Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Are Americans Going Galt?
Independent Women's Forum (IWF) ^ | 12 Janaury 2014 | Charlotte Hays

Posted on 01/12/2014 9:39:30 PM PST by Lorianne

Ninety-two million Americans are not in the work force—they don’t have jobs and they aren’t looking for jobs.

These 92 million Americans aren’t just out of work—they are resigned to being out of work as a way of life.

The ballooning numbers of Americans who are resigned to long-term joblessness inspired Roger L. Simon to suggest in a bleakly humorous piece over at PJ Media that Americans are going Galt:

Tell all your “Objectivist” friends and the libertarian gang at Reason magazine to break out the champagne. Americans may have skipped the movie of Atlas Shrugged, nor have many read any of Ayn Rand’s works, but they have taken the author’s advice anyway and gone John Galt, quitting the work force in record numbers. According to Zero Hedge, the latest figures show the labor participation rate at 35 year low.

Realistically, it’s even more than 35 because that figure reflects an employment bump when larger numbers of women joined the work force in the seventies and eighties. (They’re gone now, with or without Gloria Steinem.)

Currently a record 91.8 million Americans are no longer looking for work. That’s almost one and a half times the entire population of France.

We are heading for a disaster. A shrinking workforce won’t be able to pay for the nation’s vast array of entitlements. Moreover, many of these non-working adults, men and women who in previous generations would have met their own financial needs, are now receiving assistance. This is an unsustainable economic situation.

But this situation is not merely economically unsustainable. It is spiritually unsustainable:

(Excerpt) Read more at iwf.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government
KEYWORDS: adults; americans; assistance; economic; employment; entitlement; galt; situation; work; workforce
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-46 next last

1 posted on 01/12/2014 9:39:30 PM PST by Lorianne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

I do know that a lot of Americans are no longer bothering to try to build anything, mainly since they’ll just be burdened with one regulation after another.


2 posted on 01/12/2014 9:52:05 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

The simple fact is, a lot of American manufacturing was moved to China.

This is part of the reason, there are so many Americans, now out of work.

Bring back American jobs.


3 posted on 01/12/2014 9:55:02 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2013)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

Men Are ‘On Strike’ Throughout The U.S.: What Are The Causes? (More John Galt than Peter Pan?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3111054/posts


4 posted on 01/12/2014 9:57:32 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CorporateStepsister

A young mother I know (under 30) started a home business @ 2 years ago that’s been very successful. She works her butt off. She is really disgusted with all the regs she has to contend with and what it’s done to her family’s tax situation.


5 posted on 01/12/2014 9:57:36 PM PST by EDINVA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: EDINVA

When my business launches, I’m going to headquarter it in Monaco and enjoy a tax free income from all my work.


6 posted on 01/12/2014 10:00:33 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

Is this just another way for Obama to explain away his destruction of jobs? Make jobs unavailable and after trying to get non existant jobs, some people give up and then declare those people have exited the job market. So instead of admitting you put them out of work, indicate that they left the workforce of their own will.


7 posted on 01/12/2014 10:02:50 PM PST by ransomnote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

All I know is that amnesty will fix this.


8 posted on 01/12/2014 10:07:26 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

Sucking on the government tit is not going Galt, that’s becoming a bum. Going Galt means being productive off the grid. Roger Simon should know the difference.


9 posted on 01/12/2014 10:08:12 PM PST by shove_it (old Old Guardsman 1962-63)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: shove_it

Exactly. Everyone who went Galt didn’t just stop working. They moved on to set up business in Galt’s Gulch.


10 posted on 01/12/2014 10:13:54 PM PST by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

The U-6 is probably around 15 to 20 percent now.


11 posted on 01/12/2014 10:38:10 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; me = independent conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CorporateStepsister; All

In Washington, DC a few years ago the govt. masterminds decided to require a Basic Business License for all business activity however small. One has to declare that they do not owe the city $100 or more in order to get one. If fighting a $100 plus traffic ticket, mistaken bill from Tax and Revenue, or any of the other myriad mistakes a govt. bureaucracy can make, you can’t get your licens.


12 posted on 01/12/2014 11:02:08 PM PST by gleeaikin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

If colorado can countermand federal drug regulations....

Why cant another state countermand federal business regulations?


13 posted on 01/12/2014 11:04:53 PM PST by GraceG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gleeaikin

One obstacle after another.

No wonder businesses are going overseas.

I think simply giving up and walking away is the best possible way to react to all of this. Stop trying to sustain a system that is broken anyway and not good for a lot of people.

Our country is like the Old South, determined to maintain a class system that prevents people from moving up (certain elites referring to ordinary Americans as trash) and a determination to bring in cheap labor in endless supply (the Mexicans), and a perverse determination not to be practical about an education (getting useless degrees) and deliberate ignorance about reality (as evidenced by the way people choose to ignore warning signs and learn from mistakes).

I broke with that some years ago and I believe that it was the best possible thing in the world. You won’t see me fighting to uphold a toxic system.


14 posted on 01/12/2014 11:09:30 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CorporateStepsister

Starve this beast!


15 posted on 01/12/2014 11:16:09 PM PST by bicyclerepair (TERM LIMITS TERM LIMITS TERM LIMITS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: bicyclerepair

Yahoo!

I’m all for it and I look forward to the end of this toxic era we’ve been swilling around in.


16 posted on 01/12/2014 11:16:54 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: shove_it

I agree. This is a misrepresentation of John Galt.


17 posted on 01/12/2014 11:41:05 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

I imagine that there are a lot of workers that connected into the underground economy.


18 posted on 01/13/2014 12:34:03 AM PST by Cheapskate (Play loud and carry BIG sticks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lorianne

I don’t think John Galt was looking for a nice government teat to suckle. That’s the goal of most of those who have withdrawn from the workforce.


19 posted on 01/13/2014 2:08:48 AM PST by Kozak ("Send them back your fierce defiance! Stamp upon the cursed alliance! To arms, to arms in Dixie!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GraceG

Because the president has a fondness for drug dealers since he himself has admitted to be a drug dealer.


20 posted on 01/13/2014 2:10:10 AM PST by monocle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-46 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson