"Who is John Galt? A whining, entitled douchebag"

Posted by jmlesniewski 12 years, 7 months ago to Culture
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Yes, looks like it's one of those days on the internet.


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  • -3
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It's called the Constitution. Each generation is free to decide for themselves what they consider the general welfare. That fact that you don't like it doesn't make that clause of the Constitution any less real.

    There is no force involved. When you went into business in America you agreed to pay taxes. Now that the bill has come due, you have become a moocher. Save me the hysteria about communism. There are no parallels, just greed which needs to find an enemy to blame.
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  • -3
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I did read it, and you take it out of context, deliberately, I might add. The data ignores investment income, which represents 30% of our GDP, and for which the average effective tax rate is single digit.

    How convenient of you. Mitt Romney would be proud.
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Obviously did not read my post nor the article I linked too. SInce forbes says teh corporate average is 28% in the uS based on data, you once again lie. Read the article
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If it were untrue, it would be libel not slander.

    Your posts were deleted when you were.
    So our very competent readers will have to decide which of us is the more believable.

    Of course, one of the admins could always chime in and confirm my claim, but they are probably sitting back, just like they did last time, giving you enough rope to hang yourself with.

    And, as last time, I'm just sitting by the bank of the river, watching the water roll by, and laughing.
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  • Posted by ZaroSath 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "You will not go out into the wild and make your own way, you will insist that others have the obligation to make your way for you." cant have said it better myself, i think it needs to be said again. regarding social obligation i'm going to assume your referring to things like taxes? i think obligations like taxes have a way of serving oneself although big problems arise when the government over reaches its boundaries and tries to tax everything from boos to hiking up in the woods someplace sometimes just to have a form of control over the market or rake in extra cash, that said it is also self serving as it is used to help maintain the parks you hiked in or help regulate volatile business and use that money to help lower taxing in other areas overall, again the main concern is government overreaching its authority interfering in the natural order of things, such as survival of the fittest as example.
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  • -4
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Number one economic problem in the US is people like you insisting the tax rate is 35%, when almost no American businessman pay an EFFECTIVE rate of over 20%, and nearly 1/5th pay 0%.

    You do your legitimacy as a man of principle a disservice when you start your arguments with a premise you know to be wholly false.
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  • -5
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Marxism is based in Capitalism, and in it's truest form is identical to Capitalism except for who owns the means of production: The people performing the work, or a private owner who sees fit to arbitrarily assign pay scales based on his interests alone. The answer to your question is obvious: the people do. There is no problem here. I use this method transparently with my own employees, and there has never been a single salary dispute in the 18 years I've been in business. Of course, my workers understand my goal is not to screw them over so I alone can profit.
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You show the lack of brain within your head.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/20...

    Number one economic problem in the US is our corporate tax rates, they are the highest in the world at 35%, even china has reduced them from 33% to 25%. You want jobs here, it has to be cost effective to do business here. Even adjusted for tax breaks its still 28% and china gives breaks as well.

    I wont be responding to you again. Its not worth my time as you are obviously unable to read and understand what you read.
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  • Posted by theidealnate 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Here is where liberals become hypocrites...

    By what religion, creed or ideaology do you define what "obligations" each person has? And what gives YOU the power to define them for anyone else?

    You see, those exact questions are what makes you equivilent to the "fundamentalist", jihadist, crusader, etc. What you don't want to admit is you have your own belief of what I should do as a societal obligation, and believe that through the force of government you have the right to make me do it. It is what turns "humanist idealists" into murderous communists.
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Mmmm... and who determines whom gets what according to marxism? That is the core problem you must overcome.
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  • -5
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Unions have never been more popular in America, however today we call them trade groups instead of trade unions, and they support the ideals of management and owners, and not the workers.
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  • Posted by eilinel 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Any "slavery" or "screwing over hard workers" that's taken place has been caused by government intrusion into the private sector, and that is demonstrable even through the most cursory evaluation of history. "
    That's not entirely true. In the early days of industry, especially the coal mines, workers got charged for their company houses and company tools up front, so that they started out in debt to the company, and were paid in company scrip that couldnt be used anywhere else. The one thing I thank unions for, although I think they've long outlived their usefulness.
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  • -5
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No. The logic of the statement is that we should throw out the idea of slavery in order to protect the Constitution. When ideas become dangerous to the well-being of our nation, we reject them, just as we must reject the self-serving impulses of Randites who insist they must be allowed to live in a bubble, free from societal obligations.

    Very very dangerous thought process.
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  • -6
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Marxism does not demand equal pay for all, nor does it demand that the able-bodied who refuse to work receive a damned penny. If you had read even a single chapter from one of Marx's books, you would already know this. Marxism, as Marx described it, requires that those who work harder, or more intelligently, or who add more value as the result of their efforts, are entitled to a proportionally greater share of the profits. If that sounds an awful lot like textbook Capitalism, its because it is. It's not even remotely similar to textbook self-serving Randism however. because Randism is in many ways the polar opposite of Capitalism.
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  • -5
    Posted by JGISSD 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I love how "history" in your mind begins in the present day. You are in possession of "earnings", and the moochers are trying to take it away from you, never mind that most of the money in the hands of the financial elites was generated by stealing from the value of the labor of their workers, and never mind that part of the deal of wealth creation in the US, FROM THE OUTSET is paying taxes to help enable the society that enabled your wealth for you. Calling reasonable taxation "theft" is more than an intellectual liberty, it's an outright lie. And did I mention that both individual and corporate taxation is at a 40 year low? (because you conveniently forgot, didn't you. lol.)
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    So What percentage do you keep for marketing and growth? 30%, 12% what percentage is it?

    Based off your earlier posts you would keep to little and your company would ultimately fail when hard times hit it because you would not have the capital to ride out the storms.

    Do you share equally in all the pay? Does everyone get the same money for whatever job they do? If not you are behaving differently in your company than your posts would say you believe.

    If you are paying everyone the same how do you keep good talent and still maintain a proffit to pay your investors/owners for their investment? Because differences in pay between the bairly get the job done employee and the do more than is required employee have to be great enough to keep the latter around or they find something that pays better and they are gone.

    How do you solve these problems with Marxist ideals? I would love to know because I do not believe they can be solved with Marxist ideals.
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The very fact that you would the term of Economic justice to describe stealing from the rich to give to the poor is appalling. Theft is never just and economic justice is nothing more than a thug with a very large club stealing from one person to give it to another.

    Do you think that if I had a neighbor with two cars and one with no car and I stole one of my neighbors cars to give to the neighbor with no car I should not go to jail for theft?

    Such an act would be the entity of me doing exactly what economic justice has the entity of the government doing. So why is OK for the entity of the government but not for the entity of me?

    Until we live in a land where the same law applies equally to all entities rich or poor, black or white... regardless of differences there can be no justice of any kind. That applies to all entities within the land, Corporate entities, individuals and government entities. In a land that follows the rule of law, theft no matter who the thief is, is wrong.
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I wanted to thank you for your effort in writing this JeanPaulZodeaux because I enjoyed reading it. Hopefully you enjoy reading something I share at some point as much as I would like to give you value for value I received here.

    I found this particularly well written.

    Thanks You
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 7 months ago
    As much as I hate to admit this, I dont really like the John Galt charter in the book. I like Fransicso and Dagny and in particular Hank Reardon. Ragnar is awesome to.

    While I agree with the premises of the book and really enjoy it, the character of John Galt is one that I just never liked all that well. He started the strike, and ends it but otherwise he just does not grab me at all.

    That being said the article is well from someone who obviously does not understand real world and only the theoretical world. John Galt and the idea of a gultch is fantasy, I think we all realize it, but dam its good to have a fantasy to dream about.

    The difference is my fantasy is a world where everyone trades value for value and is so honest in there dealings with other men that no government is needed. In this world a person who owns a steel mill would put pollution controls on it not because a government forced him to but because pouting the environment to the point of destroying it is bad for himself.

    This persons fantasy is a world where the people are slaves to the government and do what they should because if they do not they get killed, go to jail, get beat up with the billy club of choice....

    the bottom line is I believe in the individual, and their ability to recognize and act upon what is best for them. I believe that natural consequences for actions will catch up to and teach those that fail to recognize what action is best for them, if those natural consequences are not altered by society.

    The guy who wrote this article does not believe that the average person can learn and grow and reach a point where they will make good choices for themselves. If he does his writing indicates otherwise.

    Entitlement brings out the worst in people, working for and keeping what you earn brings out the best. Those who do not understand this want entitlements; those that do want compensation based on the value they produce.
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  • Posted by theidealnate 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Irrelevant because her imperfection as a person is NOT a litmus test to the truth of her ideals. We might as well throw out the constitution because Jefferson had slaves...That is the logic of your statement.
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  • Posted by theidealnate 12 years, 7 months ago
    Everytime I read idiots like this, and find their thesis, you realize they never even got the point.

    #1 Galt isn't ACTING "entitled" and whining...he freakin IS entitled to the profits of his work which is getting STOLEN from the industrialists.

    #2 Yes there are new industrialists ready to step up and TRY to take Galt's place...but the books entire point is that Government and the "entitled" lazy asses of the world are RIPPING THEM OFF and creating laws making success in new businesses almost impossible...this is NOT a false theme, it is the result of socialism/communism as proved by EVERY socialist/communist state...so the proof is there.

    This guy is an idiot arguing from a false premise.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 12 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Absolutely it did happen.
    In fact, I was one of the people who tipped off the admins to your post where you made your outrageous claim.
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