Recently in Goin' Galt Category

We've been hearing about the financial turmoil in the EU, with Greece just this side of total bankruptcy, and Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Spain no too far behind. There's lot's of finger pointing, with very few pointing the finger at Brussels and he unaccountable EU Parliament.

One of those doing willing to do so is the CEO of Ryan Air, Michael O'Leary. He slams the EU bureaucracy, the politicians, the rent seekers, and those trying their hardest to kill off any innovation that might make things better rather than maintaining the status quo, as bad as it is.


O'Leary tells them some hard truths, truths they'd rather not hear. But then he's helped create more jobs than all of the EUcrats combined.

This is yet another post staying as far away from the Obama-owned debt limit crisis of his making. The last thing I need at this time of the day is to be even more pissed off than I am. So what am I going to write about instead?

Goin' Galt.

This story made the rounds on the blogosphere and the reaction has been one that has evoked two responses from me: elation that someone finally said "Enough of this horse***t," and has decided to pull the plug on his business; and a sense of sadness that it had to come to this point.

It seems that Alabama coal mine owner/operator Ronnie Bryant heard enough at a Birmingham public hearing, with a number of residents laying the blame for everything that seems to be wrong with their lives on one of his future coal mines. After all the local, state, and federal hoops he had to jump through in order to get permission to start this mining operation, he then had to listen to endless business-bashing by far too many of the know-nothings attending the meeting. It reached the point where he'd had enough.

...he finally stood to speak. He sounded a little bit shellshocked, a little bit angry -- and a lot frustrated.

My name's Ronnie Bryant, and I'm a mine operator.... I've been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people.... [pause] Nearly every day without fail -- I have a different perspective -- men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can't pay their mortgage. They can't pay their car note. They can't feed their families. They don't have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just ... you know ... what's the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They'd be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What's the use? I don't know. I mean, I see these guys -- I see them with tears in their eyes -- looking for work. And if there's so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there's no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I've decided is not to open the mine. I'm just quitting. Thank you.

The only thing I'm sure of is that what I saw today is a broken process and a sham. We all want a decent environment in which to live, but when various people at a public meeting -- including federal officials and community members -- talk about "environmental justice" and make it clear that their intent is to make it harder for businesses to operate, well, I can see why a businessman would decide to quit. I consider myself an environmentalist -- because I want to live in a safe, secure, clean world -- but what I saw isn't reasonable concern for the environment as much as it's an ideological agenda.

I don't blame Ronnie Bryant for saying "The hell with this! I quit!" But I have no doubt that many of the same people at the hearing will now point the finger at him for making a number of much needed jobs disappear, and claim that it's all because he's greedy and uncaring about the working man. One has to wonder about the logical disconnect from which these people suffer.

The comments to this piece are telling, with a large majority of them supporting Bryant's decision that creating all those jobs and the money they brought into the local economy wasn't worth the effort any more because the knee-jerk opposition of the religious environmentalists (and let's face it, this kind of environmentalism is a religion, and a mindless cult at that). Why should he have to deal with that kind of abuse just to run a business? So he did what anyone else facing that kind of crap would have done - he threw in the towel, goin' Galt, and letting those same self-righteous assholes suffer the consequences of their actions. He'll just take his money and go someplace else.

BeezleBub and I watched Christopher Titus' Take America Back show on Comedy Central Sunday evening. He covered a wide range of topics, all dealing with taking back America and making it great again.

He touched upon one of my favorite topics - parenting. I won't bore you with the details of that as you can see it for yourself on Comedy Central or their website, but I have to say I agree with him, specifically on the topic of 'touchie-feelie' parents without the balls to discipline their brat of a kid. That wasn't the only topic he covered, of course. He got into a number of others, including racism, the economy, and government. On these last two he hit a home run.

He made a suggestion that struck a chord with both me and my son, bringing up a subject near and dear to my heart - the government's inability to stop wasting time and money trying to fix something they broke. His suggestion sounded like something right out of Atlas Shrugged.

I can't quote verbatim, so I'm not even going to try. But here's the gist of it:

Pick a day during the week (I think Titus said a Wednesday for a reason I won't go into), and between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, stop doing what you're doing. Don't work. Don't answer the phone. Don't drive. Don't shop. Don't travel. Don't do anything.

Right after 4 o'clock, we all send a text message to Congress and the President that says "If you guys don't stop screwing around and fix what you guys screwed up, we'll do this for a month!"

Do you think if we all went Galt for a couple of hours they might take notice?

As we move closer to 2012, it has become increasingly apparent to those not previously cognizant that President Obama is, to put it in terms everyone can understand, an economic moron. Part of this lack of understanding can be laid at his upbringing and lack of a real-world education.

Between his parents, step parent, grandparents, and his pastor of 20 years, he was fed a continuous diet of anti-Americanism. We have no idea what he really learned in school, particularly at college (his transcripts are sealed). While speaking about bringing people together, his actions have done nothing but divided them. This is particularly true when it comes to economics, where it appears he's pulling his 'fixes' out of the past, with liberal doses of Marxist economic theory blended with the worst of the failed economic policies of FDR and Jimmy Carter. He really doesn't see why his efforts to fix the economy have failed or why his popularity has fallen so precipitously. Could it be because he's in over his head, being so ill-prepared and undereducated in how things really work?

That certainly seems to be the case, particularly in light of his most recent presser where he engaged in "false choices and demagoguery" rather than offering solid proposals. He talks about reaching a compromise with the Republican members of the House, but I get the feeling he's still defining compromise as "Sit down, shut up, and vote the way I tell you to vote." That hasn't worked since the Democrat takeover of the House and Senate back in 2006, and is less likely to work today since the GOP retook the House last fall.

All any of this shows us is that he really doesn't get it, doesn't understand how the economy works, and isn't interested in learning how it works. Instead he wants the economy to bend to his will. Unfortunately he will learn, as did King Canute, that the economy won't listen to him. The more he tries to bend it to his will, the worst it will get and the more those who actually drive the economy will rebel, just as they have to date. All he will do is to motivate even more people to "go Galt", driving more of the economic activity underground and away from the prying eyes of The One Term Wonder.

Is this yet another bit of "unexpected" news?

Apparently consumer spending is down, again. It's at its lowest pace in two years and not getting any better.

While consumers haven't stopped spending, they are being more careful. They also have changed their spending habits, with more online spending and less in the way of trips to the mall. As one of Glenn Reynolds readers explained it:

I realize it is a cliche for a woman to say she has nothing to wear; but I have literally only bought one new item of apparel for myself in the past three years. I had a pair of shorts that was more patches than original cloth, so I determined I had to buy some new ones. But after three years of mall avoidance I found the idea of going to one to be impossibly fatiguing. So I checked Overstock and Landsend (sic) clearance and bought myself some new shorts for about $10 each.

But of course since I was online I just typed in women's shorts and that's all I bought. If I had been at a mall I would have found a cute top and an adorable little skirt and etc. etc. My shopping habits have been completely altered, and I think its a good thing.

I can't remember the last time I went to one of the malls to shop. It's either WalMart or online shopping for us here at The Manse. If I buy something I know what it is I want, where I can buy it, and how much it costs. I know all of that before leaving The Manse (assuming I actually go to a store to buy what I need). Otherwise we buy it online.

One of the other things driving lower consumer spending is consumers paying off debt, getting those credit cards and car loans paid off. And when consumers do spend, they're paying cash or doing without. As Instapundit reader Robin Lyons writes:

Instead of spending, I have been taking all my disposable income and paying off debt. I have a good job and have disposable income every month. But I have decided that I am not buying anything not absolutely necessary in protest of the Obama economy. Not that my single participation makes any difference, but who knows how many of me there are out there?

We've had a tight budget here at The Manse over the past two years. After a mortgage refinance at a much lower interest rate, we're paying off all of our other debt and freeing up $1000 a month or more because we won't have those payments. Our mortgage payments will remain the same and that's the only debt we'll have, one we're willing to carry. From this point forward we'll be paying cash or doing without. We'll keep one credit card (the one with both the lowest credit limit and lowest interest rate).

Even though reducing the number of credit cards we have to one may adversely affect our credit rating, the missus and I much prefer to limit our exposure in the future rather than worry about what Experion and the others credit bureaus might have to say about us. Freeing up $12,000 of cash a year makes me feel a whole lot better than worrying about our credit rating dropping 50 points. It seems quite a few others are taking the same route we have, at least from what friends and acquaintances have been telling me.

So the fact that consumer spending has dropped isn't a surprise to me or anyone else paying attention to the Obama economy.

Bill Whittle continues with his series about what it is we believe and why in his efforts to dispel the myths about the Tea party and its supporters.



I particularly agree with his point about the economy, specifically that the recession was "created by bad law."

I attended the Tea Party in Manchester, New Hampshire this afternoon/early evening and got back just before 9PM.

I'll have an honest to goodness post about it tomorrow Saturday.

Dr. Williams writes:

I believe we are nearing a point where there are enough irreconcilable differences between those Americans who want to control other Americans and those Americans who want to be left alone that separation is the only peaceable alternative. Just as in a marriage, where vows are broken, our human rights protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been grossly violated by a government instituted to protect them.

Who indeed?

(H/T Instapundit)