Chapter 10: Producers in Action

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
…
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
Dance… I hope you dance

          -- Lee Ann Womack, “I Hope You Dance”

I have concentrated thus far on Paraducers and their drag on society and its Producers. Quite depressing. Quite maddening. I sincerely hope that it weighs on you heavily. Bill Clinton told us that he feels our pain, but the person who really needs to feel your pain is you. Government bites a chunk out of your check, but you don’t even look at the stub! Feel that pain.

Let’s look at Producers now (that’s you) and see what you can do to awaken and fight this blight.

A Producer is motivated by his or her desire to build a life of value and meaning. All that money we strive for, it’s no good in itself, but only valuable for the things it buys, such as leisure time or travel, or an education for our children. It’s not about the money, it’s about the free range to let your mind and body grow and become better.

The Consumers won’t understand “building a life of value and meaning”, preferring instead a life of comfort, and the Paraducers will understand only at the most basic level. You Producers know exactly what I mean, but you are frustrated in achieving this goal. Why?

Is it because you don’t work hard enough? Or don’t have the right job? Or didn’t have the proper major in college? No!

Your inability to control your life down to the last penny is due to society’s control over your life as it milks you not of that penny, but of dollars, and a lot of them.

For example, take taxation. Whether we are talking flat tax, fair tax, income tax, or value added tax, it is not the losers in life who are paying, it is you. You are the Producer and you are financing the roads, schools, airports, and Middle East congressional junkets. You. It’s all about you because the people who cannot make money themselves know where the money is, in your pocket.

Taxes are inevitable, are simply a way we work together for the common good, and that’s fine with me and I suppose you as well. But the founding fathers railed against “taxation without representation,” and that’s what we have today. The representation we have in Congress is so pathetic that it may as well be a sitcom. “And now, from Hollywood, the Robert Byrd Show (studio audience goes wild).”

I’m reminded of the constituent of a US Senator and presidential candidate who wrote the candidate about his opposition to a particular war. The candidate wrote back that he was also opposed to the war. A couple weeks later, the same constituent wrote the candidate again that he was in favor of the war, and the candidate replied that he, too, was in favor of the war. Pathetic. That Senator should seek a patent on his method of representing every last constituent perfectly, even when their views clash!

Even though there is a representative elected and presumably serving, that does not mean that we are being represented. We are being taxed without proper representation. Have you heard this one?

What do you call someone who wastes his own money? Fool.

What do you call someone who wastes someone else’s money? Congressman.

You, Producer, are being punitively taxed with absolutely zero say in the matter. What little say you are told you have near election time by the Paraducer media is cancelled out by other voters who know that the wealth in this country comes from you, and they want it.

We have discussed health care costs. You have no control over those at present, either. Doctors and hospitals dictate prices and react aghast when you demand a price quote. Never done that? You should try it for fun. Imagine a Producer who does not know the price of his product or service. Wait! He’s called doctor.

Perhaps you have company health insurance through your employer. Don’t think you are safe. With the aging population, insurers and health care companies are using that as an excuse to raise prices on all health care Consumers. Your fraction of the premiums will rise much faster than their risk of insuring you, and you have no control over it.

Yes, you are the unwilling financier of our system of Consumers and Paraducers. Your middle class pay for first class performance ensures that you will be working to age 70 just to pay the bills.

Counting on Social Security? Well, don’t. The money is gone. There is no account containing the money you have paid into Social Security. None. Curious how that happened, and how you are not going to be able to afford to retire, and how you will have to continue producing as you age, supporting everyone else.

Does this realization just suck the life out of you? That’s the idea. No better result for them than for you to be demoralized like a union member, but without the union to back you up.

The way the system is structured now, your main motivation, to control and benefit from your own existence, is in danger.