Who does Sean Hannity think he's hurting when he threatens to quit working?

The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state. - Adam Smith, Of Taxes, Wealth of Nations (pg. 498)

Please, proceed Sean. By all means, Go Galt. Go... Leave...

Sean Hannity recently conducted an interview with Nice Polite Republican Lincoln Chafee after the Democratic Debate. During the interview, Hannity and Chafee spared over raising taxes. As the back-and-forth continued about taxes Hannity, in a petulant fit, fished around in his pants, took out a wad of cash, and threw it in the air exclaiming, "Hang on. Hang on. I’ll give it to the government, hand it over. Why should I work?"

It's the last rhetorical question by Hannity that caught my attention. Exactly, what "work" does Sean Hannity do that's so indespensible? Does Sean believe that if he was to Shrug and Go Galt his radio show and tv hour would be replaced with naught but static? That no one else can do what he does?

Sean Hannity is One in a Million, by which I mean there are a million other conservatives eager to step into his spot as a loud-mouthed, know-nothing, conservative blowhard.

I don't judge a person's worth by their working utility, that's Hannity's and a Right-Wing metric. But, by his own standard Sean Hannity is worthless.

Ah, but to the Vulture Capitalists who employ him, Sean Hannity is a jewel, a rare treasure. You see Sean Hannity is paid vast sums of money to convince poor conservatives to support policies which demonstrably hurt them and the rest of the 99%. Sean Hannity is the Mouth of Sauron for the Plutocracy. His "work" is to pass on the Idealogy of the Wealthy and get the poor to accept it.

As Paulo Freire noted in Pedagogy of the Oppressed,

The dominant elites, on the other hand, can - and do -think without the people - although they do not permit themselves the luxury of failing to think about the people in order to know them better and thus dominant them more efficiently. Consequently, any apparent dialogue or communication between the elites and the masses is really the depositing of "communiques," whose contents are intended to exercise a domesticating influence. (pg. 112)

When Sean Hannity speaks or when erstwhile Catholic Brian Kilmeade attacks the Pope and says the Pope "should go home" because "he's in the wrong country" and declares "America is Capitalist", or when Stuart Varney with his affected RP accent declares "the Poor lack a richness of spirit" they and every other right-wing loudmouth is passing along the agenda of the Rich.

None, of the Faux News talkers or Conservative Internet bloggers could survive actually working real jobs, it's why they are so rabid in their defense of Capitalism. Without being paid to "catapult the propaganda" the Right-Wing Internet fart bubble would burst and those conservatives paid handsomely to sit on their expansive derrieres and expound on the beauty of Capitalism, would starve because, without food stamps, none of them could earn enough doing actual labor to eat.

Gonna Go Galt

"It seems to me that one of the predictors of a happy versus an unhappy outcome, has to do with the role of the elite or the decision makers or the politicians, or the rich people within the society. If the society is structured so that the decision makers themselves suffer from the consequences of their decisions, then they are motivated to make decisions that are good for the whole of society. If the decision makers can make decisions that insulate themselves from the rest of society then they are likely to make decisions that are bad for the rest of society." - Jared Diamond, Interview with PBS 02/12/2009.

All the people talking about "Going Galt" do just that they talk, pout and throw tantrums but they never, ever leave. So, ruck up and leave already. Go... Go... Go... However, remember to bring some long underwear when you make your "Capitalist" Wunderland in the Colorado Rockies, because none of you has the comic book abilities of a John Galt.

None of those threatening to leave are the mythical supermen producers of Atlas Shrugged they are the parasites. The bankers, the high priced lawyers, the lobbyists, the brokers, the bureacrats, the Jim Cramer short-selling paper shufflers, who demanded deregulation in order to bilk trillions out of the US and then when everything crumbled wanted a bailout.

And society won't miss your sorry ass. The niches you currently exploit will quickly, readily and easily be exploited by someone else.

Of course the parasitic plutocrats never leave because it's a hollow threat, a childish temper tantrum in order to get more billions from the government. So go on and hold your breath until you get your way because we all know you wouldn't last a month away from civilization.

Update 03/12/09
John Amato at Crooks and Liars highlights Stephen Colbert's Galt Exodus.