Who Is John Galt?
In the event you don't know me very well, I am a big reader. I read in the order of 2-3 books per week. My absolute favorites are Navy Seal stories from the Seals themselves (but I also like Army Rangers, Regular Army, anything with some good truth, some good action, and with something to say - there are many). I also read a lot of religious books (hundreds in fact).
Every once in a while I come across a book that changes things for me, something that has so much to say, that I feel like others really need to hear the story.
Who Is John Galt?
If you have seen the movie(s) and you found them to not be very good, you are not alone. I thought they sucked, but I read the book Atlas Shrugged first and it blows away the movies. Written in 1957 by Ayn Rand, the book's popularity has increased greatly over the past few years. She wrote it originally as an extension of her philosophies on man laid out in The Fountainhead. Ayn Rand considers the essence and strength of man and mankind to supersede that of other religions. Her religion is that of being the best man you can be, overcoming obstacles, and prevailing. Let the strongest, toughest, and most capable survive and thrive. This is a very condensed version of what she said and others have said about her writings.
However, she also produced one of the scarier prophesies that I have ever seen (and yes I have read Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.). Somehow the words that Ayn used predicted where our country is heading. Somehow she so accurately portrays the progressive movement it is truly scary. So accurate in fact that one of her "fictional" government departments she created was actually put into place by the current administration (or did the administration read the book, get something totally different out of it, and honor her by using her committee name - I doubt it).
Anyone who has read this far in this article is likely in industry, and probably heavy industry. Business owners in this segment work their tails off to run a company, hire people, service their customers, pay their bills, and pay their exorbitant taxes. The money makers of this world absolutely carry the burden of those that either cannot or will not carry their own weight.
Our government keeps adding weight to that burden. In the story Atlas Shrugged, the heads of industry pack up and head to a secret society in Colorado. In real life, these people took their manufacturing operations to China, Vietnam, Pakistan, etc to escape the moochers (progressives). Our heads of industry have not gone in to full hiding as in the book, but they have gone, in so many instances…
"They are taking all of our jobs." -- B.S. "They" are doing the jobs you will not do.
"It's not fair." = B.S. This is the United States of American, and we are all given the same opportunity to advance our lives. If you don’t like it, change it. If you don't like your socioeconomic status, do something to improve your circumstance. Quit just putting your hand out for more giveaways and government assistance.
"Not in my backyard" - we don't want heavy industry here because it is hot, dirty, stinky. Whatever. All we have done as a nation is run off the CREATION OF WEALTH. How can you make more jobs if there is nothing to make? How many hamburgers can be flipped? How many dry cleaners do we need? What happened to digging wealth out of the ground (coal, clay, gold, iron, crops) and turning it in to wealth (energy, ceramic proppant, gold, steel, food). Too long have we allowed the wealth to be made somewhere else. If we want to create jobs, wealth must be made by our hands, with our resources (which are plentiful), with our people (in my opinion this includes the large number of visiting laborers from Mexico, Cuba, Africa, etc.). We have to let business, manufacturing, mining etc return to our nation so that wealth can be made here. Just ask England how well their economy has been doing over the last 20 years as they quit manufacturing and quit working their own plants.
As far as progressives, please get out of my pocket. People like me work hard every day to make money. How is it you feel you have the right to get in my pocket to take 40-50% of my earnings. Why don't you try getting some of your own earnings and see if you will so freely legislate to take what others make.
Well, that was a bit of a rant but at least you know where I stand.
Lee White
President
Del Sol Industrial Services, Inc.