Dateline: Tirana, Albania
“Going Galt” is the idea of basing one’s life on the philosophy of John Galt, the fictional character from Ayn Rand’s classic, “Atlas Shrugged”. In the book, Galt is forced to either join a union, or quit his job.
Galt not only quits, but then forms an underground movement to inspire the “best and brightest” to exit the corrupt society that is stealing their life’s value.
Whether you live in The Land of the Free or elsewhere, you are experiencing corruption on a regular basis.
Some examples I and many others I know have had to deal in terms of foolish, value-stealing corruption:
- Bureaucratic nazi-style regimes like the State of California literally robbing people right from their bank accounts, no trial and no accountability needed
- $555 traffic tickets for such crimes as running red lights. Can’t pay? Too bad. Your license will be taken away and your life will be out of your control.
- ”Exit tax” as you leave one country to head to another. This is just a shake-down in full effect. And you could pay extra if you commit such heinous crimes like “overstaying your visa”
- Rising property extortion (taxes). Texas has no state income tax, but isn’t it peculiar how the property taxes keep inching up?
- In a form of blatant, in-your-face corruption, the city council of Austin, Texas has been keeping the popular ridesharing apps such as Lyft and Uber, illegal. These self-proclaimed “city leaders” decided it would be a good idea to not allow people to voluntarily pay for rides from drivers who work for these services, because they are “unlicensed”. As soon as the word “unlicensed” is used, start following the money! Taxis have unions, unions bribe the city council, and a wonderful technology is squashed, along with people’s demands and a ton of jobs that would have been created.
- Unfunded liabilities, aka saddling debt onto children and grandchildren.Corruption is rampant. Why not go Galt and stop feeding the beast?The argument for going Galt being immoral is this:“If you’re not paying taxes, you’re not paying your fair share. Therefore, you are a freeloader. You can always move to Somalia!”Let’s break this down, piece by piece.
What are taxes?
Let’s first define theft…
The act of taking property or money belonging to another, by force, stealth, or coercion without that persons freely given consent.
Now, what is the dictionary definition of a tax? Tax: a financial charge imposed upon a person or group, by the government, to fund the government and its programs, which is enforced by threat of punishment under the law.
So a tax is a financial charge imposed by punishment.
Taxes, therefore, are simply taking money from people against their will.
Is it moral to pay into the system, given the circumstances? In other words, if you are forced to pay somebody some money with only a vague idea of what they will do with it, does that make you a man or woman of morals? Well, to answer that, we must understand what morals are.
Since theft does not fit into any definition of morals, we can safely say that it is not moral to pay taxes. “But what about the children?”
Even if we could show that some of this stolen loot is doing good things in the world, it still wouldn’t hold up under the morality test.
If someone stole all your money and then said he was going to donate it all to a wonderful charity, is it then okay that he stole it in the first place?
Do the ends justify the means?
Getting back to going Galt, there is a better argument to be made that the only moral thing to do is to go Galt.
This way, you are not agreeing to being stolen from, you are not agreeing to fund the killing of innocent people in foreign lands, and you are not part of the problem of living under tyranny and sitting idly by as your freedoms and your money get washed away.
So how does one go about “Going Galt” without living below the poverty line?”
“Going Galt” can mean different things to different people. Some will say it’s making less than what the government says is taxable. Others will move money into assets like gold and bitcoin to avoid inflation.
And many will do what they can to not get dinged by sales tax. All of these are at worst amoral, and all of them are legal.
So what is the most effective, 2014 way to “Go Galt”?
1. Open an offshore bank account
The money-grabbers in the USSA are the most dangerous kind of sociopath when it comes to parting you from your wealth. Offshore bank accounts are one way to make sure that your wealth is not being controlled by federal or local governments.Go Galt where ever you want to go. Live your own life and carve out your freedom. Designing your life means not being forced to live in one geographical area forever just because you were born there. As I travel through Albania in Eastern Europe, I’m living my dream, seeking out investments and updating my website on the fly. This is the ultimate way to achieve what John Galt wanted- to not be subject to the whims of political and corporate leaders, but to instead create prosperity on your own terms.
3. Expatriation
Are you aware that as an American, you are forced to continue paying taxes to your “home” country, even if you’ve been gone for 10 years? Expatriating can help you avoid this kind of nonsense, and keep more of your own money while exploring the world as a non-tax payer- legally.This doesn’t mean leaving the US forever, you can always come back as a tourist and get a different perspective of the land of the free! The more I am away from that country, however, the more I find that staying away means more freedom, not less.
By going Galt, you not only do not have to worry about breaking some moral code, but you can do so these days and with the help of places like nomadcapitalist.com, it becomes not only unnecessary, but foolish to take a vow of poverty in doing so.
