Going Galt

Surviving The New Normal

The Old Normal age of financial responsibility is now gone, not only in backwaters like Greece or Spain, but throughout Europe, the United States, Japan and even China. Central banks have been able to push off the day of bankruptcy reckoning by printing supertankers full of money, but that only delays the inevitable. The perpetual motion welfare state system is broke and broken and it cannot be fixed because the size of the unfunded liabilities is astronomical.

That doesn't mean civilization won't survive, at least in pockets. The sun always does come up tomorrow. But what it means is individuals need to have new approaches to surviving the chaos and of resisting what is likely to be a multi decade social, political and economic reordering. Adaptation to the New Normal doesn't need to be self flagellating or require trips to modern Gulags. It can encompass a variety of techniques from mild to wild that fall under the rubric of "Going Galt".

The term "Going Galt" is a reference to Ayn Rand's epic novel 'Atlas Shrugged'. In the book, John Galt is subject to forced unionization when the founder of the automobile company for which he works dies and his liberal children inherit the plant. John responds by leaving the company, but also by starting an underground movement to encourage the best and the brightest to withdraw from the corrupt society which was leeching the value from their lives.

Eventually, most of the "strikers" made their way to a hidden valley in Colorado, colloquially referred to as 'Galt's Gulch'. Some strikers followed a different path. John galt stayed in New York City and traveled extensively to recruit new members. Francisco d'Anconia traveled the world, living the life of a genius playboy, as part of a larger plan to bankrupt corrupt businesses and governments. Ragnar Danneskjold took up piracy on the high seas as a method of liberating tax money from governments and giving it back to the legitimate owners. Hugh Akston gave up his position as a professor of philosophy to become a cook at a roadside diner.

Clearly, "Going Galt" does not mean the same thing to all people. Going Galt is a very individual expression. Your method of Going Galt depends upon your own interests, skills, resources, and opportunities and can be anything from simply a state of mind, to a small committment like starting a garden, to full scale survivalism. What really counts is eventually having a critical mass of people saying 'enough is enough'.

The current state of surveillance technology makes living together in a Colorado valley like Galt's Gulch unfeasible. Tax evasion, militias and other overt protests of the past have also been seed sewn on dry soil. Rather than being crushed making valiant but futile protests against the leviathan state, conservatives need to understand this is a marathon that requires you to survive a long drought.

But smart protest and adaptation can be extremely effective if practiced by millions of citizens seeking their own freedom. You may decide to make your own Gulch overseas or, like Galt, your gulch may be a hidden room in a dingy New York City apartment. The key to Going Galt is to do everything LEGALLY! This is a multi decade societal upheaval and your goal is to stay out of the various Gulags that will be necessary to keep the masses in check as the welfare state collapses.

Going Galt methods fall into five broad categories:

1. Earn Less Taxable Income
2. Minimize Inflation Taxation
3. Reduce Expenses and Pay Less Sales Tax
4. Prepare for Collapse
5. Civil Disobedience

Minimize Taxable Income

Income taxes are the government's number one tool for confiscating money from its legitimate owners. The best way to limit the power of a government is to reduce its access to cash. Some ways you can legally restrict government leeching of your income:

• Contribute the maximum allowable amount to your 401k plan.
• Contribute the maximum allowable amount to an IRA.
• Contribute the maximum allowable amount to a Health Savings Account.
• Barter goods and services with your neighbors when possible.
• If you have current investments, hold them long-term to avoid short-term capital gains taxes.
• Avoid selling investments until capital gains taxes are reduced or eliminated.
• Relocate to a state which charges lower or no income taxes.
• Move overseas to take advantage of the expat tax deduction.
• Change your work schedule to part-time and use the extra time to work on your own projects.

Minimize Inflation Taxation

Inflation is a stealth tax in which the Federal Reserve debases the money supply through money printing to fund the welfare state. It is especially insidious because it evades the need for legislation and is simply mandated by the Federal Reserve. Rising prices of necessary food, energy and housing are the symptom of government which cannot balance its books. There are a number of ways to mitigate the inflation tax.

• Buy precious metals like Gold
• Buy tools that can be used to make things you need. They also retain barter value.
• Buy land that can be used to grow food or has some real productive capacity.
• Improve your skills on the cheap. Youtube education is the wave of the future. Also see our Free Education page.

Reduce Expenses and Pay Less Sales Tax

Everything you buy is paid for with a small amount of your freedom. Reducing your expenses lets you keep more of your freedom. As a bonus, reducing your spending also helps keep money out of the hands of government.

Here are the strategies people are using to reduce their expenses and keep money in their own pockets:

• Don't buy anything you don't absolutely have to buy.
• Repair and reuse when possible instead of buying replacements.
• Barter goods and services with your neighbors when possible.
• Plant a garden to grow foods and spices instead of buying them.
• Hunt large and small game for meat when possible.
• Eat at home instead of paying a lot more to eat at restaurants.
• Buy used goods whenever possible, to avoid sales taxes.
• Buy over the Internet when possible, to avoid sales taxes.
• Hold a yard sale to help your neighbors avoid buying new products.
• Stop supporting leftist Hollywood by watching their movies - read books instead.
• Walk or bicycle whenever possible instead of driving to avoid gasoline taxes.

Prepare for the Collapse

The socialist systems under which we currently toil continue to survive only by leeching off of a dwindling number of productive citizens. This is unsustainable - eventually these parasitic systems must collapse. The decision of productive individuals to Go Galt will only serve to accelerate the inevitable. When these corrupt governments collapse, generations of humans who have no experience in providing for themselves will be left to steal, beg, or starve. Make sure you are not one of them.

Here are a few steps you should be taking to prepare for the coming collapse:

• Stockpile water, food, and ammunition to prepare for coming shortages.
• Practice canning and dehydrating food for long-term storage.
• Invest in small amounts of physical silver and gold.
• Put together a good first-aid kit, including antibiotics, medicines, local anesthesia, scalpels, and suturing equipment.
• Train in basic health care to prepare for rationing.
• Train in self-defense and tactical skills.
• Fortify your home to protect your family against looters.
• Connect with like-minded individuals to prepare for the coming crash together.

Civil Disobedience

This isn't just trying to escape from a corrupt society and let it collapse; many of these steps involve making active decisions and taking risks that could negatively affect your personal liberty. Nonetheless, many people feel that the hope of living in a truly free world is worth the risk.

Here are a few tips to frustrate the tyranny of bureaucratic authoritarianism:

• Comply with government orders as slowly as possible.
• Pay all taxes and fines at the last possible legal moment.
• Make it difficult for the government to enforce all unconstitutional or immoral laws.
• As a juror, exercise your right to nullify unconstitutional or immoral laws.
• Take multiple copies of all printed government forms to increase their costs.
• Take a job with the government, and then don't do it.
• Boycott government propaganda outlets such as PBS, NPR, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, WAPO, NY Times.. *
• Get your money invested offshore while it is still safe and legal to do so.

The corrupt socialist regime under which we now live may not collapse in our lifetime. However, your freedom can be enhanced by firwalling yourself off from a decaying bureaucracy that can't balance its budgets for the foreseeable eternity. "Going Galt" strategies are embodied in the books I write:

• Going Galt: Surviving Economic Armageddon [Covers the entire range of Prepping activities]
• Surviving Civil War II: Preparing for Economic, Political and Social Collapse [Covers the philosophies of Progressives]
• Biflationary Depression: Protecting Assets From Inflation And Deflation In A Keynesian Collapse [Financial survival in the New Normal]
• Going Galt: Survival Gardening [Growing your own food as a way to Go Galt]
• Going Galt: Financial Survival [Navigating the New Normal Depression Economy]

Daxton Brown