Going Galt

[Ninurta]

I have been encouraging people for over twenty years to be more self sufficient and less dependent on government. I never thought of it as going Galt, but I guess there are some similarities.

I could see the handwriting on the wall. Spending as much time as I did with pre-teens and teens, I could see how a life of entitlement was not preparing them for a life where they would never be able do as well as their parents, and would always be reliant on parents or government in their future.

I tried to encourage teens to by-pass all those wasted years, and money, seeking a college degree, that would likely just be apiece of paper they, and the five hundred other people, would be holding in their hands, while standing in line for that job at the burger joint. I tried to encourage them to learn skills that would at least increase their chances of finding work, or improve their chances of being able to work for themselves.

Your average teen will not consider a job if they have to get their hands dirty. They want to sit behind desks and just wait for lunch and the time to punch out. For them rules are not meant to be broken, they just don't pertain to them. I know it sounds like I am ragging on teens, much the way every older generation has done in the past. I don't blame the young people that have fallen victim in this trap.

They have been set up by a society that has been grooming them for life under the control of their masters.They really aren't spending much time or energy on us old folks. It is not worth it. Our time is short, so it benefits them to humor and tolerate us for now. Going self sufficient or going Galt, has to be something we teach the children.

There will only be a few that will listen, and even fewer that will be committed, but I guess in a way that is a good thing, since it will be the lack of numbers that would make the effort successful.

You are correct. They have been groomed for dependency, and to believe that the world owes them a living starting at the top of the food chain. I can tell you first hand that I lost count of the number of kids fresh out of high school who did not understand why they couldn't just walk into a company and seize the job of Executive Vice President right off the street as was due them. And that was in an office environment, where NO ONE had to crawl in the mud to do their job, everyone had a desk of their own, a computer of their own, a phone of their own, heat in the winter, A/C in the summer, and no one had to exert themselves at all beyond the long and apparently arduous walk from the front door to their desk. We seriously had a problem with kids coming in, going through the training period where they didn't have to do anything at all but sit and listen and collect a check, and then they would quit the day they had to go out and sit at that desk and talk and shuffle some paper.

I seriously had a few tell me that they didn't see why they couldn't do MY job as manager. I told 'em that hell, as far as I could see, they couldn't even do theirs, much less mine. If they couldn't do their job, how could they tell a whole herd of folks doing that job how to do it?

I had one married couple - or something like married, anyhow - tell me that they did not see how I made it without Grace working. Both of them were working, making maybe 2 bucks less an hour than me, and they were struggling. So I tried to explain to them that living within you means produces less anxiety, and asked them what kind of bills they had. Well! They each had a 1500 dollar cell phone and the monthly bills to go along with that, each had a brand new car and the monthly credit bills to go along with that, and as the list of bills and credit payments unfolded, I could see why they were struggling. I, on the other hand, had a 100 dollar cell phone, and paid for service by the month, no contract that obligated me to continue paying an exorbitant amount every month whether I used it or not, I drove an old jeep that I had paid 600 bucks cash for, and paid off that instant, so no bills there, either, etc. They just shook their head and walked away sad at the realization that if they didn't want to struggle so much, they had to quit throwing money away to credit companies for crap they did not need.

So they are being groomed to keep the credit economy on life support, too. Me, on the other hand, I cannot see the sense in making rich people richer by just GIVING them my money for nothing. If they have enough money to loan ME money, at robbery rates, then why would I just GIVE them my own money to make them richer? Instead, I'll look for deals and save my pennies until I have enough to get what I want outright, with no further payments attached.

We had a high turnover rate among the younger folks, They had apparently been raised and educated to believe that they should get a pay check just for existing, and when they found they had to actually do something to merit that paycheck, they lost interest and moved on. I don't know of any of those who ever found that free money. Some thought they could make their own hours and show up when they pleased and stay out when they pleased, and get the same size check either way. Those I moved on without them moving on. I didn't need them if they weren't doing what they were paid to do, and of course they couldn't do it if they didn't even bother to show up to do it.

So "the system" is setting up to perpetuate itself, but there is a fatal flaw in it's calculations. There are unintended consequences. How does it give away all the "free stuff" when no one is working to produce it for the system to seize and "redistribute equitably"? If it trains all it's workers to think everything is free for nothing, and they take that to heart and just stop working so they can spend free money or collect free stuff, where is that stuff supposed to come from? Some kids have told me "robots will make it".

So who will make the robots?

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