Friday, June 21, 2013

"If Everybody Did What Danny Did"

Danny from 504 and I were talking not to long ago and he was telling me his plans.  And in short, if I were to do it all over again, I would do what Danny did.

He's going to get himself a pension after knocking out 20 years at the firm.  He has no kids.  He has himself a trailer and a spot of land picked out, and, after running some projections he estimates he's going to work maybe a day or two per week and otherwise just enjoy life and enjoy his free time.

But something occurred to me as I drove through the Black Hills on my bike and pondered our conversation.

"He's going to be retired at 40...he's taking himself out of the labor market before his prime earning years - his 40's and 50's...what if everybody did that?  What would the economic consequences be?"

I've already alluded to what would happen if every person engaged in minimalism - the economy would collapse.  But what if just a significant percentage of men decided to clock out of the rat race before they started producing and earning the most?  We don't need the entire country to go Galt, just a key percentage of them.  And this is precisely the legal action libertarians, conservatives, and otherwise Real Americans can take to get their revenge on a galactically stupid electorate.

Understand not all people can just clock out and "Do the Danny."  Some men, republican, libertarian, conservative or not, have saddled themselves with responsibilities in the form of mortgages, wives, children, etc.  Responsibilities that condemn them to be enslaved to the rat race, denying them the option to clock out at 40.  But for the rest of us we are free to do what we choose.  And when given the choice of slaving away in the vain hopes of getting promoted to "junior executive" or "senior project manager" only to pay a 50% tax rate (and deal with insufferable office politics) or setting up shop in a trailer on a beach in Southern California (to live off of the generous benefits Californians promise themselves), it's a no brainer - become a beach bum.  Additionally, in living so minimally (as I was telling Danny) you are likely to benefit from a TON of tax breaks, income credits, etc., that those generous-with-other-people's-money leftists have voted in.  You could easily be paying an effective 0% tax rate AND also be giving it to the system.

In short, not everybody has to starve the beast.  Just enough of us do.  And if enough "Do the Danny" the left will be paid back in spades.

Remember to sign up for the Liberty Mastermind Symposium if yee'all want to come down to Dallas.

12 comments:

Dance...dance to the radio said...

There are other things that would take the house of cards down.
If everybody quit smoking and drinking governments would starve from the lack of tax revenue.
And then they'd have to raise taxes on everybody, including the anti-smoking and anti-drinking bansturbators to make up for it.
It would almost be worth it to see the looks on their faces when their taxes go up.
Kinda like the sticker shock they're gonna get from 0bamacare.

Anonymous said...

On it. Went Galt last year when I turned 56. I gave up a sizable salary to do so.

It hit home when I was in a very similar position as you were in your banking VIP position. I found myself in a mind numbingly vacant spot in my 30 year engineering career when I hit on the idea to be my own boss. F*#k it I thought, I'll take to heart all the management buzzword initiatives.

So I became my own boss and directed my own project. I worked smarter, not harder; embraced six sigma, thought outside the box.

The result was we tested and proved that we could use the software we were paying tens of thousands of dollars per seat on and hardware of similar cost per seat the way it was intended to be used. We broke down the imaginary walls between design and manufacturing.

Manufacturing loved it even though my greatest fear was it would be quite a bit outside what they were used to doing. My staunchest adversaries, it turned out, were my peers in engineering.

It was then I knew it was no longer worth putting in so much effort and putting my neck on the line for progress only to be stuck in a cubicle, all the while feeding the beast at the tune of 50% of my salary.

I did what Danny did...


dannyfrom504 said...

damn, thanks dude. i'm flattered. my newest gun misfired and put cavitation in my wood floor, went through the tv (which still works btw), entered the wall, and exited through bathroom shower tiles. i found the bullet in the master bathroom.

NEW POST!!!!! lol.

Chris said...

I'm not doing a Danny. I have colleagues who are. The boys are still in school... but I'm in the job now of trying to train up the people who will replace me, before leaving this climate for somewhere freer and warmer.

I'll go part time in the next five to ten years and will then work until dementia or death gets me. Want to be somewhere warm, with an amateur orchestra, a reformed church, fast internet, a good camera lab, and where I can swim all year round. The Northern part of NZ or NSW looks better each year.

I will compromise, however, if the family need it or there is a mission requiring I live in a place where you need serious outdoor gear.

Retirement is for suckers.

Anonymous said...

What I have to wonder is--how many of those pension plans can you count on to be viable in 20 years? I'm a college student looking at joining the local cops/sheriffs, and they offer 20 year plans, but is that an empty promise, or something to count on if you make it?

PDRC said...

Wages would go up for all the other men in the workforce if we all pulled a Danny. That would be a good thing. I encourage everyone to embrace minimalism and index funds so we can all punch out early, leaving those in the workforce with higher salaries.

Eric S. Mueller said...

I'm looking at a 10-15 year plan to pull something like that off. I have to provide for my children until they're adults, so I have to keep working, but I plan to pay down debt and set myself up. Maybe get some money into foreign banks and currencies and start to internationalize myself.

I can't think of any particular place I want to stay in permanently. I'll probably travel around to see what's out there.

wanderling said...

Higher salaries mean increased prices for food, drink etc, cause don't u know, u can afford them. Bring it on, cocktails only cost $25 now, i cant wait until they hit $60 glass.

Carl said...

Higher salaries? Maybe. One could make that argument I suppose. Regardless, it's guaranteed taxes will increase faster than salaries will on the suckers still working. Some poor bastard has to pay the bills.

Anonymous said...

"Today we are all Danny"!

Anonymous said...

Off topic, but go read the comments here, the HR ladies are upset:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/20/even-google-doesn-t-do-interviews-better.html

Unknown said...

Isn't this theme exactly what "Atlas Shrugged" is all about?