For those of you unfamiliar with this literary masterpeice, the planet Golgafrincham was doomed due to, depending on who you listened to, a gigantic swarm of twelve foot piranha bees, or an enormous mutant star goat, but it was definitely doomed. Three Ark Ships were ‘launched’ into space to found a new planet. Ship A was to contain all the great scientists, leaders and artists, and ship C was to contain “all the people who do the actual work”. Ship B – launched first! – contained the middlemen, including telephone sanitizers, hairdressers, advertising account executives and, one presumes, hedge fund managers. (Likely most academics, too, I’d reckon.) Curiously, though, Ships A and B didn’t ever actually leave the ‘doomed’ planet.

Eventually, Ship B found its way to the Earth. We know that it must have contained at least some financial sector workers, because within a few months of the Ship’s arrival on Earth, leaves had been established as the currency, causing rather serious inflation, and requiring, in order to restore price stability, that all forests be burned down. (Adams pins the blame for this on a bunch of management consultants, but I think we know better.)

So to the Ayn Rand afficionados out there: Guys! Get out of the US while you can! A moderate increase in tax rates on people who are in the top 1% of income earners presages the Coming of the Great White Hankie! You can only survive with your dignity, nay your very souls intact, by taking the radical action of establishing a new civilisation, an Eden, your own Galt’s Gulch! You go on first. Your lead will totally make the rest of us see that you were right, and we’ll surely end up following on right behind you!

(Note to self: make sure the telephone santisers don’t leave, though! Remember the fate of the other two thirds of the Golgafrincham population.)