...and “at-home upholsterer” can pay taxes but won’t likely bring in big revenues or pay big taxes. He probably even does other odd jobs. He isn’t doing the work at home for the purpose of evading big taxes. He’s doing it that way in order to avoid big crooked competition (false zoning, false environmentalism and other ploys used by bigger competition to shut small business starts down).
My point is, look who’s really able to take Galt-esque action. He can also wear old, un-stylish clothes, cook for himself, produce food from a garden and repair his own machines. In other words, he can afford to live without vain, snobbish pretenses. And he’s not “shrugging.” He has escaped from the plantation of those who have chattered so much about “shrugging.”
Good points you make. For myself, ‘shrugging’ consists in all of these kinds of expedients. Part of it was obligatory: I am too old to be really employable in the city but was able to find a relatively low-paying job out in the country which really amounted to the same thing as whatever I could have drummed up otherwise. The difference was a shorter commute and very lowbrow environment. I also have no provided health care and few benefits. You make do when you have to.
All of this amounts now to ‘getting off the grid’. It need not be total, but every bit that we manage improves the overall condition and prospects. But the difference is that in getting off the grid, I am specifically trying to avoid going Galt. I believe that is an expression of despair and I believe that is a very self-destructive sin.
Upholsterers can also easily engage in barter. Trucks of all kinds need upholstering or repair. Lots of farm machines have seats, not to mention tarps needing repairs. The plumber usually owns some furniture, and the fisherman’s boat has a seat. The carpenter’s wife might have a camper that needs a few wooden seats tufted. Even the funeral home director has a fancy limo that will need new drapes eventually.
Ah yes. But no one can escape the Nauga Liberation Front.