Just in case you were under the impression that AS was only a work of fiction....

An audiobook for the first ‘read’ perhaps, but an honest in-depth critical re-reading demands rapid reference local and global. I have completed many re-reads of Atlas Shrugged, but at just a few pages per day taking months for all of the side trips.

Devaluation of the currency and other assets is only part of the potential. All of our rights are at stake, including the right to life itself versus the angry racist mobs currently running loose in some cities. The spread of racist political violence is an increasing threat, even to the suburbs. In a more extreme form, remember the roving bands of mindless gangs everywhere in the last stages of the novel. Sitting on assets make you a target, not safe.

Even with your life and assets intact, civilized life requires production and trade so that you can buy what you need and want with your assets. A normal life cannot be assumed available as long as we have 'retirement' assets. That is still possible now, even in Europe, but it isn't guaranteed under further disintegration should that rapidly occur in what you called an otherwise tragic world -- let alone in what you say your are "looking forward to [with] the total collapse of the rule of looters and moochers".

There is a certain appeal to the poetic justice in prospects for collapse for the "looters and moochers" caused by themselves, but the reality of a real collapse destroys everyone and is not something to look forward to even though the "looters and moochers" would deserve it.

And none of that was any kind of altruism, which is the opposite.

The usual measure of success of working for yourself is money but it is not the only metric, Rand uses the word values for describing some state to be achieved, and allowable processes. Much the whole story of Galt was that he had values which did not match money, at least in a short term view. Galt was inner driven, he did not work for others unless the effort coincided with the values.

Certainly hyperinflation is possible. That is why you have at least a portion of your assets in gold. Of course, you are correct in that you no longer can control what you can buy.

When you live inside you can't look in from the outside. There is more to living in a social system than your ability to live off current assets. All of our rights are at stake, not just having an income. That includes keeping the value of the dimes you already have and there being the items you need still available to buy with the dimes.

I enjoy the luxury of "looking in from the outside" more than most. I don't need to earn another dime and could live comfortably even in an otherwise tragic world ... and just fade away.

"Collapse of the looters and moochers" is also the collapse of us. We are not on the outside looking in like reading the novel. It is not something to look forward to. They deserve it; we don't. Any problems, let alone disasters, are blamed on capitalism. They always scapegoat their failures and use them as an excuse for more power.

Checking exactly which stage we are in of Atlas Shrugged is what several recent threads have been about. I look for such checkpoints periodically because I am so looking forward to the total collapse of the rule of looters and moochers.

The US is not at the last stage depicted in Atlas Shrugged. High tech companies are still succeeding in spite of the politics (which they often endorse themselves, with the mentality of Dr. Stadler). But a lot of deadly damage is being done even without a literal "collapse".

If I quit, a few thousand people would certainly notice, but in the end, it would pass.

Yes, the irrational trends have been an issue. Creating a higher barrier to entry for competition has been a major part of our early effort.

Yes, and I understand the logic of it at this point, too. Is the US that far gone? Perhaps so, if President Biden passes your prophesied edict.

Dagny couldn't stand her shrug job improving the rural family cabin isolated in the woods either, and later wouldn't give up the railroad for a shrug job in the Valley after she crashed it and was invited to stay. But by the end of the novel she understood the logic of it -- just after the necessity of the 'strike' had passed.

1100 pages is miniscule in the course of a civilzation, but every one of those pages represented volumes of thought.

It took 1100 pages to present the plot. The plot itself was described as taking place over only a few years, not counting flashbacks. Even with the flashbacks for the major characters, encompassing about a generation, the events in that time span were an artificial acceleration of actions leading to a collapse due to withdrawing key individuals and those dropping out on their own.

I hope your company succeeds and then continues to thrive. The great advances in technology have been in spite of the political and other irrational trends.

John Galt was a champion of objective law, not the "rule of law". He rejected "rule" entirely, and supported laws only when serving the proper purpose of protecting the rights of the individual.

Effects of a strike may be noticed without noticing the strikers or why they are striking. Productive individuals dropping out one at at time, and what could have been that is not, are rarely noticed in the economy. The kind of actual strikes that are noticed are large union operations employing coercion to focus on a single industry or business. If you decided to quit yourself, how many would notice?

In the plot of Atlas Shrugged the decline due to producers dropping out was "noticed" because it was explicitly described as the focus of the artificially accelerated plot.

John Galt did not commit any acts of altruism. Altruism means living for others as the standard of morality. There is no "balance" between altruism and "attention to one's own benefits" and that contradiction does not "run throughout" *Atlas Shrugged". Exchanging value for value in trade is for mutual benefit, not altruism.

"The whole plot in Atlas Shrugged was artificially accelerated." Wow, with > 1100 pages, that's depressing.

My company is making nice progress in the last month. This is the time for capitalize on how to be sure about cleanliness, and my products will make that happen. We have an .mp4 that is ready to post on the web site. Once that is posted, I will talk more about the company.

Antifa, BLM, Marxists, National Socialists are all thugs, looters, and moochers. The standard of virtue today is to be a mindless widget, an Hysterical Shrieking Harpy. Part of a mob that will dogpile whoever their Dear Leader points at. Not a Galtian Standard.

This is John's one act of altruism. Although, it is also a service from which he will likely profit.

If something you are doing is not of actual service to anyone, how does that make you a profit? It don't. Making money is the surest sign that you are doing good. NB: Making Money. Not looting or mooching to acquire it.

The balance between altruism for those he values and his attention to his own benefit runs throughout.

I agree with what you are saying except that in Atlas Shrugged, the strikers' effects were indeed noticeable, and that's what makes it difficult for me.

I never want to retire. I have the personality of a Dagny, and I know I would not be content doing what Dagny did for a shrug job.

This thing is so rich and has so many components, characters you could read and enjoy it the rest of your life. I know that I will need X number of passes just to get it all. Then you can concentrate on one module- here's a good one. Scrutinize the destruction of Cherryl Taggert. Go over it slowly and carefully.