Going Galt Cloward-Piven Style

Last night, I halfway-watched the State of the Union address, and felt I should finally publish my Going Galt Cloward-Piven Style analysis. Why? Because there is no way the problems this country is facing are going to be solved. Ever. I watched that room full of imbeciles, or more appropriately traitorous thieves, stand up and sit down and clap and whoop and smile as Our Lord and Savior, Barack Hussein Obama ("Mmm mmm mmm") made his proclamations and announcements, fiddling with distractions and inconsequential initiatives while our nation's $16,000,000,000,000 Imperial-Rome-sized debt steadily burns. It was a front row seat to the freak show, where the elephant in the room was not the GOP, but an Oliphant of Mordor, a monster of debt stomping and pounding those underfoot into oblivion.

Yet, they smiled. And glad-handed. And the Messiah signed autographs on paper copies of his speech for posterity.

The rest of our ignorant citizenry who sent these fools there are no better. With the re-election of Barack Obama, it is clear that the looters, parasites, and moochers have won. In Novermber, 2012, the people of the United States of America decided to go past the point of no return. I consider it the duty of every productive American to stop feeding the beast, to stop being productive, and thus stop supporting the parasites. Like in Ayn Rand's prophetic work, Atlas Shrugged, it is time to “Go Galt.” The producers must somehow go on strike.

What is "Going Galt"? From Wikipedia:

“Going Galt” - John Galt is a fictional character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (1957). In the book, Galt secretly organizes a strike by the world's creative leaders in an effort to bring about the collapse of the collectivist society. The phrase "going Galt" has been used to describe productive members of society cutting back on work and may take a variety of forms. These include earning less taxable income, reducing expenses in order to reduce the payment of sales tax, civil disobedience, or various actions to prepare for a hypothetical collapse.

I believe this is just half of the equation, because there is no Galt's Gulch for us to escape to – we each have to escape to our own homes and neighborhoods – we have to remain and live the best we can in this collapsing society. So, the goal is to retain your quality of life, while going on strike.

You do this by turning a tactic of the Left against them. It is called the Cloward-Piven Strategy, named after two hippie douchebags in the sixties who wanted to collapse the system by overwhelming the welfare roles, which in turn would allow for a communist takeover of the economy and country. Again from Wikipedia:

“The Cloward-Piven Strategy” - a political strategy outlined in 1966 by American sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward (1926–2001) and Frances Fox Piven (b. 1932) that called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a national system of a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty.

With the re-election of Barack Obama, and with all but a majority of this country receiving government benefits of some kind, the communist takeover has essentially been achieved, covertly rather than overtly, through democracy rather than revolution. The productive in this society are being played for suckers. I say bring it down, collapse this re-distributive system, this unsustainable economic model based on debt, and hasten its demise by Going Galt, Cloward-Piven Style.

We starve the beast and suck it dry at the same time.

Other people have already done the calculations showing how working and being productive for a living compares to taking advantage of government welfare benefits and leeching off of society. Sites like Zerohedge and shows like the O'Reilly Factor usually focus on single mother households, who can tap into the most lucrative government benefits, thus providing for the most dramatic a compelling of results. Most of us, especially productive people, are not single mothers. What about a happily married family of four living in the suburbs, doing what they're supposed to do, and being played for suckers by the system?

There are still others that are proponents of Going Galt that are single, childless people, and they encourage young people to never marry and never have children in preparation for the economic and societal collapse to come. Sound advice, perhaps, but what about the rest of us? Are we just screwed? Is there nothing we can do?

Going Galt is rather easy for a single, unmarried person. It really does not take that much to live comfortably. But for a parent, for someone supporting a family, it is a really frightening thing to think of being without – of being “poor.” The truth is, with government benefits, you are not without, and you sure are not “poor.” I do believe, that for a family of four, it is possible to Go Galt, and apply for all the government benefits to which you will be entitled, all without dramatically lessening your current quality of life.

THE PLAN

If you are going to Go Galt Cloward-Piven Style, the key is to reduce your productive output to the point where your quality of life will not suffer for it.

Step 1: Get out of the system as much as you can. Sell all your financial assets and convert them to tangibles. Food, guns, silver and gold. Pay down all your debts to zero.

When I say get out of the system as much as you can, that means everything tied to the dollar. You each individually will have to determine how many dollar-denominated assets you sell to pay down debt or convert to tangibles. You may go all in after doing your own research and due diligence, and sell all your retirement accounts (which now is a good time, seeing as how the DOW has attained new highs, defying all gravity). You may want to hedge your bets and stay in some paper assets. Whatever the case, you don't want anything hanging over your head as far as debts are concerned. Pay off your debts. You want to be free of any leverage to Go Galt. You will sleep like a baby at night.

Step 2: Downsize and pay off your house. Make sure that when you Go Galt you are living where you want to live and not forced into some Section 8 wasteland.

This step is absolutely key. For a family of four, Going Galt Cloward-Piven Style will not work any other way. You need to own your home, or be living somewhere rent-free. Your mortgage payment or rent is your top monthly expense. It is relatively simple to live comfortably on very little when your costs of housing are zero.

Some may say that owning a home places you at the mercy of local government property taxes. At least in Minnesota, low income households qualify for property tax refunds, which I will discuss later.

Step 3: Quit your higher salary, high stress job and work a minimum wage/low wage job.

Don't burn bridges, though, even if you really want to tell your boss to go copulate with himself. You may want to stay where you are at and cut back your hours dramatically. Or only work a few months out of the year. Or, you may want to quit entirely and mindlessly push carts at Menards, enjoying the exercise and outside air. This is your choice, but make sure it is something to like doing and that you enjoy.

So, what is the sweet spot low-income level? From a tax standpoint, the point at which a family of four breaks even, paying no income or social security/medicare taxes, is roughly around $33,800/year. Interestingly, anything beyond this income range, when taking government benefits into account, results in less and less relative gains in disposable income.

If you decide to Go Galt, you should be able to find a low wage job locally. This will virtually eliminate your expenses on gasoline, and minimize your car insurance.

Step 4: Apply for as many government benefits as you can.

When working for a low-wage job, there are many government benefits to tap into:

• After standard deductions and exemptions, you pay no income tax.
• The Earned Income Tax Credit wipes out your Social Security and Medicare taxes and then some, netting you money from the federal government.
• You get food stamps.
• You get home heating assistance to help pay the heating bills in winter.
• You get MinnesotaCare health insurance (in MN), where premiums are very low for low-income earners, and copays for doctor's visits and emergency room visits are next to nothing.
• You get a property tax refund for the property taxes you pay.
• You get free or reduced school lunches for your kids.
• In MN, you will net money for the state through Working Family Credit tax credits

No matter what low-income wage you are working under, you will be earning between $31,000 to $43,000 when all benefits are taken into consideration. The most shocking wage range is between $26,000 to $43,000 per year, where your net income only increases by $2,000 per year. Even though wages go up by $17,000 across this low/middle income wage range, after taxes and benefits, the net difference is only a measly $2,000. It is up to you, and for people working now at that income range, to decide if that extra $2,000 is worth having a “higher low-income job.” Is it worth the extra responsibilities a “higher low-income” job would entail? I personally do not know that an extra two-thousand bucks over a whole year is enough payment for an increased access to my skills and intelligence.

In my opinion, the lowest you'd want to go, for an income supporting a family of four, is $26,400 per year which results in no taxable income. This wage captures most of the increase of working above minimum wage. Anything above this wage results in almost no net income after government benefits. For those that are not comfortable taking advantage of government benefits, and only want to achieve a net zero difference in salary to net income, anything over $43,000 per year, and you are supporting the beast with taxes.

Making anything over $43,000 per year and you are a sucker. Anything above $26,400, and your net benefit is next to nothing. That is truly sick.

So the question you have to ask yourself, can you and your family live off of roughly $40,000 per year, when your largest monthly expense, your mortgage or rent, is gone? Can you live off of $3,300 per month? Can you live off $770 per week? Can you live off $110 per day? And the key is, you will be living exactly where you want to live in your downsized dream home. Do you want to trade in that high stress job for a lower stress lifestyle? And change the country in the process?

Step 5: Whatever extra savings you have, keep buying silver and gold and tangibles.

Do what you want to do with your time and extra money, but I would suggest that you put whatever savings you have month to month into precious metals and other tangible preparations for the economic collapse to come.

Step 6: Await the collapse and enjoy life.

Do what you've always wanted to do, and take care of your family.

Step 7: When the economy collapses, use your silver and gold to great advantage and be a part of what rises from the ashes.

In a worst-case scenario, your precious metals will keep you and your family warm, dry and fed. In a best, worst-case scenario, you will be able to use your silver and gold to buy productive assets in whatever society remains. Think farms, factories, buildings, etc. Because of your smart moves with your money, you will be able to participate in the rebuilding of this country after the Great Reset, and we need good people to be a part of that process.

CONCLUSION

If you want to change the country, Go Galt Cloward-Piven Style. If even 10% of the productive would do this, resulting in at least a 20% revenue to spending difference, it would crash this unjust system of parasites slowly killing the host. After the collapse, when all the Obama-voters are panicking and wondering what the hell just happened, you will be well positioned to be a part of the solution and reap the rewards of your careful planning and execution.

In the meantime, before the economic collapse, you will have more free time to spend with your family. Instead of having the state raise and rear your children in public school and childcare, you and your spouse will. Instead of working hard, knowing that a good chunk of your hard work is for some lazy piece of shit, you will only be working hard enough to benefit you and your family. Maybe you only work part of the year - the rest of the year you could travel across the country and your child's classroom will be everything this country has to offer? Instead of learning about mountains and how they form in a classroom, how about standing right there before them, or climbing them? Instead of learning about George Washington in a leftist-slanted history book, why not walk the grounds of his plantation home?

The possibilities are limitless, when you let go of the idea that you owe society something. The system is going down, regardless of what you do. Working hard and being productive is giving your consent to a system that punishes responsibility and encourages irresponsibility. The sooner this system collapses, the better it will be for most of us.

In the words of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, "I look after me and mine. That don't include you less I conjure it does."

Do your part. Join the Black Brigade, and Go Galt Cloward-Piven Style the best you can.

\m/