Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Class Divide: Producers

Among the three groups I am discussing, there is one that I hold no contempt for, but some sympathy.  This group is the producer class and they are a rapidly dwindling class in the United States.

The producers are people who view their own rational self-interest above the needs of others and seek to fulfill them on their own terms without committing crimes against their fellow men.  In essence, they work for what they have and they do seek to take or beg from others.  If they reach a limitation, they will either seek to overcome it, find a way around it, or simply accept it and move on.  They will not complain about it, demand compensation because of it, or blame others for it.

However, even the producers can be driven to their limits and can move to one of the other classes on occasion.  Even if we divide people into the various classes that I am describing, people can still move from one class to another.  Of the three classes, the producer class is the one that is highly volatile and a person can easily be a producer one day and a moocher the next.  It is very difficult for a moocher or a looter to become a producer, the former because he is addicted to his own victimhood or entitlement, the latter because he is addicted to his own power.

The producers need not be producing something of monetary value to be a producer.  A housewife, for example, produces no tangible monetary value but does provide a service to her husband that is nearly priceless.  And yet the housewife is a producer as long as she is a housewife voluntarily and strives to keep the home in order.

A producer need not be some corporate head.  A producer can easily be a worker who is employed by another producer.  Again, it all has to do with the attitude.  A producer’s attitude toward his employment is that the job he has is not his job, but his employer’s job.  He tends to view that job as a contract between him and his employer where he does a task over a specified amount of time in exchange for some monetary benefit.

Remember, these class divides have nothing to do with economic status, but with attitudes toward other people.  A producer will not demand anything from anyone else, unless such a thing is due to him because of an agreement of some kind or a crime perpetrated against him.

The producers, however, tend to have a fatal flaw that often times brings about their own complacence and, sometimes, ultimate downfall.  They tend to buy into the rhetoric of the moochers and the looters and this often causes them to behave in a manner that is detrimental to their own well-being.  They will feel sorry for the moochers, because they do have sob stories to tell, and as such will be accepting of their fate of having to pay for them.  Often times, this is facilitated by the looters, as will be described in a later post.

The moment that the producers overlook their own rational self-interest in favor of others, they begin the process of unraveling the benefits of their work and attitudes.  This begins a great unraveling of society and the more parasitic elements begin to take control.  However, unlike most good parasites who understand that the host needs to live, these have little regard for others and somehow lack the sense to see the damage they are doing.

In the United States, the productive class has been marginalized, its voice is not heard largely because the producers are out producing.  Politicians will only listen to those who vote and the moocher class also happens to be the largest group of voters in this country.  As such, the State ceases to look out for the interests of the producers and instead looks out for the needs of the producers.  And this is when the third class comes into play.