Thanks, I agree with you here. The clears up some of the message, although I don't think it always gets interpreted that way. Too many times I hear this logic used to argue against social programs. That fact is many of those programs are there to keep important producers, such as the janitor, from falling into the gutter. Too often, the small percentage of real "leeches" are used to justify the suffering of many hard working "producers" who benefit from societal structure. Not accusing you, but why so often is this arguement twisted into something against progressive taxation. Many people give the same effort towards society with vastly different rewards; those who are priveledged enough to be rewarded more for their work, don't necessarily deserve it, as they have taken more from society and hence it would be appropriate that they pay more in taxes in order to return at least some of the balance. If it it were perfectly balanced we would be a communist nation, but instead most progressive taxation systems still work to reward those who take in wealth for themselves; this is necessary or there would be no personal incentive to work hard. We can't count on everyone to just work entirely for the good of society, but at some level we must all partake in this responsibility or we are either nuetral or worse,"leeches". O
Overall it seems as if a "producer" would be anyone who has gives a net positive contribution to society. If a hard working janitor did nothing but work and get paid, he should likely be considered a strong producer, even without doing anything more for society, while some CEO who makes a billion dollars in a year, could easily be considered a leech, even after they've taken 450,000 of his "earnings" out for taxation. I'm not trying to trash the wealthy either, many rich people are aware of their good fortune and do there best to contribute to society in a number of philanthropic ways. Despite this, many are not.
Even worse are the bulk of us who have really worked hard to the point where we've gone from the strong producing janitor to a moderately weathly, borderline leech. For years we've slaved, with little reward, to get where we are and we feel entitled to rest a while. To some degree being overrewarded for when you were under rewarded prior to that point makes sense, but 5 years of hard work doesn't justify a lifetime of leechhood. At some point we all need to give back to the society that gaves us the opportunity to create our own wealth. This is hard for most people, as everyone feels they earned in their own right what they have, but in reality everything an individual has was given by society, and without returning anything you become a leech. You're either on one side of the fence or the other, and it is the placement of that fence which is constantly at the heart of the heated discussion.