# you are a good person

Sep 2, 2025

In my previous post, I advocate turning against the unproductive. Whenever you decide to turn against a group, it’s very important to prevent purity spirals. There needs to be a bright line that doesn’t move.

Here is that line.

You should be, on net, producing more than you are consuming.

You shouldn’t feel bad if you are producing less than you could be.
You shouldn’t feel bad if others are producing more.
You shouldn’t feel bad if you are living off of savings for a bit.
You shouldn’t feel bad if you are making an investment that will pay off in the future.

But at the end of your life, total it all up. You should have produced more than you consumed. That’s what it means to be a good person.

> We used to make shit in this country, build shit.
> Now all we do is put our hand in the next guy’s pocket.
> Frank Sobotka – The Wire

It needs to stop. I have to believe that the average person is net positive, because if they aren’t, we’re already too far gone, and any prospect of a democracy is over.

But if we aren’t too far gone, we have to stop the hemorrhaging. The unproductive rich are in cahoots with the unproductive poor to take from you.

And it’s really the unproductive rich that are the problem. They loudly frame helping the unproductive as a moral issue for helping the poor because they know deep down they are unproductive losers. But they aren’t beyond saving. They just need to make different choices.

This cultural change starts with you. Private equity, market manipulators, real estate, sales, lawyers, lobbyists. This is no longer okay. You know the type of person I’m talking about.

Let’s elevate farmers, engineers, manufacturing, miners, construction, food prep, delivery, operations. Jobs that produce value that you can point to.

There’s a role for everyone in society. From productive billionaires to the fry cook at McDonalds. They are both good people. But negative sum jobs need to no longer be socially okay. The days of living off the work of everyone else are over. We live in a society.

You have to produce more than you consume.