"I'm Just Quitting"
David McElroy writes that he was attending a public meeting in Birmingham when he witnessed someone go Galt. That's what we call it when someone gets so sick of government encroachment that they quit their business. I'm not sure about the particulars and perhaps there's more to this story, but after a few hours of people bashing coal mining businesses, an actual coal mine operator stood up to speak:
After Bryant listened to all of the business-bashing, he finally stood to speak. He sounded a little bit shellshocked, a little bit angry — and a lot frustrated.
My name’s Ronnie Bryant, and I’m a mine operator…. I’ve been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people…. [pause] Nearly every day without fail — I have a different perspective — men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just … you know … what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.
I have no idea what Bryant will actually do. He might have made a quick emotional decision based on anger at feeling blamed for things that are frequently just normal health issues of life. He might reconsider and go ahead with his project.
In the comments to the post that follow, reader after reader talks about how running a small business is a thankless task made impossible by the burden of various regulations. My friends who run small businesses have reported horror stories about the difficulties they face in running a business while jumping through regulatory hoops. We need to find a better balance.
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Oct '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I might start a small business. Unfortunately, I'd probably have to start it in California. I'm living in Utah at the moment, and I really wish I could start it here. Utah has excellent healthcare, and it's own version of health reform--including an exchange for small businesses (it's a real exchange, not an instrument for price controls).
My parents knew a couple who ran two small businesses out of their home in California. The amount of money they saved when they eventually moved out of state was insane.
Oct '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
Not that this fits with the dialog of improving the situation despite the obstacles that present. Find no fault with any soul that moves with the Galt option.
This just deprives oxygen to the beast that drove one to making such a move.
Jul '11
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I had lunch with a buddy today who has gone Galt. Graduated college age 16, doctorate at 21. Sold a software company for 1 billion by age 30(VC took 90%), produced a successful movie, wrote and recorded great music and had another less successful but still viable company. He is the one who zapped me with Atlas Shrugged 10 years ago. Well, he and his millions have dropped out, he has denied the world of his genius. He follows no political news anymore but I always keep him up to speed when we talk since his off the charts brain cells spew out interesting observations.
I described the current situation in Washington and specifically our president. His comment was that ,"A threatened narcissist knows no boundaries and since Mr Obama wishes he could be a dictator in a country with even less freedom then he will continue to erode our freedom."
Edited on July 27, 2011 at 7:56amApr '11
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
wilber forge: Not that this fits with the dialog of improving the situation despite the obstacles that present. Find no fault with any soul that moves with the Galt option.
This just deprives oxygen to the beast that drove one to making such a move. · Jul 26 at 10:51pm
I do not find fault with their souls, but do believe they are weakening the cause of freemen everywhere by withdrawing. It is sad to see folks go Galt.
I think I understand what you are saying, that the golden goose lays no eggs if it isn't there to lay them. I just remember that in Atlas Shrugged, Dagny Taggart stubbornly held on to her railroad despite the government's encroachment, almost to the bitter end. It is still possible to make money honestly (despite the red tape), and there is still room in this world for all the Dagny Taggarts. The labors of freemen have been under scrutiny for decades (centuries), but to let the flame go out is to surrender. There will never be any push back without the entrepreneurs holding the line.
Oct '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
DocJay "A threatened narcissist knows no boundaries and since Mr. Obama wishes he could be a dictator in a country with even less freedom then he will continue to erode our freedom."
Great quote! Economic determinists always go after the little entrepreneurs first. Think Stalin and the Kulaks. It’s relatively easy to nationalize big industries (steel, health care) precisely because they are so big and often concentrated. But getting rid of legions of free-thinking individuals with the smarts and tenacity to overcome obstacles? That’s a huge challenge for a dictator. Stalin had to starve them out in the Ukraine, which is still paying the price for his selective genocide. Obama isn’t using terror-famine, but the result he seeks is the same---nationalize health care and get the petty bourgeoisie to submit to an ever-expanding State bureaucracy, which in turn is under one-party control. He won’t ultimately succeed, but he just may ruin us in the process.
Dec '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
Tell me about it.
I'd very much like to Go Galt™, but I am far too broke at the moment.
If I had a billion dollars, I'd have quit three years ago.
Buy a big motor to tow the race car trailer with and go racing, never to be seen again.
But I'm stuck in the middle. Too broke to run, and too independent to just sit and spin like a good cog.
If things don't change pretty soon though, my business is gonna Go Galt™ without me.
May '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I too am "going Galt." In my case it will be investing and working in a couple of start ups in the Philippines. I believe there to be better returns for far less hassle in the developing world than in a regulatory morass like the USA or Europe +the cost of living is far less, coupled with excellent quality of life.
A lot of multinationals are doing the same thing. Repatriating funds earned overseas is fiscally insane, so the investment and expansion focus is outside the USA. Gee, people in some other countries even like and appreciate those who create jobs - real change of pace.
Oct '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
Superb post, Mollie, and thank you for the introduction to David McElroy, who has gone Galt from politics. I move closer and closer to that stance every day, but there's something in my DNA that has prevented me from crossing the Rubicon to the Side of Right and Light.
To Joseph, all I can say is, "Do NOT start your business in California." I speak every day to businessmen/women who would move to another state if they could. We are a failed state where the legislature has not learned The First Rule of Holes. And nothing will wake the legislature up (much less the people) until the state goes to the bond market and no buyers show up. And EVEN THEN the repair work will take a long and painful time.
Jun '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
Mark Steyn remarked that in New York City opening a restaurant means satisfying the bureaucratic demands of 23 different agencies. Care to guess the Nanny Bloomberg solution to the problem? He created another office charged with helping businessmen negotiate the plethora of bureaucratic demands! Our only ace in the hole is that the administrative state eventually creates a black market for both goods and services. That is going Galt! I'm suggesting that tens of millions of Americans already have. Capitalism is spontaneous, organic, and natural. It can't be stopped; government can only push it underground.
Oct '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
This weekend, C-SPAN2 will run excerpts from Freedom Fest: http://www.booktv.org/Schedule.aspx
And specifically on the issue of "Going Galt," don't miss Don Luskin's presentation on Sat, 11am EDT. He just published I Am John Galt, a great read wherein he matches up characters from The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged with real world people, good and bad. http://www.iamjohngalt.com/
Jan '11
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
This is the second time I've heard this story reported. I've seen no pictures of the event but I imagine the mine operator to appear to be a very decent, average looking guy - so different than these "fat cats" & "jet owners" straw men the administration conjurs up continuously. Kind of like a Rotary Club or Knights of Columbus type of guy.
Elections have consequences - the US electrate decided to kick the stuffing out of the all the 'geese laying the golden eggs' and they are getting more than they asked for (see California).
I'm hopeful things will change but I wonder how gunshy these businessowners will be, even if there is a big electoral turn around. Who wants to set themselves up for this kind of vilification?
Jun '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
90% of entrepreneurs are motivated by the desire to solve a problem. Sometimes, they're the only one in town who thought it was a problem, and their business fails, but at least they try. Because we need thousands of successful new businesses, to create jobs, we need tens of thousands to try it. Our real "climate problem" is a business climate problem. We're experiencing severe national cooling.
Sep '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
This highlights the problem with the liberal/progressive view that the people are just industrious animals that can be exploited to supply the money for social engineering and re-distribution projects.
This view is what is behind the call for higher marginal tax rates for the rich etc. There is a complete sense of denial that "rich" people will respond to the negative incentives that are proffered to them.
So the questions like "What are they going to do, not hire people?" "What are they going to do, move?", are starting to get their answers. Just as millionaires will leave high tax jurisdictions for lower ones, businessmen and women will eventually seek other options than funding the machine that slaps them in the face.
Dec '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I have a couple brothers who own a small business employing about 50 people in a small Ohio town. They've managed to find a sweet spot over the last 20 years, consistently growing in the niche they occupy, but staying small enough not to attract too much attention.
They don't talk about it, but I worry for them. They are at risk, every day, from being sued, probably by their least productive employee, or from getting the attention of some hostile bureaucrat who finds some regulation with which they failed to comply.
It is a mixed blessing operating as the biggest employer in a small town where everyone knows everyone. While familiarity offers some protection, when the president of the country is preaching envy, someone will eventually respond. We are fallen.
Am I alone in seeing the left as the progenitors of the culture of death?
Mar '11
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I have a friend who had a small fire in his restaurant in Baltimore City. Restarting took him 6 months, and signoffs from no less than 35 different regulators.
I have pledged to support any candidate who eliminates the regulators.
Apr '11
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I'm not sure that Mr. Bryant, strictly speaking is going Galt. This is less an act of defiance and more like man being broken by it all. If you listen to the audio, it sounds like a man with a broken heart. The men in Atlas Shurgged who go Galt have a serenity to them. For those familiar with the book, he sounds more like Dan Conway to me.
I wish him the best on whatever he endeavors to do now.
Jun '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
One interesting angle or aside that I did not see mentioned in McElroy's post, but may shed light on the business environment ... Jefferson County, which is home to Birmingham proper (the county seat is in Birmingham), is voting tomorrow to decide whether to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. According to the linked article, it would be the largest in U.S. history, or at least since Orange County, California in 1994.
FWIW.
Sep '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
This story illustrates what I believe to be the biggest (by far) impediment to our economy. It's not credit, it's not lack of demand, it's not too high or too low taxes: no, it's too much government interference in the day to day operations of our business.
The simplest way to spur the economy is to stop government interference. It sure wish the GOP candidates would beat the drum instead of tax cuts.
Jul '11
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I can't say that I'm "going Galt" since I don't own the business I manage, but I've had it with New York City and I'm leaving. I'm getting married next year and my bride and I will be moving to her home state of Montana. What's been said above about the regulatory burden in NYC is all true, but there are other reasons to leave. It's not just that the state is bullying and nannying, it's incompetent unless building more bike lanes or ticketing people who have the temerity to light a cigarette in central park.
There's the constant feeling of being an outsider. If you're not A) the rich or the aspiring rich or B) a government employee or C) part of the underclass or D) a third-world immigrant the city is not for you. I'm no xenophobe and I begrudge nobody his background or desire to better himself, but I'm tired of feeling like a foreigner in my own country. Sure, I'll make less money in Montana, but the children we have will grow up in a better place.
Oct '10
Re: "I'm Just Quitting"
I think Republicans have concentrated too much on big business deregulation (or creating regulations that restrict competition), and especially that odd combination of deregulation in some areas and more regulation in others that made the financial sector so insane.
Maybe we should start advocating for "less regulation for average businessmen" or "less regulations for the average community" or something, and criticize the way "regulations benefit big business and punishes small enterprises and entrepreneurs."
We don't want to be branded the party of corporate welfare--deregulating special interests only, while ignoring the common problems of real entrepreneurs.