Sleep well.

Evidence?

Q: So, you have a blog, Mrs. Reynolds. What are your interests?

A: I like to talk about stuff on the internet!

As for Atlas Shrugged, I could write a lengthy comment about the genuinely important ideas expressed in that book. Ayn Rand was somehow able to condense all that into an 1100-page novel about animated stick figures, and I suppose she ought to be commended for getting to the end of it. As one who has made that trudge, I’d say it’s like running a marathon over high hurdles on ten-foot stilts, through a gauntlet of air horns blowing at random.

Seriously, though: there really are people out there who spend their workdays thoughtfully arranging for the production of real wealth. They don’t know or care about Reynolds or Rand or “going Galt”, and they don’t chatter or preen on the internet. They do privately complain about the uselessness of producing anything when they can neither reinvest capital nor take profit without various governments crunching down on them. Then they quietly lay off employees, trim sail on their little shops and factories, and take afternoons off.

Thirty-some years ago I had enough saved to coast for a few months without working, and eventually managed to start collecting unemployment. But then my father needed me to help bail out his bankrupt business, and before I knew it eleven years had passed, there were five patents with my name on them, my father was dead, and none of my siblings owned houses. My brother and I started another company, and eleven years later I had another five patents, all my siblings had houses, and I could finally give myself over to the indolence for which I’ve always exhibited a pronounced aptitude.

It’s true that the world has gone to hell since I quit, but I’m fairly confident that it’s not my fault.

DN

But actually I realize, on reflection, that I have been going Galt for decades. Had it not been for crippling progressive taxation I would be an absolute captain of industry by now.

“Well,” she continues, “if you have a heart surgeon it’s not really a good use of society’s resources to have him mowing a lawn. That’s not what he’s best at.”

Weren’t these supposed to be the people who didn’t believe in society?

Then McArdle answers critics who say Europeans at least have more free time: “That’s true, but in fact they spend an enormous amount of their leisure doing stuff that Americans pay for. Like they paint their own houses and mow their own lawns and they do all of these things themselves.” Quel horreur! Fancy McArdle painting anything when she could be doing economics. “Well,” she continues, “if you have a heart surgeon it’s not really a good use of society’s resources to have him mowing a lawn. That’s not what he’s best at.” So, comrade enjoys puttering around the house, eh? The Central Committee has spoken—you and your wife get back to the work you do best; we’ll send a trained baby sitter to watch your kids.

but which token is which?

is the title parsed like
“striking gits”, i.e. “tools-down!” tools, where the pejorative is the second token,
or like “gits go on strike”, i.e. tools put down their tools, where it’s the first token?

please record your unreflective first parsing with your comment.