Thursday, August 14, 2014

Why Most People Just Can't "Go Galt"

I was listening to The Black Brigade's latest podcast whilst hiking Trapper Peak.  And among their topics de jour was the recurring theme of "going Galt."  This particular instance however, was prompted by local radio show host Jason Lewis walking off the job claiming he had had enough and was no longer going to serve as a host to what is nothing more than the parasites of society.

They applauded his decision, as do I, but they then went onto ask the question, "Why don't more talk radio hosts" or "leaders" in the conservative/libertarian movement provide a how to, or actually go Galt themselves?  Matter of fact, why don't just 10% of conservatives, libertarians or as I like to call them "Real Americans" go Galt, crashing this entire corrupt system?

Well, lieutenants and economists, I already had the answer before I made it back to the trail head.

Understand that the number one thing preventing conservatives and libertarians from going Galt and "starving the beast" is that they are saddled with debt.  This may at first sound odd that conservatives and libertarians would have such finances, but consider the fact that most people incur debt when they are younger

which consequently means

made those decisions to incur debt when they were statistically likely to be more liberal

and you can see why even "savvy" conservative/libertarian types just can't "go Galt."

If you look at the decisions that result in life's major debts, they are typically made during their "dumbass 20 something leftists phase" ie - before one turns 30.

Student loans
Credit card/consumer spending
Car loans, and of course the biggest ball and chain of them all
Mortgages

This results in an irony, if not a fiscal tragedy, where future and theoretical "Galtists" who would love nothing more than to go Galt, can't, simply because they are saddled with too much debt FORCING them to remain in the work force till their debts are paid and their mortgage gone.  You add in marriage and children, and your average male "Galtist" can only wistfully pine about going Galt just as much as he can "buying a motorcycle and heading to Sturgis without permission."

The result is a phenomenon the Manosphere calls the "Wage Mule" or "Debt Slave."  Stupid decisions made in the past condemn the rest of your life to severely limited choices and potential, effectively ruining your life, and certainly making lofty, idealistic political maneuvers such as "going Galt" an impossibility.

There is however, good news.

While Gen X may have been the last generation to partially swallow the

"House
College
Wife
Kids"

propaganda, Gen Y/the Millenials didn't.  Additionally, a good percentage of Gen X also postponed marriage, or avoided it all together.  In other words, Americans, despite their horrendous stupidity, are actually starting to learn from their predecessors, and with the breaking of the social contract between men and women and default and unconscious "going Galt" is already occurring. 

Men just aren't proposing as much as they used to and if they do, they wait till they're well into their 30's to do so.  Also, unless you're an illegal immigrant or are too stupid to do basic division and understand the concept of income per capita, people are having less kids.  Thirdly, the economy is so poor, an entire generation has had the forced lesson of minimalism forced on them.  And finally, if you look at labor force participation rates, people are wising up (even feminist-fed women) and realizing that yes, work indeed sucks. In other words, society is slowly "going Galt" as they respond to the perverse and country-destroying policies socialists have enacted upon society.  This may not be the "rapid" "starve the beast TODAY" sort of strategy idealistic Galtists want, but it is to show them that what they wish for is already happening naturally.  Perhaps not at the pace they wanted, but it is happening and it cannot be stopped. 

The real issue, however, is one of hope.  Galtists (theoretical or not) deep down inside want to starve the beast TODAY with the hopes that a new society would emerge from the ashes so quickly that they would be able to participate and enjoy said new society during their lifetime.  The problem is that society is too glacial, America too entrenched economically and globally, and our citizenry too fat, stupid and endebted that this will never happen.  Most people alive today will die watching a declining America, not a phoenix from the ashes.  It will be future generations that will witness a reality-forced destruction of socialist America, and a resurrection, if there ever is one.

12 comments:

Glen Filthie said...

I think I disagree. Maybe it's a generational perception thing but I am looking at your list and there is nothing 'wrong' with it.

Boys, us older farts got all those things for one reason and one reason only: good ol' classical marriage! You pool resources, divide labour and you GET AHEAD. It takes hard work and years to do.

Ask me, and I say going Galt in your 20's is one of the worst mistakes you can make. What you call 'Going Galt' I call 'retirement'.

Anonymous said...

It's the wife and kids that keep us tied to the wheel, not the debt. Part of going Galt includes walking away from your debts and obligations. Not making the payments on the debt any more than you make the payments on your taxes.

Without the wife and kids, it is much easier to live off the grid, take pay under the table, barter services and other fringe lifestyles.

JE Gonzalez said...

Will you go and read and finish Atlas Shrugged already? Seriously Aaon, it is everything you've ever experienced and all the conclusions you've ever come to in the form of a modern fairy tale.

Anonymous said...

Atlas Shrugged in 11 minutes!

Wandering MGTOW said...

Good analysis, and I'm in agreement.

I have owned homes, but I'm lucky in that I've always been able to sell them with a gain. However, I do know people who got seriously burned when they were forced to relocate in a down market.

Cars, I save up and pay cash. No loans.

I use a credit card, but pay it off every month.

Why am I such an angel? Because I tried the debt route and hated it!

Anonymous said...

You old farts mistakenly assume your reality is applicable to us millennials.

I will never have a wife or children. My cars are in good repair and paid for. My only debt is a mortgage, which will be paid off well ahead of schedule. When that is done, I'll be able to maintain my comfortable life with very little work.

I'm glad to do my tiny part in imploding your social security, stock portfolios, pensions, and your daughters' marriage prospects. It really is the least I can do to thank your generation.

kurt9 said...

This whole MGTOW and "going Galt" is fine and I think anyone who has no opportunity right now should do it.

But for me and in reference to the posting about bots, I'm an automation guy. Automation engineers like myself are about the only people in this country (other than the corrupt elites) who have lots of opportunity right now. For me, Galt can wait for a while.

Robert What? said...

As @newrebeluniv pointed out, it is very difficult to go galt when married unless the wife is on the same page. But since the whole idea of modern American marriage is the unrewarded flow of resources from men to women, very few wives are likely to be on that page.

tz said...

In your context, "Going Galt" implies living off the grid. Most people take prescription medication (this is probably misdiagnosis or overdiagnosis). They aren't able to feed themselves even if they could afford farmland (debt again?), and can't do so in the wild. Even Galt's Gulch had a society and a division of labor. We can't seem to do that today.

Wandering MGTOW said...

Go part way Galt.

There is no need to go off the grid and move to a wilderness - anyway, the BLM SWAT team would evict you most likely. You can live below your means with minimum debt. That way you will be spending your earnings on yourself instead of interest payments.

Usagi Yojimbo said...

Working on Galt now. Since it's just me, and my debt load from school is low compared to what it could have been (thanks to military service,) I would live like a hermit for a couple of years, saving and killing debt left, right, and center.

I was thinking of a house out somewhere distant with reasonable support for farming if necessary, but I would also like to get where I could grow things pretty much year round.

Anonymous said...

It all depends on who you marry. My husband and I have largely gone Galt: we live rural, grow our own veggies, fruit and animals, homeschool, etc. I pinch pennies until they scream and because of that, we have a nice nest egg built up (until that darned boating accident, that is) and a mortgage nearly paid off with no other debts. I fully supported my husband in giving up a corporate job to move rural and work for a small biz employer instead.

Choose your life partner wisely. A good, strong wife can help you reach your goal of going Galt instead of hindering you. Not all women demand a keeping up with the Joneses lifestyle.

And kids don't need to be expensive if you don't buy into the consumer crap culture. They're happier with craft/building supplies, library books,and the great outdoors anyways.

This doesn't have to be a man versus woman thing, plenty of us country gals see a lot of virtue in leaving the system to rot on the vine.