Libertarian ‘Utopia’ Styled After Ayn Rand Book Spectacularly Falls Apart Almost Immediately

[KamaAina]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/15/libertarian-utopia-styled-after-ayn-rand-book-spectacularly-falls-apart-almost-immediately/

Since writing that, the Galt’s Gulch Chile founders have been engaged in a series of increasingly dramatic legal and personal squabbles. Litigation is being thrown around, as are ad hominem attacks. Nearly all of the anger is directed at Ken Johnson. One former co-owner, Jeff Berwick, who happens to run The Dollar Vigilante website, has called Johnson a sociopath and a fraud. A Facebook community has been established calling itself “Galt’s Gulch Chile Rehab and The Exposing of Ken Johnson” to serve as a support group for other investors who felt they were ripped off.

Meanwhile, Galt’s Gulch owes “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to hardware stores (and) service providers” in Chile for work done in preparation for the community. As the pyramid scheme of investors collapses, it seems likely that those workers – many of them poor laborers from small Chilean towns — will go unpaid. The workers being ripped off by the moochers? How very Randian.

The Grim Reaper lingers nearby. By the end of August, the entire online existence of Galt’s Gulch Chile had been scrubbed from the web. Every promotional YouTube video made to entice suckers freedom-lovers has been taken down. The GGC website comes back with an error message. Ken Johnson is in the wind.

It’s almost as if basing a community around people who hate other people and don’t want to have to pay for any services that don’t directly and concretely benefit themselves is inherently unstable. Who would have thought?

[BillZBubb]

1. Anyone who believes Randian nonsense is an easy mark for a con artist.

[rpannier]

3. Go to the following website and marvel in the comments section

http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2013/5/27/ayn-rands-vision-of-galts-gulch-has-become-reality-as-of-tod.html

It is amusing

We are just announcing our Fractional Ownership Program, which allows those interested in lower price points to purchase 1/4 or 1/2 shares of a lot in GGC. With our pre-sale pricing, this allows you to become a lot owner for slightly over $12,000.

*** Translation: Don't have a lot of money? We'll be happy to bilk the less well-off.

Hi Martie...sorry for the late reply. We've been inundated with inquiries and many other exciting things here.

*** A favorite of grifters and con men. "We are inundated with sooooooo many inquiries." In other words, if you don't act by midnight you'll be left out

[rpannier]

2. Found this on the fraud's website

Dana Nutter • a year ago

Looks nice. Still not in my budget but if/when I get down to Chile again, I'd like to drive by and take a look.

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Ken Johnson Vigilante Dana Nutter • a year ago

We are just announcing our Fractional Ownership Program, which allows those interested in lower price points to purchase 1/4 or 1/2 shares of a lot in GGC. With our pre-sale pricing, this allows you to become a lot owner for slightly over $12,000.


************************
Fractional Growth Program

If that didn't set up flares I don't know what would

http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2013/5/27/ayn-rands-vision-of-galts-gulch-has-become-reality-as-of-tod.html

Many of the questions and answers are funny

like

What happens if the government decides it doesn't like the idea of a freedom-loving community anymore and wants to shut Galt's Gulch down? Or sends armed forces to confiscate the land? Is Chile independent and opposed to the idea of a New World Order and the Federal Reserve Cartel?

or

Wow! I can't WAIT to see all the innovative new technology, art, and philosophy that comes out of Galt's Gulch!

or

We are currently take physical precious metals much above spot price (since metals are being pummeled by the powers that be right now) for lot purchases. It is a very popular option right now. We will have financing in our first phase and second phase releases, which will be in about 60-90 days. In our Founders Club and Pre-Sale Lot program phase we are not offering financing.

or

We have had quite a few inquiries. I apologize noone has contacted you yet.

or

Is one allowed to build there without a license? To the extent of my knowledge, the guild socialism requiring architectural licensing is affiliated with the World Trade Commission (or another international body, I don't remember), and its power is worldwide. I

and so on

[FSogol]

8. LOL: They'll build radically new pit latrines!

"Is one allowed to build there without a license? To the extent of my knowledge, the guild socialism requiring architectural licensing is affiliated with the World Trade Commission (or another international body, I don't remember), and its power is worldwide."

LOL those damn building codes and standards!

[nxylas]

4. Surely nobody could have foreseen etc etc

Who would have thought that a "community" founded by fans of a book entitled The Virtue of Selfishness would be full of people trying to defraud each other?

[ZombieHorde]

5. No way!

You mean to tell me that a bunch of people whose attitude is "my way or the highway" got together to form a little society, and that society didn't turn out very well? How could that be?!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. What's funny is the list of the "Elite" probably includes someone who owns a lumber yard....

You know,....because society would SHUT DOWN without them at the helm.

[Silent3]

7. I feel sorry for the local hardware stores and workers in Chile who are getting cheated...

...but I won't shed the smallest tear for any of the investors in this scheme.

Hell, if I ever gave into the urge to be a con artist, the people who fell for this ugly Randian pipe dream would be exactly the kind of people I'd most enjoy swindling, victims of their own selfishness and greed.

[treestar]

9. The funny thing there is that Ayn Rand

really liked America, at least as it was in the Robber Baron Age. She wouldn't have liked the idea of her paradise being elsewhere.

[JoeyT]

10. It would be hard enough to keep a commune of socialists or liberals going.

I couldn't imagine the amount of uphill battles involved in getting a bunch of people whose entire philosophy is based on selfishness being the greatest virtue of all to work together.

And now our Randian superheroes in all their Galtian glory turn to...the publicly funded courts for remedy from their own stupidity. I hope the workers get paid first, then the companies with contracts/suppliers, then the investors can scrabble among themselves for whatever is left.