individuals collectively going galt

the problem with leaders is, they're easy to pick off (a.k.a assassinate, if only the character type). imo, the latest move in gold is a collective vote of no confidence in our current system of government and banking. i think we will see more like this. uncle joe will buy an extra weeks worth of food ... just in case there's a run. aunt mary will spend another few minutes chatting up the neighbor about tea party or libertarian candidates. your buddy dave will start fixing cars on the weekend and accept any kind of barter item instead of putting in extra hours at his 9 to 5. your friend sherry will start a pre-school where each parent spends a day teaching - and it will morph into a private school. Occasionally the "authorities" will find out, and some will feign ignorance, but it will become more and more obvious that the probability of getting caught and punished is a good trade-off for the profit of working outside the system. and as more defect, the easier it will be to defect. and then maybe, finally, i'll sack up and defect