Just to rile up market fundamentalists, here’s a sharp jab from a lefty blog at “going Galt” – the fantasy nurtured by some naive libertarians that were capitalists (theorized as financiers) to take a day off, society would collapse.
(The reference to Galt is a reference to Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” a book about which I have mixed feelings. Rand is a far more complex and interesting figure than either her defenders or her critics seem to realize..)
The quote below confuses genuine capitalists and the predator financiers currently in power, but it packs some punch:
“Have you heard of the documentary, “A Day Without A Mexican?” You know why it’s not called Atlas Shrugged? Because the people who made it aren’t utterly detached from reality. Because doing actual work gives one perspective. Because spending the day going from rooftop to rooftop in a helicopter to chew the fat with other geniuses could lead you to believe you’re the glue that holds the entire planet together. People who don’t have private islands have a more realistic idea of what they do to contribute to society.
You know why the uber-wealthy don’t go on strike? Because they know there are millions of smart, hardworking people ready to take their places…..”
My Comment
What I’d like to know is why more people don’t vote with their pocket books against this predator class. For instance, I try to avoid using Microsoft Word because of my antipathy to Gates’ monopolistic practices.
The issue is not capitalism, ultimately. It’s monopoly and the absence of competition. In other words, it’s the absence of real free markets that’s the reason why “capitalism” is now synonymous with predation — and why rants like this are increasingly persuasive.
Hmmmm.
I think the going Galt dynamic does indeed occur—it jsut takes longer than our immediate sense culture expects. The Soviet Union collpased due in large measure to going Galt–why work if you don;t get paid or corrolary get taxed. California is going Galt, people selling business and or moving has been going on for several years. So the Galt response either you quit or go elsewhere….
As for more these rants getting more persuasive its hard to say–more pervasisive yes. People are more disatisfied and see bad waters ahead (or are in them now). Of course we need to blame somebody other than our elected leaders–who we think reflect our will!
I enjoyed this post I think many people are just waking up to the practices of the predator class. It has been a long slow process for me. Your comment about Microsoft hit home. I started using OpenOffice years ago after one to many upgrades to MS Office. It’s every bit as good. I’ve abandoned a number of other companies as well. I may still visit Wal Mart or Starbucks from time to time, though not as much as I used to. I’ve read many comments from people who refuse to bank with TARP recipients, so maybe things are beginning to change. I believe that when people feel secure and comfortable, they don’t worry about such things. On the other hand, when they’re vulnerable, they might think that these companies are hurting people like themselves…..
Hi Robert –
Going galt isn’t about people wanting to finesse the system, but about productive people leaving because everyone else is finessing it…
the productive meaning the capitalistic class..
But it
presumes that only the capitalist class pulls up its roots…it doesn’t account for everyone else doing it too..
Also, what capitalist class do we have? We have technocrats taking risks with other people’s money – the mid level financiers
And we have middle class shareholders who are capitalists in name only..
and then we have the predators – who aren’t capitalists of any kind at all…
Hi Bob, thanks…
it;s hard to get away from microsoft..
I use mozilla and the opensource word processors, but you really need to move to linux which is a bit more complicated.
I’m a happy user of Open Office and the Firefox browser.
If it were just a matter of ideological predilection, given my own antipathy to all things Gates and my affinity in principle for the FOSS movement, I’d have gone Linux long ago.
Unfortunately, I’m not a Geek, I can’t write a line of code, and I don’t know a driver from a BIOS. And even the most user-friendly Linux distros seem to be designed by the moral equivalent of the car snob who looks down on those who don’t like driving stick shift. I’ve tried both Puppy and Mint, and even those aren’t ready to use “out of the box” in the same way as Windows. (Specifically, the dialer is never ready to click on and use without some tweaking, so what I’ve got is just fancy word processors with no Net connectivity). I suppose I could have bought a laptop with Linux pre-installed, but that’s an awfully big investment sight-unseen. Until some developer comes up with a version of Linux that’s actually designed to be comprehensible to the grandma who just wants a computer to get email from her grandkids, instead of taking pride in dissing such people, it’s going to be maginal for the desktop market.
I’m happy to say I did manage to get free of MS by buying a Mac laptop. It’s wonderful to boot up without being informed that “New security updates (to counter the new ten thousand viruses targeted to Windows this week) are ready to download! Are you ready to download? How about now? Now? What about now? Now? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
I have to try Mac..
that’s probably the best thing for now, as you say