Galt's Gultch or Is a Capitalist Utopia just as much a farce as a Socialist Utopia?

[ASH556]

Increasingly I feel like I'm living in an Ayn Rand novel. Competence is punished or at the very least treated the same as incompetence. No individual responsibility anywhere and it is increasingly the duty of the collective to provide for those who "just can't." I'm not talking about the broader and more obvious social welfare example, but even in a building full of engineers in a conservative company, the woke policies increasingly exist.

If a person wanted to just turn their world on its head, quit everything, cut all ties, and start over somewhere, is there a "land of opportunity" left anywhere in the world?

I suppose in some ways the world is what you make of it, but it's also tough to win a rigged game.

Are there any states in the US that remain as the lasting bastion of core American values such as hard work = reward, non-woke, earn it-keep it ideaologies?

[Le Français]

If a person wanted to just turn their world on its head, quit everything, cut all ties, and start over somewhere, is there a "land of opportunity" left anywhere in the world?

Not one without downsides that might make you want to quit a few months or years in.

I suppose in some ways the world is what you make of it […]

I think this is the answer. There’s a lot you can’t control, but you can always choose to be miserable.

[feudist]

Just as communism devolves into oligarchic tyranny, capitalism seeks to become crony-capitalism using the .gov to limit competition. Neither end state rewards thinking and competence, but promotes cunning opportunism and moral vacancy.
We had a very good run due to the isolation of the continent, the brilliance of the founders and a huge amount of resource rich land to expand into. Then came the Great World War of the 20th century where we transitioned into a global empire and again, due to isolation and distance from the destruction, profited immensely from being the only economy left standing.
Now, alas, the Surveillance State built under the Patriot act and the unification of both political parties to themselves and against the people have set us on our on road to an oligarchic tyranny.
As we fall, so falls the world.

[blues]

Just as communism devolves into oligarchic tyranny, capitalism seeks to become crony-capitalism using the .gov to limit competition. Neither end state rewards thinking and competence, but promotes cunning opportunism and moral vacancy.
We had a very good run due to the isolation of the continent, the brilliance of the founders and a huge amount of resource rich land to expand into. Then came the Great World War of the 20th century where we transitioned into a global empire and again, due to isolation and distance from the destruction, profited immensely from being the only economy left standing.
Now, alas, the Surveillance State built under the Patriot act and the unification of both political parties to themselves and against the people have set us on our on road to an oligarchic tyranny.
As we fall, so falls the world.

I don't know if I agree with all of your points...but much of it resonates.

[Tuefelhunden]

I agree but with hold a spark of hope that we can crawl back from the edge.

[0ddl0t]

People are the root of all government failures. Despotism would be ideal if only the despot was perfectly enlightened. Communism would work if everyone always worked in the communial interest (especially the "leaders"). Capitalism is ideal if everyone behaves in their own best *long-term* interest. But people don't behave like perfectly rational economic actors - they have biases and jealousies which pollute their decisions.

Grafton, New Hampshire is often derided as Galt's Gulch and was the subject of the book, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear.

Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, & Utah are probably the most libertarian states, but they all break from libertarianism in various ways. The governor of Utah is actively telling Californians to stop coming - a sentiment I know is felt in Idaho too

[Joe in PNG]

I suspect we're at that point where the Soft Men make the new Hard Times.

[Rick R]

I suspect we're at that point where the Soft they make the new Hard Times.

FIFY

[RevolverRob]

I suspect we're at that point where the Soft Men make the new Hard Times.

Only an existential crisis will correct the current spiraling course. We have arrived and fully embraced crony-capitalism and the decay is beginning to show (the implication is it has been present for decades).

Unfortunately, we beat the existential crisis that I thought would do it (a virus). So, we're left with alien invasion, catastrophic climatic melt down (at a much faster rate than we currently have), or global war that actually hits the homeland.

At this point, I feel like the aliens are smart enough to leave us alone. Climate change, though real, isn't happening at a cataclysmic rate and continued efforts are slowing it down, and since Russia is getting its ass kicked by a bunch of conscripts in the Ukraine and China lacks the air and sea power necessary to mount an invasion of the United States...We're kind of fucked for an even remotely easy reset.

Personally, if the political climate doesn't stabilize and/or improve at any point in the next 15-years, I'm planning to move elsewhere and ride out my days. Where will that be? I'm not telling you guys, you might come and visit.

[0ddl0t]

Only an existential crisis will correct the current spiraling course. We have arrived and fully embraced crony-capitalism and the decay is beginning to show (the implication is it has been present for decades).

We were founded by smugglers and slave holders so crony capitalism is hardly new.

One of President Carter's greatest successes was in deregulating the airline & trucking industries. He did so from a liberal perspective because he

—and other leading progressives at the time such as Ralph Nader—understood the Golden Rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules. Regulation frequently, if not always, benefits big businesses who can help shape it at the expense of small businesses and most importantly, consumers.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/art...t-deregulator/