Atlas WILL Shrug, Mr. President....

ABC News is running a poll, with a self-rightous sneer:

Lawyers, dentists and entrepreneurs are among some high-earning professionals brainstorming ways to decrease their pay to dodge a proposed tax increase on incomes over $250,000.

Is it fair for people to reduce high salaries to sidestep President Obama's tax proposal?

-No. The rich have had too many tax breaks. They should be ashamed for finagling the system.
-No. I have to pay high taxes and so should that high-income bracket. They can afford it.
-Yes. I also would find ways to decrease my salary to avoid taxes.
-Yes. Why should ordinary folks, even those making $250K, pay when big corporations get bailed out.

So now we are enslaving high earners. Should they choose not to work to their fullest capacity, they are now "dodgers" who are "finagling "the system. Our need for their talents and wealth is a greater moral value, apparently, to chose to work or not to work as they see fit.

They get it over at Pursuing Holiness. We see the perfect rationale for Ayn Rand's "strike of the mind" - a strike of the productive, of the talented, of the most useful people (as opposed to the most neediest) in society:

As the natural consequences of these disastrous polices - foreign policy based on magical thinking, energy policy designed to increase costs and cause shortages, economic policy that has already stolen big chunks out of people’s retirement funds by sending the stock market back to Clinton administration levels, with no floor in sight - the country is going to suffer. I welcome that, to the extent necessary to cause people to re-think their attitudes and comprehend the results of their entitlement mentality.

By going John Galt - reducing my income to the point that I no longer subsidize anyone else via government imposed wealth transfers - I hope to hasten the inevitable collapse. The H.E.N.R.Y.’s feel the same way; people who are in the dreaded eeevil, mean capitalist pig $250,000 bracket are cutting back on their productivity. As they should - where does society get the right to enslave these people? The faster the 40% opts out, the sooner the collapse, and the sooner we can correct the situation.

Who is John Galt?

The world is about to find out....