On Tax Day, What if Atlas Shrugged?

[Ed Hudgins]

On Tax Day, What if Atlas Shrugged?
By Edward Hudgins

April 15, 2016 -- On Tax Day in the United States, productive individuals are punished for being productive, even as their tormentors demand that they produce even more for those tormentors to take.

And during this election year, Democrat candidates especially trip over each other with their class warfare rhetoric. They promise their supporters they will “redistribute” to them more out of the pockets of the productive, even as they try to guilt-trip producers into acquiescing in their own despoilment.

You’d think this description of the facts alone would cause any morally decent person to feel shame for buying into such rhetoric and to shun politicians who stoop to it. It says something about those who applaud Sanders and his ilk. Perhaps another way to shake at least some in the Bernie brigade out of their ignorant slumbers is to offer them another perspective.

If there were no Atlases

In her novel Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand spun out a story of a world in which the most productive individuals began to disappear. So ask, what would happen if those who create wealth in our world today and are the targets of the purveyors of class hatred simply shrug?

The top 1% who are demonized by Sanders pay in 40% of all income tax revenue. The top 10% pay in 70% of income tax revenue. What would happen if they simply stopped producing, simply retired, went off to live in the Cayman Islands, whatever? Whose pockets would the politicians pick? Where would they find the $900 billion that they could no longer redistribute? All that nasty Bernie rhetoric would not produce one loaf of bread, and all his supporters would be left with nothing but bile in their empty bellies... (Continue reading here.)

[BaalChatzaf]

1 hour ago, Ed Hudgins said:

On Tax Day, What if Atlas Shrugged?
By Edward Hudgins

April 15, 2016 -- On Tax Day in the United States, productive individuals are punished for being productive, even as their tormentors demand that they produce even more for those tormentors to take.

And during this election year, Democrat candidates especially trip over each other with their class warfare rhetoric. They promise their supporters they will “redistribute” to them more out of the pockets of the productive, even as they try to guilt-trip producers into acquiescing in their own despoilment.

You’d think this description of the facts alone would cause any morally decent person to feel shame for buying into such rhetoric and to shun politicians who stoop to it. It says something about those who applaud Sanders and his ilk. Perhaps another way to shake at least some in the Bernie brigade out of their ignorant slumbers is to offer them another perspective.

If there were no Atlases

In her novel Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand spun out a story of a world in which the most productive individuals began to disappear. So ask, what would happen if those who create wealth in our world today and are the targets of the purveyors of class hatred simply shrug?

The top 1% who are demonized by Sanders pay in 40% of all income tax revenue. The top 10% pay in 70% of income tax revenue. What would happen if they simply stopped producing, simply retired, went off to live in the Cayman Islands, whatever? Whose pockets would the politicians pick? Where would they find the $900 billion that they could no longer redistribute? All that nasty Bernie rhetoric would not produce one loaf of bread, and all his supporters would be left with nothing but bile in their empty bellies... (Continue reading here.)

If ten thousand top notch individuals  took off for Galt's Gulch there would be hundreds of thousands  ready and willing to take their place.  The Randian strike idea  simply does not have traction, based on fact.  From an emotional point of view  it is a winning idea.  Too bad it will not work.