Book Review: Going Galt - Surviving Economic Armageddon

By Timothy Gamble

Daxton Brown's addition to preparedness literature is Going Galt: Surviving Economic Armageddon. I've owned this book for a couple of years and refer to it often. Mr. Brown has an interesting spin with his preparedness point of view, which he describes on the back cover of his book as follows:

"The United States of America is now bankrupt. It does not matter which political party will be in power over the next decades, the over-hang of $100 Trillion in unfunded liabilities from the local to Federal level, plus a hollow banking system, means there is no way to tax ourselves enough, or even cut spending enough, to have any chance to grow our way out of our problems.

What this means is that the productive elements of society will at some point go on strike, whether by choice or because they are forced to pack up their bags and hide. From Ayn Rand's famous novel Atlas Shrugged, comes the phrase "Who Is John Galt". Galt is the character who epitomizes the productive entrepreneur so fed up with the restrictions of the bureaucrats and corporatists that he decides to start a revolt of society's creators. In our current financial dilemma, Rand's theme has lead to the suggestion that productive citizens may only be able to survive by "Going Galt" and dropping out.

But how does one survive if one drops out of society, even for a short period? That's what this book is about, how to survive the upcoming economic collapse everyone knows is coming. What this book is not is anti-government, or anti-tax, or an anarchist cookbook, those are armchair discussions for the idle class. What "Going Galt" is about is surviving No Matter What Happens."

I agree with Mr. Brown's assessment of the current situation and the inevitability of extreme financial problems and possible economic and political collapse in the future. (There eventually will be a reckoning over our massive national debt.)  I also add additional concerns over the general loss of freedoms  and privacy.

Going Galt is not a bushcraft or wilderness survival book (although some of the information is applicable to wilderness survival). Nor is it a homesteading guide (although a lot of the information is applicable to homesteading). Instead, I would classify it as a financial survival guide for the middle class - which means, among other things, becoming more self-reliant, learning useful skills, stocking up on food and supplies, raising part of your own food, and maybe even bugging out if necessary. 

Mr. Brown does give us some theory as to what to expect from the coming economic armageddon, how it will change our lives, and why we might be forced to "go Galt" and drop out of the current system. However, most of the book is filled with practical information, and lots of details & lists on HOW we can survive an extremely difficult financial future.

The over-sized book contains 34 chapters and 346 pages. In order to give you an idea of the range of topics covered, here is the Table of Contents:

1. Economic Armageddon
2. How Life Will Change
3. Money in a Collapsing Society
4. Financial Survival
5. Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate
6. Employment
7. What To Prepare For?
8. Survival Priorities
9. Four Day Survival Kit
10. Exposure
11. Emergency Shelter
12. Water Treatment and Storage
13. Emergency Sanitation
14. Store Food or Starve
15. Meals Ready To Eat
16. Storage Containers
17. Gardening
18. Storage Space
19. Health, Fitness & Hygiene
20. Basic First Aid
21. CPR
22. Survival Fire Safety
23. Terrorist Attack
24. Urban Survival
25. Bugging Out
26. Sarajevo War Experience
27. Post Katrina Disaster Survival
28. Defensive Weapons
29. Transportation and Mobile Shelter
30. Clothing
31. Fuels for Heating and Cooking
32. Emergency Lighting
33. Electrical Power
34. Master Preparedness List

I especially like the way Daxton Brown breaks things down into very complete lists. But he goes beyond just making lists, explaining the lists and the items on them in a way that is missing from many other prepping books.

If you are looking for a good, fairly complete, "How To" guide for prepping, especially for economic disaster, Going Galt is an excellent choice. Click here to find Going Galt on Amazon. 

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