Preface

I wrote most of this book in the summer of 2005 after receiving the latest increase in my family’s health insurance premiums. My frame of mind became more and more one of a besieged patriot, a man who pays his taxes on time, takes no questionable deductions, and returns the excess change when a high school kid counts it out wrong, but who is also involuntarily financing waste nationwide. Perhaps this book is my way of “going Postal.”

These ideas have been percolating in my head for years. Talking with friends over dinner, I find they have the same problems with our society. Most of the people that my wife, Kathryn, and I know are producers, people who make or produce something for a living. One fellow makes night vision goggles. A couple of ladies and a fellow we know are schoolteachers. Another man installs heating and air conditioning systems. A good friend runs a tool distributorship. These people work hard for a living and earn every dollar they make, even the ones the government takes away by force.

There is among the producers I know a collective sense of resigned acquiescence to the situation in our country, where economic producers are carrying millions of other people who are in middle management, or do no work at all. Can’t we do something now, today, in our towns and offices, without having to elect or reelect or amend or impeach? We producers produce everything, from the computer chip to the ‘tater chip. Are we this powerless?

I say NO. We must act, act today, act tomorrow, and act continuously. This book tells how.

Who am I to write this book? I am a producer, and I can take raw materials from the hardware store and Radio Shack and make cool products that you want to buy. I can fill a blank sheet of paper with a design never before conceived in the history of the universe. I can build it and make it work. And I can fix it when you break it!

My producer readers are likewise quite capable. My neighbor is a poet. Another neighbor paints the most amazing watercolors. A farmer up the road has a residential housing design business in town. A friend up north designs guitars for a famous company. I work with a batch of engineers and computer people who do amazing things with technology. America is full of great producers with great ideas and big spirit.

As I explore these issues, it may seem to you that I am bitter or angry. There may be some of that nibbling at the edges of my mind, but I refuse to be overwhelmed by it, demoralized and turned into a droid, servicing those in society who cannot produce or refuse to work. I, for my part, will not be depressed, dejected or denuded of my dignity. Apathy is as cold as death and I reject it as a coping mechanism. Life for me and my family is good in the main, because of the hard work my wife and I do, and that observation is not just self hypnosis or the power of positive thinking. These health insurance premiums and societal parasites seeking a portion of my produce are not the end of the world, but a mess that deserves to be cleaned up nonetheless. Hope is not lost, mainly because of you.

This book is for producers. As you read, please picture me smiling at you, not frowning. Hear my voice as wry, but not cynical. Our future is bright as producers, and we will accomplish that future by the sweat of our brow, the light in our eyes, and investing the wealth we have earned, not the diminishing of others.

As a parting comment, I must confess a love for my favorite author, C. S. Lewis. Several of his quotations are sprinkled throughout. You will find them of value, even if you cannot wade through the deep reasoning in his full works. His wit is bright and productive and applicable, and I hope you are blessed by his wisdom.