Time To Go Galt
In Canada, it’s been long accepted that going Galt was simply a prudent way to live – the tax rates are structured to make sure we all stay in the lower zone of income – punishing those that get too far above. It’s the Wayne Gretzky rule – score too many goals and they’ll move the net.
I have long planned revenues around not going over the small business 200K profit allowance, so I wouldn’t fall into the maximum tax bracket. This strategy used by most successful small business has held Canada back for years.
For those that aren’t aware of the “Atlas Shrugged” book, here’s what Going Galt means:
The plot of Rand’s novel is simple - The United States is governed by bureaucrats, “looters” and “moochers,” who penalize and demonize creative people. The country is in decline because creative people are disappearing — they have followed the innovative John Galt to a mountain enclave, “Galt’s Gulch,” where they watch society crumble. Creativity has gone on strike, and the engine of capitalism cannot run without it.
It pretty much fits the Obama government to a ‘T’. He is forcing the people who can actually turn things around, entrepreneurs, into taking this year off.
So today, where we have a congress of looters in the US that has decided to tax anyone bonuses in bailed out companies at 90% – pretty much declaring that bonuses are no longer allowed (under the manufactured ploy of the AIG ‘crisis’):
“These people are getting away with murder,” said Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel of New York. “They’re getting paid for the destruction they’ve caused to our communities.”
The 90 percent tax would apply to people with overall income exceeding $250,000, including bonuses. The tax would apply to bonus payments made after Dec. 31, 2008, and it would cease when the U.S. government’s investment in the company fell below $5 billion. The tax wouldn’t apply to any bonus returned to a company. The tax wouldn’t apply to commissions or fringe benefits.
“We figured that the local and state governments would take care of the other 10 percent,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
“We just want to recover the taxpayers’ money for them,” said Democratic Representative Steve Israel of New York. Those who got the bonuses “are just going to have to tighten their belts just like the rest of America,” he said.
If the senate approves this, and Obama signs it, (should face impeachment for doing so), we have a congress that has decided the US constitution no longer applies. And this is clearly forbidden in the constitution.
They also have decided they have the right to break contracts, selectively tax those they don’t favor, and that they are allowed to incite mob violence against their enemies.
The Democrats have created a situation where all they need to do is inflame the mob, and they can jam anything through.
We’re now at the point where shit hits the fan…
If you can – go Galt now, plant your garden and load your guns.
It’s left-wing fascism gone wild in ways that would make even Hugu Chavez wince.
photo credit: robert_carpenter
March 19th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I have an American friend who runs a very successful business that employs about fifty or so rather high paid folks not counting part timers. After all these Obama bills go thru he will have gone from just over 60% taxes to over the 90%. He is a Libertarian and he has told us he is shrugging, cashing out, closing his doors/business, not selling it to someone else, no sir, just closing his door, settling on this piece of farm land he bought years ago, planting veggies, raise some chickens, cows, horses, goats, do a little hunting and maybe some target practice and screw the big O and everyone else that wants yet another piece of him. He’s done.
He’s not the one
March 19th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I’ve read Atlas Shrugged. Tt was far from the best book I’ve ever read (the characters are cardboard and the plot simplistic). Still, I feel pretty confident that Rand would have catagorized a company sucking billions off the public tit as a parasite. So it’s hard to see how, after accepting huge amounts of public money, there can be any complaints about the government taxing back the bonuses it paid for. These people at AIG are certainly not Hank Reardens…
Then of course, there is this:
“If the senate approves this, and Obama signs it, (should face impeachment for doing so), we have a congress that has decided the US constitution no longer applies. And this is clearly forbidden in the constitution.”
Care to explain how this makes any sense?
March 19th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Because it’s a precedent for not honouring any contracts. Also why would anyone step forward to run companies if they face hearings from senators who practically spit in their face and witchhunt.
Don’t forget Obama received money from AIG for his presidential campaign. And so far most of his nominees are tax dodgers, so they can’t exactly throw the first stone.
March 19th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
You mean all the Objectividiots are going to leave? Willfully? What’s the downside?
Take your ball and go home. There are more than enough people willing to take your place in the game.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
philosraptor. First of all, it is not a game, it’s life. Secondly, if those willing people could take my place, they would have already done so. Do you know the failure rate for business start-ups? Of course every socialist that gets elected to government, the first thing they want to do is start a government supported business.
March 21st, 2009 at 7:21 am
I’m sorry, it seems you’ve never heard of a metaphor. Let me make it clear: When you leave, there are lots of people who will gladly take your customer list and fill your vacancy – even if you convince your competitors to leave too (doubtful), *I’ll* start up a business to capitalize on the market you left behind. They’ll be easy markets to identify – you’ll already have done all the work. You’ll just be leaving behind business opportunities for everyone else.
This is why I wasn’t kidding; please do go Galt. It will simultaneously deliver the crippling blow to this ridiculous cult-like philosophy and possibly provide the stimulus we need to kick-start the small business economy with those of us that remain behind.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:06 am
The special tax on AIG bonuses is unconstitutional because it is both a bill of attainder and an ex post facto (after the fact, retroactive) law. Bills of attainder are legislative acts that directly punish a person or group, thus usurping what are the preogatives of the courts (in American terms, the legislative branch infringing the powers of the judicial branch). That said, AIG are dirtball scum, insurance hustlers whose business model was taking in payments on policies they never intended to pay out on. They should have been put into bankruptcy, and the ringleaders should be in jail.