Here is my plan: With a family of 7, including 4 school age kids, moving is possible but I don't think it is necessary. We home school 3/4 already and everything but the house is paid-in-full. One child attends a private school and paying for that will be a challenge. Soon, I plan to quit my current job for two reasons. First, I will be able to access my 401k (before the Fed devalues it to nothing) and after taxes and penalties still have enough to pay off the house and buy a small piece of property for a large garden and some livestock. Second, the government won't get the $90k+ in annual taxes that I am currently paying. (I don't like supporting all of the handouts that the government is spending my money on!) Only waiting for January 1st, so that I get my profit sharing, since I already earned that. Paying property tax and utilities may be a challenge going forward, would love ideas, but I do have a few ideas.

BTW, my entire family and extended family know many survival skills and are well supplied. We live in the country and thanks to my Dad, have always been taught to Be Prepared!

Buy gold.

Not all of us can move when/where we want. Going Galt, to me, means not to take from the government that which is not needed. Loans are acceptable as long as you pay them back, obviously. Becoming debt free is a great way to start. Since we are not necessarily "producers" in the grand scheme of things, we are not "moochers" either. Just do not become a moocher and fall into their way of life.

My wife and I decided a while back to become debt free. All we had left was our house and her school loan before I was let go from the job I had. Now we are kind of at a stand still. I am going to school now but, if we can manage to do it right I should be able to get my degree with a minimal $12,000 loan. That should be able to be payed back fast after I get a career going. Maybe, unless things have completely fallen apart. We will see.

Remember that the book is romanticism--intentionally exaggerated for the sake of entertainment.

I would say that the simplest principle to follow to "Go Galt" is to not enable looters/moochers. I agree, there are times when that's going to be impossible to do, especially in a context such as yours, but think about things such as the job you have and what you do in your free time.

khalling: I am skeptical about Panama, but we should check on it. You asked ... GM only let me hire Pakistani & ... EO 11246 (Foreigners = minorities) & pay is the visa, salary is secondary, H1, J, L, ... visas have 6 year contracts... and more... ACLU invalidated citizen contracts such as these (H Ross Perot's EDS at GM 1986, all states). I have PE in ME, MS in physics, MS in EE, optics, kept acquiring chasing the pay. High pay skills change too quickly to attain 5-10 yr experience needed. Standard of living of 1960's was 4 times higher for specialty engineers, when the market was free. For the past 30 years Catia Draftsmen, Oracle DBase pgmmers, and high tolerance machinists out-earned advanced degree high skills because of the 6-yr contract for foreigners, and the free visa which is the main part of their salary. Darn, you just had to ask! Checking posted salaries at the paper version of www . cjhunter . com shows no average change in salary since 1990, after the drop in 1987-89. My first skill was FEA but it is too cheap for the effort now, they provide their labor below-cost (the youths know not what they know not, the learning curve is hidden). For example, looking at cjhunter paper version (pdf example) nuclear eng often shows up as one of the lowest paying skills. How smart is that, looters? The call for "more scientists and engineers" is just to make it cheaper thinking that low cost design will cause the world to buy from us - it has failed for 30 years. Cisco CEO whined in Sept 1999 in DC (to Mr. Mouch perhaps?) that he could not find network systems engineers. He had to pay them a whopping $80k (you should have heard the whine in his voice). At that time you could not get an infested efficiency in San Jose for less than $2k / mo. Cheapskate John Chambers is one of the looters. Do not work below cost. GM withered their suppliers demanding below-cost product. Some complied thinking they would snatch lucrative contracts later. Later never comes with looters. I could go on. Sorry for the rant.... there is so much more.... Signing off...

Where is the country that might be better? I have heard recently that Panama likes US citizens and especially engineers, and that they are paying well. But there are other parts to life. I personally like Southeast Asia, where despite the salacious hype Thai people really cherish families. But people tell me Vietnam of all places is a largely capitalist even free-enterprise location, under the commie umbrella they admit.

Q: If we have free enterprise here how can scientists and engineers be in such demand, how can there be a shortage in a free market?

Ah yes, "our jobs". Been there, done that. This is a formidable barrier. There are fundamentally three ways to fix this.

1) Apply for a job in a country you can tolerate. Over the internet, that is not hard, else get hold of a local newspaper, i.e. local to where you want to move. Typically, your prospective employer will be willing to help you with work permits etc. Difficult if you want to move into the US and some other countries, like Switzerland.

2) Find some way to self employment. It has to be something that is not terribly local , a hot-dog stand will not work. This is one I recommend.
3) If you can swing it, gather up enough money that you can live on it. Living in a third world country might not be as cheap as you hope, but odds are that you can find enough cheap stuff to cut your living expenses. Try to eat like a local - this might not be trivial, but go as far as you can with this method.

Nils

Stay politically informed and active.
Look into your investements and income and see if you can do anything to reduce the taxes you pay by shifting things around a little.