is convenience a thing? is knowledge employed to provide a service a thing?
i submit that your definition of what constitutes value is
somewhat simplistic.
If i show them that leads invariably to differentiation between those who make things and those who do not make things, that sticks the store keepers and coupon clippers over into the non producer categories.
My position is that in a highly complex economy you cannot draw such distinctions over time in any meaningful way. Today's worker was yesterday's child, and will be tomorrow's retiree. Could be the coupon clipper is like Mitt Romney ~ he got his education and then gave away his inheritance and went about creating his own fortune ~ probably in the context of interminable meetings with others of his kind, and maybe even doing a little walking around the sites of investment acquisition targets ~ hardly manual labor ~ if you catch my drift.
Guy's never had a job! That's where you are something other than the boss BTW. So where does he really belong ~ is it with the producers or the non producers, the takers or the givers? What about now that he's retired from 'active management' (an oxymoron if we've ever seen one eh).
What you need to do is come up with a far different dichotomy so that you don't find yourself telling elderly disabled retirees they are all white trash ~ jus' gotta' do better than that.