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A real life John Galt.

Posted by chomper 12 years, 3 months ago to Culture
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I am a sophmore in college. One of my roomates is from Bolivia. We are both studying Engineering. I began talking with him about his country and life back home over dinner last night and heard some incredible things. He told me that, for the past ten years, a ruler has held power in Bolivia's "Democratic" government. This ruler has nationalized the entire country, taking over everything. My friend said his father started an engineering firm seventeen years ago. He has now worked his way to the top of his profession in his country. When the government nationalized everything, my friend's father began only recieving contracts from the government. He has recently completed two projects (a road from Tarija to La Pas, and a man-made lake in Tarija for hydroelectricity). Upon completing those projects, he was not paid. As my friend was telling me this I asked him, "What is your father going to do?" He responded, "Demand payment or stop all his projects and boycott." I was amazed. I have a bumper sticker on my car that reads, "Who is John Galt?" This same friend always asks me about its meaning. I was finally able to give him an explanation he could understand. I told him, "Your dad is John Galt."


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    Posted by Ibuiltmybusiness 12 years, 3 months ago
    For his safety, I wish there was a true Gulch... Realistically, what does a John Galt do when he has nowhere to turn, and needs to walk away. Where to go? My township zoning board told me they would like my business gone. Because my horse riding business does not fit their idea of an agricultural use. They don't see beyond growing corn. Horses are no longer agriculture, and people paying to participate, people paying me, is anathema. So, I fight, and wonder what to do next?
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  • Posted by ssuummyy 12 years, 2 months ago
    My mother's father was an electrical engineer, himself. I wish I could have known him more, but he died when I was age 2 or 3. He was under contract by the Port Authority to make motors and engines that would be marvels even today, and he was barely paid anything for each. He also has a hand in the construction of several places everyone know: Newark, LaGuardia, JFK (then Idlewild), Lincoln Tunnel, George Washington Bridge, and of course, the bus terminal. Even for someone who lived to a ripe old age, he had too quick-sorted an existence for all the great achievements that should have gone to his name.
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  • Posted by AndreaK 11 years, 8 months ago
    Great story! Hopefully your roommates father will inspire others along the same lines, and this will eventually lead to the government realizing they are the problem, not the solution to problems.
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  • Posted by WesleyMooch 12 years, 2 months ago
    I have a brother in the mining business who, although he wants to participate in the lithium boom which rests in part on the electric car boom, steers clear of the gigantic lithium deposit on a high plateau in the Bolivian Andes. The Bolivian Army captured and killed Che Guevara, but his ideas lived on through the likes of Evo Morales, Hugo Chávez and Rafael Correa to make South America an increasingly unwise place to invest.
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  • Posted by MarkF 12 years, 2 months ago
    Looks like the boycott is the self motivated person's version of going on strike hence the mining investment withdrawl in Australia.
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