Are you ready to go to Galt’s Gulch?
About 50 years ago Ayn Rand authored “Atlas Shrugged.” This novel portrayed a society where the producers of wealth, technology, energy, food, and steel were restricted, regulated and taxed by government. Finally this elite group decided they had had enough. They dropped out of society and went to a place called Galt’s Gulch.
At Galt’s Gulch people made what they were worth. CEOs started as janitors at the Galt Power Plant and rapidly worked their way up. Farmers grew food and sold it. It was pure capitalism. The nonproducers of society were not allowed in. The United States quickly fell into a second dark age. The book ended with a second renaissance beginning
Galt’s Gulch was hidden by some sort of cloaking device. Airplanes could fly over head and not see it. This is pure science fiction. We don’t have a cloaking device...yet. Going to a Gulch is not practical. Government would squash one quickly.
I believe a virtual Galt’s Gulch can be created. The Objectivists can’t go to a gulch in the mountains and be unknown to the government. Galt’s Gulch can be all around us. This could be a secret society. People doing business through cash only or possibly an electronic method of commerce that is untraceable.
Let me be clear. I’m against drugs and violence. An example of a strong functioning secret society is the marijuana trade. Many people look the other way for America’s high profit cash crop. Millions of dollars change hands. Most of it missed by the government. I don’t endorse drug use. I use this example to show that people who are willing can move millions of dollars under the radar because they are willing and mostly unopposed. An economic model for a virtual Galt’s Gulch exists today.
Would people look the other way for the Gulch?
Rumblings are already starting. Recently Dick Morris told Sean Hannity on Fox News that a republican majority in Congress could simply refuse to fund Obama Care. The President would be impotent to change this. Our founding fathers were truly geniuses when they designed the balance of power in our government. The 60% of Americans opposed to Obama Care might support this action. The Congressional Budget Office could defund any Government program we don’t support.
How do you feel about going to a virtual Galt’s Gulch?
What would you sell?
What would you buy?
Would you turn them in?
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This book is one of fiction; ideolized by many conservatives and libertarians. I like "The Jungle" and "1984" for examples of uncontrolled corporate and government control.
ReplyDeleteWhile capitalism can offer motivation to many individual pursuits-- unbridled capitalism, with little or no regulation, can lead to many harmful affects for society. Ever-growing monopolys stifle small business startups; pollution and product safety suffers in the name of profits, lying about the products (like irradiating foods or genetic modification)thwarts the ability of the consumer to choose; worker safety and abuse increases as profit becomes the only incentive. Our own financial crash can be traced to the lack of regulations and/or inforcement of the financial sector.
We need look no further than Somalia to see what chaos results from no government control.China gives us a superb example of a profitable society that, with few regulations, leads to deadly pollution, lead in toys, poison in foods, worker abuse and no safety standards ( recent mine disaster ).
Obamacare-- Universal health care has been a goal of many Americans since 1907. This is not new. During the past 2 year presidential campaign, while Bush and Graham were telling us about the great U.S. economy, Obama was quite clear of his goals for universal health care. This goal dove-tailed with that of the 53 million people who voted for him.
While I much admire the efforts of the founding fathers, there are some powerful forces today that they did not foresee. The tremendous power of television and the enormous influence of money on our election process minimizes the voices of the average citizen. That citizens ability to be informed has been reduced further by the demise of robust journalism as the "4th branch of government". We all suffer when our knowledge is based on "infotainment". As citizens, we are the ultimate and final arbiture of how much power should be granted to politicians, corporations and those who hold great wealth. Without a variety of reputable news sources, our knowledge is based on voices backed by money and power. Truth and profit do not go hand-in-hand.
The point of disagreement, is often in where to draw the line between unfettered "laissez-faire" capitalism and complete government "socialist" control.
Either extreme is not good for the working man. But big business should NOT have any greater voice than any one of us in determining where we place that line. Supreme court be damned.