I know you wretches all read Roy religiously, so reprinting this post on Glenn Reynolds is redundant. But repetition is [something insanely clever that starts with the letter "r"]:
But something — maybe the incipience of a wrinkle, suggesting that the Singularity cannot come fast enough — did momentarily put the Perfesser in a solemn mood, and he summoned an “Army of John Galts” to talk about how they would go off the grid if the socialist Obama prevailed, depriving the littlebrains of their essential crafts of law perfessin’, psychologizing, documentary filmmaking, and the like. One such — a newspaper columnist and a “private investor“! How will we do without his unique skillset! — writes:
I want to appease the new administration and not be too productive. So, upon Obama’s passing his new redistribution plan, I will slow my work schedule, lay off a few people (Obama’s got their back) and let someone else bust his tail since I will now be able to get “redistributed wealth” from those poor fools who are ambitious, energetic, work hard and have made good decisions.
It doesn’t occur to them that others will scramble to take their places — well, it does occur to one, but Kartik Gada believes that even immigrants, formerly besotted of America, will also be disgusted with Obama and follow the Galts to… Red China, or some other such paradise where they know how to treat an investor class. Then we’ll all be sorry.
They really believe it. The greed and stupidity of investors far bigger than the Perfesser have done what untold cadres of socialists and communists couldn’t manage in a century — destroyed the good name of American capitalism and put the better part of its assets under government control — and the would-be Galts are threatening to bugger off to China because America might elect a moderately progressive Democrat.
The dastardly IOZ plunges the dagger deeper into the would-be self-inflicted wound:
Anyway, Reynold’s army of John Galts (pray: come, let us snicker together), a gang of pencil-neck Sharper-Image shoppers with dreams of mountain redoubts and rough sex with heiresses, petulantly proclaim that they will . . . well, they do not seem to be proclaiming that they will stop the engine of the world. Rather, they will consider slowing it marginally, like union slugs caging an extra five minutes on every smoke break in order to stick it to Management. The irony. Oh. [...]
My favorite correspondent over at Reynolds’ is the doctor who swears he will stop curing the ill if Obama is elected. He and his family will go out into the woods and live like wild dogs, foraging for food and hunting in packs, rather than allow that Socialist Obama to, uh, lower their standard of living. I mean, I laughed at liberal avowals to move to Canada back in aught-four, but this is just ridiculous.
If you’re not reading IOZ regularly, you’re dumber than a bag full of Doug Feiths. Rectify. You’ll thank me. You know how good he is, I’ll tell you: I’m not, you know, gay or anything, but I’ll admit that his wit makes my Prager Continuum itch a little.
(via that unqualified one)
November 5, 2008 at 10:55 am
de rigeur?
November 5, 2008 at 11:01 am
Solid contender – bonus points for Frenchyness
November 5, 2008 at 6:07 pm
The thing is, I’m unconvinced any of these yahoos actually contribute anything important to society.
The fact that you make a lot of money doesn’t in and of itself make you vital to the survival of the nation; my dad makes more then 100K and the worst that would happen if he dropped out is that Monday Night Football would come in somewhat less clearly.
Look, if the Chinese factory workers that make all our stuff went on strike, that would be a problem. I think we can survive if Glenn Reynolds writes fewer columns about sex droids.
November 6, 2008 at 3:47 am
The slippery slope argument that taxing the richest in the US to aid the poorest will lead to all out socialism and/or communism is tired as hell. Especially since the richest Americans take home something like 70% of the wealth. Taking 65% and giving it to the poor is socialism, taking 2% and giving it to the poorest people in the country is just being a good human being.
Only a douchebag can think that getting free money/services/food from the government is so awesome that it is worth living in poverty for.
November 6, 2008 at 10:36 am
Somebody – the Ed, or maybe Sifu??? said something on here once about “so wanting to see Sasha & Malia playing on the White House lawn” that just stuck with me as such an awesomely iconic image. And, yeah, now we get to see it.
I’ze happy!!!!
November 6, 2008 at 12:44 pm
…repetition redounds to my ridiculously resplendent rhetoric. Ya rly
November 6, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Oooooh. That’s even better.
Sorry Joe Hendry, but you’re now in the running for the Silver.