It’s a perfect time to Go Galt!
Perfect storms form not only in the atmosphere but in life as well.
For example a confluence of events were perfectly timed and located in my life which led to my ballroom dancing career. Young people were sick of 80's heavy metal and the emo-y, soppy, suicidal kirk cocaine crap that followed in the 90's. They were also sick of the depressing goth fashion that ensued. And soon a generation of young people discovered jazz, swing, suits and dresses, martinis, and then a Gap commercial came out to solidify it all. Swing dancing/ballroom dancing regained an incredible popularity, and I was there not only learning how to dance, but teach it to tens of thousands of suburbanite students. Being at the right place, at the right time, with the inclination of entrepreneurship made it so I could afford a house at a relatively young age. And I would not be where I am now if that storm never formed.
But today the entire US (even global) economy presents a similar "perfect storm" for the productive members of society. For whether intentionally or not, the world has created the perfect storm, and thus opportunity, for hard working people to give up, go galt, and not really suffer the consequences of not working. And if you are one of those productive members of society who is sick of being enslaved to the parasite welfare class of society, now is your "Ballroom Dancing Perfect Storm."
First, you have the Coronavirus which has cascaded a slew of consequences that created the environment we're in now. Joe Biden (as well as Donald Trump) effectively created a UBI on top of an already generous welfare program that made it so you don't have to work if you don't want to. COVID has also forced employers to acknowledge something we've all known to be true for 20 years - and that is nearly ALL white collar work can be done from home, eliminating the need for offices, commutes, traffic jams and strokes. COVID has also created a crisis wherein the government's response has been to mandate all employers mandate their employees to take a vaccine. But they've done it so heavy-handedly it has made what were already piss-poor employer-employee relations even worse.
And these are just the trends deriving from COVID
Second, these singular consequences of COVID are couched within the Gen Z and Millennial generations. And these generations were (generally speaking) indoctrinated into socialism and entitlement. Certainly there are hard working millennials and Gen Z'ers...somewhere...I think...but the larger point is with COVID prompting a proto-and-effective UBI economy, you paid an entire society of Americans to sit on their ass. Furthermore, you paid them to sit on their ass for so long, their mental and economic behaviors have changed permanently. And when you throw in the fact you lied to these generations about the importance of a college degree, saddling them with crippling levels of debt, they have dropped out of the labor force, in spite of restaurants and other employers offering $16/hour and $1,000 hiring bonuses.
Third, as a consequence of that, there is a labor shortage everywhere. Boomers are FINALLY retiring, Gen X'ers are getting sucked up into leadership/power vacuums. But there are no frontline troops/workers to do the actual work. Tradesmen are scarce and those that exist are overpaid and generally shitty. You can't find truck drivers to unload all the stuff we import from China. Engineers, doctors, and other skilled employees are in desperately short supply. You can't even find wait staff to show up on time and do their job right.
Fourth, all of this is couched in a woke marxist work environment where employers sole marketing strategy is to pander to the only value Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X'ers' have - socialist politics. And that means not only burdening, but also insulting your work force with mandatory diversity, inclusion, sensitivity, etc., bullshit type of "training," making your already-intolerable job, even less tolerable.
Finally, to "earn" a position within the "prestigious" ranks of American employment, you unnecessarily force young people to get a "Bachelors required/Masters preferred." This is 17 to 19 years of schooling to get a job wherein the VAST VAST majority of time you could have trained a high school graduate in 2 weeks to do that job - NOT force them into 4-6 years of unnecessarily and costly schooling just so a brigade of psychopathic HR cunts could more easily sort through resumes.
And so now when Joe Biden tyrannically "decreed" employers must force employees to be vaccinated, that was not the straw that broke the camel's back, but the log. It was the flame necessary to ignite the Going-Galt-Explosion that you've seen these past few weeks. It was the final and missing piece of this Galtian Perfect Storm. And you my fine productive member of society have not, and will not, have a better time to go Galt.
First, a significant percent of other productive members of society are calling it quits. It's OK if the generations of liberal arts majors and social science majors call it quits. They were never producing anything anyway. And truthfully, the world will go without restaurants, movie theaters, or non-profits. But basic and critical people have had enough. Truck drivers are in short supply. Linemen and electricians as well. Accountants are in short supply. Factory and union workers are going on strike. And so are pilots and nurses. It's one thing if ONE sector or group of employees go on strike. But the US has not seen a universal strike of competent and productive people go on strike at the same time.
If you want to make the marxists, leftists, liberals, democrats, or even your employer feel the pinch, NOW is the time to go on strike while everybody else is.
Second, you get paid not to work.
Be it Uncle Joe's welfare state, the unemployment check you can collect from getting fired, or (more commonly) people scaling back, needing less out of fear and uncertainty, never has there been a better funded or stronger welfare net for you to go Galt on. This net is only further reinforced by America's world's reserve currency wherein we can print off more money (as the world prints off even more) and we can effectively still import all goods we need to survive (at least for a short period of time anyway). You won't be able to afford that new F-150 (which you can't because there are no computer chips), but you aren't going to starve either.
Third, fuck your employer.
Employers were already a bag of shit to begin with. Even before all the woke, diversity, racist, sexist, political bullshit, mere office politics already rendered most work environments unacceptable. But you throw in the psychopathic religion of politics via marketing, hiring, firing, promotions, and bullshit training (diversity, gender, environmentalism, etc.) get that shit out of here. To this day I do not know how whites or males don't walk off the job or tell their bosses to fuck off when they are actively discriminated against, promoted over, or accused of bigotry by their employer. And while I know most of you are saddled with debt and that's why you must accept this insulting and disgusting treatment by your employers, in the before time, real Americans would not tolerate this shitty treatment. They would walk. And if there was a time for Americans to walk (perhaps sue your employer
In fact most are impediments to merit-based work and productivity.
"That's nice Tanner the Sociology Professor thinks Steve the mechanic should work more and pay more in taxes. If Steve quits fixing cars, society is fucked. Tanner could literally kill himself and society wouldn't skip a beat. "
Amen, brother. Amen...
I’ve resigned myself to a minimalist lifestyle. Well kinda. Wanted to travel. See some stuff. Not anymore. I’ve become quite the misanthrope. Just can’t handle people and their Bullshit anymore.
Everything is paid for. I’m not hurting at all. I switched my beer from Labatt Blue Light to Milwaukee’s Beast. Not that I had to. But, I figure whatever amount of sales tax I can keep from feeding the beast the better. The more of this garbage I see paraded across the screen from DC the more I just say “I’m done”. Grow my garden. Go fishing. Listen to good music. And let it burn.
i keep my mouth shut at work
i see nothing broken, nothing wrong
i just take care of what i am responsible for
woke hospital....