, and all politicians). They are not robber barons, or trust-fund babies, or plutocrats, or even celebrities. They are mostly the meritocrats who worked hard in high school and got into the better colleges and grad schools, where they studied while others partied. They pushed through grueling hours and unpleasant â€œup or outâ€ policies in their twenties and thirties at top law firms, banks, hospitals, and businesses to earn salaries in the solid six figures (or low seven) today â€” in their peak earning years. Their work ethic is prodigious, and . . . in their spare time they sit on the boards of most of the complex charities and arts institutions that provide aid and pay for culture in America. No group of people contribute more to their community. And now the president, who followed a path sort of like that, and who claims that his wifeâ€™s former six-figure income was a result of precisely such qualifications and efforts, is demonizing them. More problematically, he is penalizing their success and giving them very clear incentives to ratchet back on productivity.



about "Going Galt" on the Classically Liberal site also has a good summary.



I am not sure how prevalent Going Galt is as phenom; it is not a phenom that officials will keep stats on even if there was a way to measure the frequency, depth of personal withdrawal, etc. But the phrase seems to have hit a nerve and, so, it reveals a common response to the constant pillaging of society by government and state capitalists. To the extent there is an emotion driving the phrase's popularity, I believe it is resentment bordering on rage at the sight of people who were irresponsible or downright corrupt receiving a bottomless sack of money that is stolen from hardworking, honest people who played and worked by the rules. Only suckers obey the rules these days. Only thieves get rich. Back to category overview Back to news overview Older News Newer News



Of course, for many if not most people, the withdrawal is partial and a matter of commonsense as much as political sensitivity. The economic and social equation has changed. When a government penalizes your productivity to the point of seizure through taxes, paperwork, possible lawsuits etc., then ceasing to produce is a way to remove yourself as a target and alleviate stress. Suddenly, time with your children or in pursuing hobbies becomes far more attractive.Lisa Schiffren of The Corner has a great description of the type of person who is likely to Go Galt -- basically, it is the working affluent who earn above the $250,000 that Obama has arbitrarily defined as being "rich." Schiffren writes,The doctors, lawyers, engineers, executives, serious small-business owners, top salespeople, and other professionals and entrepreneurs who make this country run work considerably harder than pretty much anyone else (including most of the chattering class, and all politicians). They are not robber barons, or trust-fund babies, or plutocrats, or even celebrities. They are mostly the meritocrats who worked hard in high school and got into the better colleges and grad schools, where they studied while others partied. They pushed through grueling hours and unpleasant â€œup or outâ€ policies in their twenties and thirties at top law firms, banks, hospitals, and businesses to earn salaries in the solid six figures (or low seven) today â€” in their peak earning years. Their work ethic is prodigious, and . . . in their spare time they sit on the boards of most of the complex charities and arts institutions that provide aid and pay for culture in America. No group of people contribute more to their community. And now the president, who followed a path sort of like that, and who claims that his wifeâ€™s former six-figure income was a result of precisely such qualifications and efforts, is demonizing them. More problematically, he is penalizing their success and giving them very clear incentives to ratchet back on productivity. A fascinating article about "Going Galt" on the Classically Liberal site also has a good summary.I am not sure how prevalent Going Galt is as phenom; it is not a phenom that officials will keep stats on even if there was a way to measure the frequency, depth of personal withdrawal, etc. But the phrase seems to have hit a nerve and, so, it reveals a common response to the constant pillaging of society by government and state capitalists. To the extent there is an emotion driving the phrase's popularity, I believe it is resentment bordering on rage at the sight of people who were irresponsible or downright corrupt receiving a bottomless sack of money that is stolen from hardworking, honest people who played and worked by the rules. Only suckers obey the rules these days. Only thieves get rich. Printer Friendly Wendy McElroy - Monday 23 March 2009 - 14:19:57 - Permalink Sam Konkin III once told me that he was "in search of the Promised Gulch" -- referring, of course, to the state-free Galt's Gulch from Atlas Shrugged where the producers of society withdraw to form their own community and remove their support from the parasites. (With his permission, I stole the phrase for an article I wrote oh-so-many years ago.) SEK3 was not a Randian in any but the loosest sense of the term but Galt's Gulch is the most anarchistic aspect of AS; for all practical purposes, it is an anarchist society -- a "society by contract", as Benjamin Tucker would have put it. I think SEK3 was charmed by Rand's depiction of the Gulch; I imagine him wriggling his toes in anarchistic delight while reading it.A few days ago, Brad asked if I'd noticed how often the term "Going Galt" was cropping up on the Internet...in blogs and columns, letters to editors etc. (For "Going Galt" the T-shirt, click here .) I followed up on his comment and, as usual, the guy is right. As far as I can tell the phrase refers to an individual removing support from the political system as an act of disgust/protest/self-respect; usually, the withdrawal involves a financial disconnect but it also can involve the decision to withdraw one's talent and skill -- e.g. not to run a factory any more, not to practice medicine, not to earn money that is snatched away by taxes and "redistributed". Rather like a farmer plowing under a field rather than sell at a price that is tantamount to theft. The phrase does not refer to forming a society.