While it may be overly simplistic to divide people into the producers (of profits) and the non-producers, there is still something to it. And there is something to it psychologically too, because the non-producers often carry a small secret uncomfortable feeling about being more directly dependent on the effort and profit of others to produce the $ to cover their paychecks.
The creation of wealth is a kind of magic from which everyone benefits. I am sick of the CEO-bashing and business-bashing and bashing of commerce. The Left acts according to the foolish and economically moronic illusion that wealth (and poverty) are static, and operate on a zero-sum basis. That's what "Gimme yours" comes from.
When I think of producers and wealth-producers, I do not think of Ayn Rand's heroic industrialists, nor do I think of Wall Street deal-makers, bond salesmen, or money-managers. Those are a tiny number. No, I think of people like the alligator farmer they had on Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. I think of people like Sippican, who creates value out of a chunk of wood. I think of the high school drop-out who buys a gas station, adds a mini-mart, and ends up owning three of them and employing 40 people. I think of my gunsmith and his two younger apprentices who will probably buy the business from him someday. I think of a guy who buys an old building and fixes it up. I think of the gal who trained my hunting dogs. I think of my carpenter, who keeps my house from falling down. I think of the dairy farmer who uses some of our land for his yearlings. I think of our groom, a legal Mexican immigrant who built a grooming business and now has 12 grooms working for him - and now two blacksmiths too: he says he's too busy running things to do our grooming anymore. I think of Synthstuff with his general store. I think of the NYC bridge-painting contractor I met on a hunting trip who started out as a union apprentice. All independent, proud creators of value and wealth - out of thin air, sweat, hard work, and knowledge.
Those are the folks who pay all of the taxes, create the jobs, and make the donations. That is the beating commercial heart of America where anybody who wants to can still build a business and make money if that is what they want to do. Everything else depends on that and those folks, from government to churches to museums to opera houses to universities and every other non-profit, to bridges and airports and conservation and medical research. We should all be grateful to them for what they do instead of joining the silly few who look down their noses on commerce - while feeding off its magic.
