Originally posted on this site over 11 years ago. Did through some of the old posts, to see how much or how little events have change from those days.
Dave Schultz – January 3, 2012 22:45
Atlas Shrugged is a must read for all Americans.
Nothing has done more to ruin the United States than it being more profitable to be a “Moocher” than a “Producer”. Ayn Rand wrote about this in the World’s Best Book – Atlas Shrugged. If you hadn’t read this book, you should. To sum up 1400 pages into one statement: her novel was about how a Socialist United States penalized the “Producers” by transferring the fruits of their labor to the “Moochers”. The harder they worked — the more they were penalized. The politicians were masters of stoking the fires of Class Warfare to receive the support of those they gave the freebies to – fully understanding the concept of whenever a government robs Peter to pay Paul — they can always expect the support of Paul. It created a class of ever increasingly worthless “moochers” unable to do anything for themselves. Finally the “producers” threw in the towel and went on strike by just disappearing from society. This is now referred to as “Going Galt”, after the creator of the policy — John Galt.
While this book was written in 1957, we are watching this story play out in real time, here and now in the United States.
I was a “Producer” for many years. In 1998, I owned 4 companies, employed over 100 people, spent a half million a month (which employed hundreds of others) for products and services for my businesses, and I paid millions a year in all types of taxes. I was being increasingly penalized at turn by our government and a society that vilified the producers, and so I finally gave up, threw in the towel, and retired. People kept telling me that I’d Gone Galt — but I never knew what they meant. Until I read Atlas Shrugged in 2011.
I’m not a “Moocher” as we live off my savings and I pull my weight through life. I ask for and receive nothing from anyone. I will no longer again produce — unless we stop this socialist madness, which actually encourages people to become and stay “Moochers”, with gifts from the public Treasury. I’ve met many other former “Producers” who have “Gone Galt” — and it has been in increasing numbers since Chairman Obama was elected. This “Going Galt” is happening right in plain sight — yet few can see or understand it. Again, read Atlas Shrugged, and you’ll begin to fully understand what is happening, and our future.
Last year, a 21-year-old woman submitted her plan to get people off of Welfare — with her submission of the below editorial to the Waco Tribune Herald in Waco, TX on 11/18/10. I think it is an excellent plan to begin the reversal of mooching, and might ultimately help with the return of the “Producers”.
Put me in charge of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.
Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.
Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your “home” will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.
In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a “government” job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good.”
Before you write that I’ve violated someone’s rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules. Before you say that this would be “demeaning” and ruin their “self esteem,” consider that it wasn’t that long ago that taking someone else’s money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.
If we are expected to pay for other people’s mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.
AND while you are on Government subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Government welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.
People need to pull their head out of the sand while there is still an outside chance that we can save the United States. Those people who don’t like to get involve with politics, and ignore what’s going on are just as bad as the Moochers by apathetic.
I may be on strike from being a “Producer” — but I will not stop trying to make people understand what is our certain future when too many Producers have finally “Gone Galt”. Its coming people! I ask that others start to get involved to do the same. Socialism has never succeeded — no matter if you call it Progressivism, Liberalism, or Communism — it equates to failure. It has always failed — and all you have to do is look across the Atlantic to see the misery of Europe having to pay for this failure.
