TO SHRUG - AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE FOR AN INDIVIDUALIST

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MasterSamWise
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TO SHRUG - AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE FOR AN INDIVIDUALIST

Post by MasterSamWise » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:50 pm

TO SHRUG - AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE FOR AN INDIVIDUALIST




* Underlying Philosophy
* Historical Precedent
* Implementation of Shrugging
* A Different World-View
* Escape from the moneylenders
* A suitable dwelling
* Lifetime supplies
* Income reduction
* Occupation
* Security
* The Moral is the Practical
* Recommendations






Throughout all my writings, I use the word "Shrug" (always capitalized)
to designate a certain activity. That activity is described precisely in the
book ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand.
This essay is a consideration of some aspects of that activity. If you
have not read ATLAS SHRUGGED, you will probably find this essay to be
somewhat obscure.


* Underlying Philosophy
All civilization rests upon the productive achievement of creative
individuals. Without that productivity, the amenities of civilization would
be little, if anything, more than a cave, a bearskin and a chunk of raw
meat. Observe that totalitarianism is not creative. A Sherman Tank is not a
tool of construction, nor is the revolver on a policeman's hip an instrument
of productivity. A totalitarian regime can exist only if it is able to to
obtain economic support from the productive members of society. Without that
support the regime will collapse or dissipate, as there is no other means of
maintaining its economic existence. The evil is that which is destructive
and life negating. The good is that which is productive and life sustaining.
Evil is impotent - literally impotent - in a very fundamental way. The only
power evil has is the power it gets, one way or another, from the good.
Consider any evil action which you can conceive of, and take a real hard and
deep look at it. What were the means by which that action was perpetrated?
What is the basis (particularly the economic basis) upon which the
perpetration rests? If you look far enough into the matter, you will find
that somewhere, sometime, something good must have happened before this evil
could have come into being. To take only one example (but a rather blatant
one): A thief cannot steal from me that which I do not possess. His act of
theft presupposes my act of producing that which he would steal. If someone
has not produced it, he cannot steal it. It is only my sanction that gives
him his power. Without my good, he is impotent. Without me, he can not even
exist. This is true not only of the simple act of theft but of ALL acts of
evil, no matter how complex they may be in their insidious manifestations,
and no matter where or how they occur - materially, intellectually or
spiritually. As you can see, this is the basic theme of ATLAS SHRUGGED.
All that is required for the defeat of evil is that good men stop their
unwitting support of it.
A productive person who uses his creative energies in support of
totalitarianism is acting according to an irrational morality - he is
providing sustenance for an evil that tends to destroy him. The remedy is to
STOP SUPPORTING THE EVIL THAT AFFLICTS YOU. The functioning of your mind -
the creative application of your intelligence - is something that is
entirely under your personal control. Most things you own can be forcibly
removed from your possession. The one thing that cannot is your creative
ability. This cannot be touched without your sanction. The guns of a
dictator, though they may destroy you, cannot compel you to think (Thoreau
and Gandhi taught us this). It is simply not possible to enslave a free
mind. Your body can be enslaved regardless of your personal choices, but the
creative power of your mind can be manifest only if you choose to express
it.


* Historical Precedent
The idea of Shrugging was not unique to Rand. Its advocates include such
other illustrious names as Thoreau, Lane, and Ghandi.
Thoreau: "It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote
himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may
still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at
least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not
to give it practically his support.... Cast your whole vote, not a strip of
paper merely, but your whole influence."
In 1943 Rose Wilder Lane implemented yet another exercise in subversion,
which was an attempt to reduce her income below taxable levels. It was
merely the next logical step in her exercise in self-sufficiency combined
with political resistance.
Ghandi's policy of satyagraha can be viewed as an "activist" expression
of Shrugging.
Judge Learned Hand (1934): "Any one may so arrange his affairs that his
taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern
which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to
increase one's taxes."


* Implementation of Shrugging
On dealing with the immorality of government, here are five courses of
action to consider:
1) Refuse to engage in any implementation of your personal creative
ability which benefits the State. Take your brains off the statist
marketplace. Act so that only those who add to your life, not those who
devour it, comprise your creativity marketplace. Do not abandon creative
productivity, merely deny it to all who advocate statism. Reserve your
achievements for yourself and those who will join you in the endeavor to
build a sane and sensible world. This is the main ingredient of Shrugging.
As Robert Ringer observed: "I am in favor of complete freedom of trade
between companies and people throughout the world, but not under the
umbrella of political partnerships between governments." Thus my attitude is
that I will use my creative abilities on behalf of people who are STRIVING
to act outside the authority of government, but I will not permit government
to benefit from their use - either directly or indirectly. I will not use my
abilities in any way that requires a tax to be paid, and I will not help
other people to pay or to collect a tax.
2) Arrange your circumstances so that the State benefits as little as
possible from whatever sort of menial work you do.
3) Propagate the philosophy of libertarianism. Make these ideas known to
others who are seeking a means to combat totalitarianism.
4) Actively oppose the State in a political manner.
5) Contribute in a positive way to the establishment of a new
civilization. Establish for yourself a lifestyle which will demonstrate that
rationally moral behavior is in fact eminently practical in one's personal
life.


* A Different World-View
Ayn Rand never advocated Shrugging (in fact, she was firmly opposed to
the action) so there has never been any discussion of the nitty-gritty
aspects of "how to do it." Nobody told me what to do after I Shrugged. I had
to figure it out for myself. Most of my life's work since I Shrugged has
been devoted to finding how to live an economically comfortable and secure
existence while denying the State any benefit from my creative ability. The
result of this has been the implementation of a lifestyle that maximizes my
standard of living while minimizing my exposure to the oppressive elements
of society.
I have been disappointed with most other libertarians because they
manifest very little of any practical use - because they seem to want only
to TALK rather than really DO anything to achieve freedom. To object
verbally while non-violently submitting to (and economically supporting) an
aggression is the behavior of a hypocrite whose talk and actions are
diametrically opposed. My own goal has always been to eschew collective
activities in favor of better ideas to apply to individual life, firmly
believing that society will not be changed by people hollering and shouting
in and about nation-wide mass movements, but will be changed only by people
who choose to alter their own personal lives to live in accordance with a
rational morality.
If there is ever to be a society of free men, there must first be free
men to comprise that society. Assembling them into a society would be an
interesting proposition, but the act of becoming free is the individual's
self-responsibility, not mine.
I believe the best path to a free society is not via the alteration of
government, but its abolition. Although I am in sympathy with those
libertarians who seek freedom by means of social reform, my own primary
focus is on the achievement of individual liberty and economic self-
betterment. I am not concerned with getting other people to adopt
Objectivism, but rather in reaping the rewards of living an Objectivist life
myself. I think it unfortunate that other people do not accept this kind of
life, but I do not consider it my job to induce them to practice good health
- either physical, mental, economic or social health. I think also that it
is rather a waste of time to try to do so - after all, the Libertarian Party
has been at work since 1972, but still gets only about 1% of the votes. And
too, it is over a third of a century since the publication of ATLAS
SHRUGGED. Those mature adults who are intellectually self-responsible will
have learned by now of the existence of the Objectivist philosophy. I have
neither hope for nor interest in the others. If the vast majority choose to
be fools, I can say only "Let them live with the consequences of their
foolishness."
Most people who ask the question "Is there any hope for saving society?"
will settle only for an answer that by its nature would enable one
individual to make singlehandedly a mammoth immediate alteration in the
situation. This, of course, is impossible. Sadly, the fact that one
individual alone cannot put a complete end to an evil is often used as an
excuse and justification for accepting and supporting the evil. While
realism tells me that I cannot fix all the problems of the world, my
idealism tells me that my inability to do so does not preclude me from
addressing those individual imperfections that I CAN affect. I view the
situation, and my approach to it, as a physician would view a society
suffering under a catastrophic epidemic. He would not sit back, wringing his
hands in dismay, lamenting the fact that he alone could not produce an
immediate and total cure for the epidemic. What he WOULD do is simply pick
up his little black bag and commence to treat as many afflicted individuals
as he possibly could. I believe society is suffering from a disastrous
epidemic of irrational morality, and that the remedy lies in the practice of
a rational morality by each individual - especially by a certain type of
individual: those capable of a high degree of productive achievement. (For a
much more comprehensive treatement of this phenomenon, see THE AYN RAND
LETTER, 3Jan72.)
While you are trudging through the world with your little black bag, keep
in mind that the difference you make can be negative (by withdrawing your
contribution) as well as positive.

At an early age I started developing a world-view that can see outside
the normal American lifestyle. I was in my early 20s when I went shopping
for a house in the suburbs. I looked at a couple houses, noted the prices,
and learned about financing arrangements. At this point I paused and the
mathematical wheels in the back of my brain cranked round a couple times. I
said "Hey! over the course of a 15-year mortgage I will be paying almost
TWICE the purchase price of this house! I'm not gonna do that!" The real-
estate agent just gave me a funny look (I've been getting that funny look
all my life) and terminated his presentation. And I began thinking about
alternative lifestyles.
It didn't take me long to discover that there are also other people
interested in alternative lifestyles - and not much longer to learn that by
and large they are a bunch of losers. They don't drop out to find a better
life; they drop out because they can't cope with the life they have. The few
exceptions to this are those who drop out because of their environmental
concern. A laudable motive, but these people throw the baby of technology
out with the bathwater of pollution by renouncing any use of civilized
technology in the primitive lifestyles they establish. People interested in
a "natural" lifestyle seem to have no concern at all for any of the
technological prerequisites of a decently civilized life. Many appear to see
not much further than grubbing for roots and cooking over an open wood fire.
Even Thoreau did a lot better than that! Our conflicting motives and
disparate goals precluded much collaboration at all between myself and these
people.
I think the best of the lot that I encountered was the Back-To-The-Land
SIG in Mensa, but even they were a considerable disappointment to me, their
primary focus of attention being the collecting of recipes on how to prepare
natural foods. I wasn't interested in learning 47 different ways to cook
organic turnips. My concern was "What am I gonna cook them WITH?" I was also
surprised at how very few of them actually had any genuine intention of
converting their daydreams into real life. They were almost all city
dwellers who had no notion of any practical procedures for getting Back To
The Land, and no genuine motivation to find or create such procedures.
I had a philosophical motivation (based on my decision to Shrug) and also
the economic motivation that I described above: I was strongly opposed to
spending the major part of my life supporting the moneylenders.


* Escape from the moneylenders
The first element of my economic strategy was to escape from the
moneylenders.
When most folks begin their working life they immediately start making
payments on a car, paying off a mortgage (or paying rent, which is probably
worse in the long run), and in other ways making long-term committments to
moneylenders. They get economically locked-in to this syndrome and then find
themselves in a situation which is very difficult, if not impossible, to
break out of. They HAVE to live where and how they do, in order to keep
making payments so that they can continue to live where and how they do. I
call this the "white collar squalor" syndrome. You GOTTA stop paying other
people for the use of their property (rent) or the use of their money
(interest). If you're not accumulating wealth, you're dissipating your life.
The procedure for breaking free of the moneylenders would be quite
different for people whose financial situations were different. One man
might need to scrimp and save for a long time, whereas another might only
need to divert immediately available resources from one area to another. But
unless you can get out of this "white collar squalor" syndrome you will
never be truly free.


* A suitable dwelling
"To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, but so to
love wisdom as to live according to its dictates....The philosopher is in
advance of his age even in the outward form of his life. He is not fed,
sheltered, clothed, warmed, like his contemporaries. How can a man be a
philosopher and not maintain his vital heat by better methods than other
men?" .... Thoreau

The biggest expense most people have is the cost of their housing, so I
gave a lot of thought to what kind of dwelling would be suitable to the
lifestyle I wanted.
I had no intention of giving up the comforts of a civilized life,
especially since my philosophical principles require no such sacrifice. It
is not at all necessary to settle for what Rand described as Galt's dingy
little quarters:
"a long, bare garret with a bed in one corner and a gas stove in another,
a few pieces of wooden furniture, naked boards stressing the length of the
floor, a single lamp burning on a desk.... the wooden rafters of his
ceiling.... the cracked plaster of his walls, the iron posts of his bed."
Extending the idea of "escape from the moneylenders" to include escape
from other institutions that have economic control over everyday life (the
foremost among them being the utility power companies), I concluded that
what would be appropriate to my goals would be an inexpensive, energy-
independent, mobile dwelling possessing the comforts of modern technology.
I considered living in a motor home, but I quickly discovered that motor
homes and travel trailers are NOT designed for permanent residence, and are
even less than not designed for living in a cold climate, [I went to college
to learn how to write like this?] and are certainly not energy-independent,
or even energy-efficient. I wanted a home that would be inexpensive to
construct and maintain, be mobile, and still have all the amenities of a
civilized existence. So I decided to create one myself. I began by doing
renovations of vehicles - converting them into little "rolling homes." I
gradually figured out how to use my knowledge of physics and engineering to
convert an old van, truck or bus into a very nice little house - an
inexpensive, energy-independent, non-polluting, transportable dwelling - for
a whole lot less money than the cost of a new house, or even the cost of a
new motor home. After building several such dwellings - and living in one of
them myself for a few years - I came to realize the truth of Thoreau's
observation:
"Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are
actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they
must have such a one as their neighbors have."
Either as a permanent alternative to a fixed-box type dwelling, or as a
temporary transition between the city rat-race and a rural existence in the
country, a motor home can offer an inexpensive and comfortable lifestyle.
As a transition device, a motor home offers the city-dweller the means by
which he can get out of the city in whatever spare time he has (weekends,
vacations, holidays) and travel about in the country seeking land and
housing suitable to his desired rural lifestyle. If he does find land
without a dwelling on it, he will have a temporary living arrangement after
he has left the city and is building his permanent home on the land.
It is an excellent way to test your ideas about independent living: you
load up your motor home and trundle up into the mountains. Find a nice,
secluded place and live there for a few months, making a list of all the
things you discover that you don't have and all the things you can't do.
Then you trundle back down into civilization again and start crossing things
off that list. When the list is gone, you are ready to live an independent
life. I want to stress the importance of DOing it experimentally before you
make a full committment. The actuality is never just what you expect it to
be.
As a permanent residence, I think this sort of home is a wonderful way to
beat the housing racket with its multi-kilobuck lifetime mortgages for
shoddily constructed boxes with built-in and almost irrevocable dependence
on the energy companies. A nice little home can be built in an old school
bus for a modest amount of money and, if carefully done up, will keep you
cozy and warm in the coldest climates (I have lived quite comfortably
through 20 Wyoming winters).
It's amazing what living in a Rolling Home does for your economic
situation. Gone are the mortgage payments. Gone are the rent payments. Gone
are most all of the utility bills (a small house takes much less energy to
heat, and if, like me, you don't drive it too much, gas is a small expense).
Gone are the huge tax bills laid on a stationary house. Sure, there are
still some living expenses but they are a tiny portion of the expenses
associated with a "regular" house. I can live on a MUCH smaller income than
I needed before.
And then, of course, there are all the benefits of mobility. If I don't
like it here I can always fire up this old clunker and trundle off down the
road, seeking warmer climes, more congenial neighbors, or even just a
different view from my window.

Some comments on technology: many people seeking an alternative lifestyle
reject technology. I think this is a mistake. I have a very high regard for
technology - insofar as it is the practical application of human
intelligence and creativity to the problems of living a SANE and SENSIBLE
life in the environment of this planet. What I greatly object to, however,
is the use of technology in irrationally insane manners that inhibit decent
human life and contribute to the destruction of earth's environment. The big
difference between me and many other environmentally concerned people is
that unlike them, I do not advocate the destruction of a pricelessly
valuable tool (technology) just because it is being used by some vicious
people for improper purposes. (Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!)
So I integrated two usually disparate ideas - a profound love for the
ecology and an equally great respect and admiration for technology - and
thereby established a style of life that incorporates all the stated
objectives of the most enthusiastic environmentalist with all the comforts
and conveniences available from modern technology.
I worked on the technological problems of self-sufficient living for many
years, concentrating on the use of solar energy as the primary source of
household power, and I found that a motor home - or a trailer house - makes
a splendid dwelling if it has been designed and constructed to be energy-
efficient (very well insulated) and frugal in its use of heat, water, and
electricity. The operating expenses of such a home can easily be reduced to
a few hundred dollars per year (assuming it stays parked in one place).

The lifestyle I have developed consists of more than just an unusual
dwelling; it is a comprehensive set of practices that have led me to
substantial economic success while reducing the extent to which I am
victimized by the government. Through the practice of this lifestyle, I have
lowered my living expenses to not much more than what I spend in the
supermarket, and an income of less than $200 per month (in 1994) can support
me very comfortably indeed. I have a higher standard of living than anyone
else I know, but my income is so small that I pay no income tax.


* Lifetime supplies
After I had reduced my housing expenses to just about nil, I had all that
"mortgage money" to spend on other things - and I soon found a lot of other
things to spend it on. As I observed in Chapter 4, there is a critically
important distinction between being rich and being wealthy. One of the most
economically successful things I have ever done was to implement that
distinction in my personal life. Whenever possible, I have opted to acquire
merchandise rather than money - or to turn my money into merchandise.
See reference
It really doesn't take much money (or much storage volume) to acquire a
lifetime supply of X. For X, just substitute anything that you need to live
comfortably and that can be stored away indefinitely. Socks, for example. If
you have a few dozen pairs of socks in the back of your closet, then you
don't have to be at all concerned that the price of socks is increasing
continually - or that those socks may vanish off the marketplace entirely.
Recently I took a brand new pair of trousers out of my storage trunk. While
I was ripping off all the tags I noticed the price tag attached to the
waistband. I thought it might be interesting to see how much the price had
risen since I bought them, so I stopped in at the store where I had
purchased them seven years ago, and was told: "Oh, those pants aren't being
made anymore - they're no longer available!" I'm sure the lady thought I was
completely crazy, because I burst out laughing.
If you save dollars, the government simply eats them up via its inflation
of the money supply. But if you convert those dollars into books, tools,
clothes, or even just cans of beans, then you beat that inflation. The
government will eat your dollars, but YOU will eat your beans!


* Income reduction
The best way to gain economic freedom is to cut expenses. People who
squander their prime years on excessive work to pay unnecessary expenses,
and then spend the remainder of their lives working just to stay sheltered
and fed, can't enjoy much freedom.
As part of her exercise in subversion, in 1943 Rose Wilder Lane began an
attempt to reduce her income below taxable levels. My own implementation of
this has been a great success. As of 1992, the base (federal) taxable level
of income in the USA is above $5000 per year. This represents over twice the
amount necessary for me to live comfortably. For the final 14 years of my
working life I worked two 8-hour shifts per week at or near the minimum wage
(as dishwasher/janitor in local restaurants). My standard of living rose
continually during that time, mainly because almost the entirety of my
income was "disposable income." I had followed Ms Lane's example and reduced
my living expenses to just about nil.
My standard of living has been rising continually since 1975, when I had
fully implemented my lifestyle. Whether I consider the amount of material
wealth that I possess or the amount of leisure time available to me or the
amount of time I must devote to earning my living or the amount of economic
security I have. In all these respects I am better off now than I have been
at any previous time of my life.
An interesting thing about all this is that I believe ANYBODY could do
what I have done. Anybody in America could work 10 years at minimum wage and
then retire for life. As screwed up as it is, this is still the richest
society the world has ever seen.


* Occupation
After I had thought about Atlas Shrugged for a while, I realized that
Shrugging is appropriate not just to someone at or near Galt's level of
productive capability, but to anyone who is concerned with the ethical
propriety of his life. I believe that even though there are immense
differences between Galt and a track walker, they are differences in
quantity, not in quality. Thus Mr. Walker may well have just as legitimate a
concern for the ethical nature of his behavior as Galt has for his. When I
contemplated the question "If Galt steps down to the level of the track
walker, what would the track walker step down to?" I identified this as the
essense of Shrugging: do not pay tax on your creative ability. I believe
that EVERY person has some creative capacity, and that the proper way to
respond to government is to deny it the benefit of that creativity.
"Physical labor as such can extend no further than the range of the
moment. The man who does no more than physical labor, consumes the material
value-equivalent of his own contribution to the process of production, and
leaves no further value...." Rand
Consider that it is not just taxation per se that supports
totalitarianism, but the exploitation of productive achievement. No
government could survive merely by taxing ditch diggers, track walkers and
dishwashers. These people do not create civilization (although I readily
admit that they do help maintain it); civilization is created by those whose
productivity generates the need for ditch diggers, track walkers and
dishwashers. The taxes imposed on a dishwasher will not support a
totalitarian state, simply because the dishwasher does not generate wealth.
He merely manipulates the wealth generated by someone who is functioning at
a considerably higher level of productivity. If this "someone" were to stop
generating wealth, eventually there would be nothing for the totalitarian
State to tax - and it would perish. If you wish to strike at the State then
strike at its root - deprive it of its economic foundation. The functioning
of your mind - the creative application of your intelligence - is something
that is entirely under your personal control. The guns of a dictator, though
they may destroy you, cannot compel you to think.


* Security
There are three major aspects to my security.
The first is that my house is both mobile and energy-independent. Even
though I have not moved my little house in over ten years, I could readily
do so if the need ever arose. Since my domestic utilities are almost
entirely solar-powered, I am not dependent on outside hookups. I do not have
blackouts or brownouts; I am not subject to power rationing, and they can't
raise my rates!
The second element of my security is that I have provided for my future
in ways that are linked as little as possible to money. I own my home, and
it is quite capable of housing me for the rest of my life. Thus I will never
have to worry about getting money in order to provide myself with shelter. I
have sufficient clothing and other household goods on hand to keep me
comfortable for longer than I expect to live. Unless all this property is
physically destroyed, I will never have to obtain money to replace any of
it. I have, in my parlance, "pushed self-sufficiency all the way to the
bananas." All the way to those things that I cannot provide for myself
and/or cannot lay up a lifetime supply of (such as bananas). I am as
unaffected as I can be by the government's continual destruction of the
American economy.
The third element of my security is that my philosophy, and and the fact
that I actually LIVE by it, are so unthinkable to stateolatrists that I am
essentially invisible to them. I call this the "Thompson Invisibility
Syndrome" (see ATLAS SHRUGGED Part3 Chap8). This syndrome is their response
to someone who is so far removed from their frame of reference that they
literally cannot perceive him as a genuine philosophical entity. They can
ignore me, or they can ridicule me, but they CANNOT take me seriously. Rand
was quite wrong about the need for secrecy: their ignorance and self-
blindedness are my shield. My knowledge is their weakness.


* The Moral is the Practical
Before Ayn Rand, there was a perceived dichotomy between being good and
being practical. This put morality in a dilemma because "how should I act?"
rested on two antipathetic goals: to be "moral," or to be "practical." It
was thought that to flourish you needed to be immoral to some extent, and
that the actions which make you moral inhibit flourishing. Now that Rand has
given us the basic science of a rational morality, the pretext for thinking
this has been eradicated.
Objectivism is not a mere philosophical assertion, but a living, concrete
procedure by which a rational individual can learn the laws of the universe
and implement them in his personal life. It is, as Rand observed: "A
Philosophy for Living on Earth." This living, concrete picture is itself
profoundly convincing: the observation of my personal life has produced
conversions and induced a commitment to the idea of rationality in other
people. As this conversion and commitment spread to more and more people, it
will, hopefully, become a movement, adherence to which will distinguish one
as enlightened, and ignorance or denial of which will mark one as
intellectually retarded or superstitious. Those who reject Objectivism are
akin to those who renounce computers, thus depriving themselves of
humanity's most powerful instrument of literacy. Both groups are doomed to a
stunted level of intellectual capability. People who ignore Objectivism are
simply going to become irrelevant and, eventually, extinct. People who
accept and use it are, like me, going to prosper.
Whether you are a rocket scientist today or a hunter-gatherer of 25,000
years ago, the extent of your failure to live by rational principles is
reflected in the extent of your failure to flourish. The more you use your
mind properly, the more you'll flourish - succeed at survival. As the
economy of America becomes more and more fouled up by government, those
people who can bypass their dependence on this economy can function more
efficiently, but those who continue to live within the mainstream will have
their economic efficiency diminished by a parasitical government.
"You have been using fear as your weapon and have been bringing death to
man as his punishment for rejecting your morality. We offer him life as his
reward for accepting ours." John Galt

Nothing encourages ethical practices so well as a practical, profitable
alternative to evil. We can't make people want to be poor. If we want to
clean up the Earth and establish a free society, we'll have to show people a
way to be wealthy without harming the environment or depending on the State.
Not only must we demonstrate how to live well, we must show how to make a
profit. As one investor remarked: "As soon as the environmental sector
starts producing profits, we'll start investing."
A lifestyle should be adopted on the same basis as the advocacy of an
environmental issue: If you object to pollution, the first thing for you to
do is to stop your own polluting behavior. If you advocate the conservation
of some natural resource, the first thing for you to do is to diminish your
own consumption of that resource. And if you want to contest the tyrannical
system you must reject tyranny in your own personal lifestyle.

I have proved in my own life that he who actually lives by the morality
of Objectivism can thereby have a HIGHER standard of living than the large
majority of people in America, who are hobbled ethically and economically by
circumscribing their lives within the authoritarian frame of reference, and
that the adoption of such a lifestyle is much less expensive and much more
technologically feasible than most people surmise. Amidst a population of
individuals employing one strategy, I employ a different strategy which has
a higher payoff.
As Rand repeatedly asserted, "the moral IS the practical."
And I can look into a mirror and know that I did not work all my life to
help make possible the burning of babies in Philadelphia and Waco. Can you
say the same?


* Recommendations
Keep in mind that Shrugging doesn't have to be one big jump - it can be
done in stepdowns, thus avoiding traumatic shock to your present lifestyle.
I believe the best way to go about implementing the lifestyle I have
described would be to start by buying a pickup truck as your first (or next)
vehicle.
When you are financially ready to do so, buy a camper to put onto the
truck - or a small trailer to pull behind it.
Spend weekends, vacations, and as much time as you can living in this
thing. This will prepare you for later full-time residence, and teach you
what domestic facilities you should modify or add in order to create a
satisfactory situation.
If you are the adventurous type and want to skip this intermediate
preparatory step, then buy a large gooseneck trailer-house. You might want
to consider buying a gooseneck flat-bed trailer and building your own house
on it.
I have lived for over 20 years in a 30-foot school bus and find this
plenty large enough for one person (and three cats) to live in.
If I were to do it over again, I would opt for a truck/trailer
combination, as that makes for more transportation convenience. When you
want to stay parked in one place for any length of time, it is convenient to
just detach the truck for your occasional trips to town. (I use a bicycle.)

Once your little house is fully prepared, take the next big step by
moving permanently into it. At this point your economic situation should
take a big leap upward as you begin to reap the benefits of the
rent/mortgage money that you no longer have to pay out.
Two things you should consider doing with that money are stocking up with
supplies of merchandise (such as the socks I mentioned above) and investing
in a pension for your future years. It shouldn't take much to convince you
that the government's Social Security scheme is of dubious value. There are
other ways in which you can provide for your future. The best I ever found
is:
Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association
College Retirement Equities Fund
730 Third Ave New York City 10017 Phone: (800) 226-0147
To initiate your participation in TIAA-CREF it is not necessary that you
be a teacher. It is only necessary that you be employed, in any capacity, by
one of the many educational institutions that comprise the Association. Once
you have become a participant, you remain so for life regardless of your
subsequent employment.
During the late 1960s I invested several thousand dollars into this
scheme. That money was put into a wide array of commercial and industrial
enterprises (not into government bonds!). Today, about thirty years later, I
can begin drawing an annual pension that will pay me, each year for the rest
of my life, an amount of money greater than the sum total that I invested so
long ago.

Keep this in mind when you are considering investments: The crazy thing
about investing is that there's really no such thing as absolutely bad news.
Whether an event is good or bad depends on where you've got your money.

When you have got yourself set up in your new lifestyle you can begin to
think about changing over from full-time work to part-time work. For the
final 14 years of my working life I worked only part-time (as a dishwasher
and janitor). I usually worked one or two days a week - and had a five- or
six-day "weekend."
This free time enabled me to pursue my education to an extent that never
would have been available to me if I had been working full-time all my life.
I went into full retirement at the age of 48, and have been living quite
comfortably ever since.
We create our own reality

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