In 1957 Ayn Rand published a book called "Atlas Shrugged". The basic premise of the book is what happens to the world when the Prime Movers go on strike.

The book is set in a socialist America and the prime movers are the top managers, businessmen, entrepreneurs, inventors, etc. In short the top people in all the various fields in the private sector. Her story shows the slow motion collapse of the economy and of society itself, and the desperate, futile efforts of the socialist government to turn things around after the work stoppage by the prime movers.

We have a similar situation in Saskatchewan. Although our prime movers have not done anything as simplistic as going on strike, they have done what any rational human being would do. They have acted in their own best interest to maximize the gain from their effort. In evaluating the situation, many of the top income earners of Saskatchewan have decided that acting in their own best interest includes leaving the province. According to a study by the Royal Bank of Canada, between 1991 and 1996 Saskatchewan had the highest net inter-provincial outflow (-5.2 per cent) of individuals declaring annual incomes above $50,000 (as a share of total higher income earners).(1)  I have seen nothing that would show this trend has reversed itself. But they are not the only ones leaving, according to StatsCanada between 1996 and 2001, a total of 67,500 people moved out of Saskatchewan, while 42,600 moved in. This net loss of 24,900 people, which represented 2.7% of Saskatchewan's population aged five years and over, was much higher than the level of 19,800 during the previous five-year period. Most of these people moved to free enterprise, privatized Alberta. (2) I suspect that these people who left were not the least capable of our citizens.

Like the book, we who are left are beginning to see the results of this exodus, this "shrugging off of socialism". Our provincial economy is frozen while others move ahead. We face more business killing rules and regulations. Environmentalism slowly chokes our farms and ranches. Extremely high taxes of all stripes rob us of the capital needed to invest in and grow our businesses. The socialists answers to this is to subsidize their favorites, to regulate more, to socialize ever greater parts of the economy and to keep claiming that things will turn around.

A few years ago when the socialist government could not afford to run the number of hospitals that we had in the province, their solution was not to privatize, it was to close 53 hospitals with no discernible improvement to our healthcare system. When our secondary roads wear out, what is their solution? Is it to privatize or contract out? No, they declare that we have too many paved roads and start to turn them back into gravel roads.

The socialists don’t seem to be able to connect the exodus of our best and brightest and our economic problems with their socialist actions.

The solution to our problems is to rid ourselves of socialism. To allow people to keep their earnings. To spend and invest those earnings as they see fit. To end government welfare for both people and businesses, to encourage people to support themselves and to add to overall production, rather than subtracting from it. To get businesses to produce for the market, to satisfy the consumers not the government. To deregulate the economy so we can spend our time producing rather than filling out government paperwork. This will increase the wealth producing capacity of the province, and will improve everyone’s standard of living.

If this is not done soon, we will be witnesses to the demise of our province. The best and brightest will continue to leave. The ones who are left will face ever higher taxes in one form or another to support the ever growing population of nonproducing people and businesses. Our medical industry will continue its collapse. Our road system will continue to fall apart. Our government owned socialized education system will continue to do a poor job of educating our children. Our wonderful crown corporations will continue to be inflexible, bureaucratic and unresponsive monopolies giving ten-cent service for ten-dollar prices, in spite of the best efforts of their employees. Private businesses and capital will continue to avoid Saskatchewan except in situations where they are bribed by our government and the deal is so blatantly favorable to them that it is inexcusable, and it is not free enterprise but is crony capitalism.

On an individual level this will mean a much lower standard of living. Less money to ensure our children get a decent education despite the poor school system. It means even longer and more dangerous waiting lists in the medical industry. It means driving cheaper and older cars, not being able to afford that winter holiday. It means not having a good pension or perhaps being forced to work past your planned retirement date. It means not being able to do the things that you want to do, no matter how hard you worked and saved. It means someone else benefits from your labor without your consent.

This is the future that was seen by all those who left and this is a burden they are unwilling to bear, so, they shrugged.