The person pulling in $200k+ contributes in ways beyond just taxes. They create jobs at Costco when they purchase their HDTVs. Their McMansions create jobs for builders, etc. and when comepleted for gardeners, etc.
I could argue that the person that makes $200k a year and works until 65 and spends like the Jonses ends up making a larger contribution to society than the person making $200k who LBYMs and retires at 40.
Which is better in the long term? Well that is a different topic!
Let's say the high-stress guy takes his rage out in traffic. He cuts people off, tailgates, lays on the horn, swears, etc. In an average day, he might impact 50 people on the road. Let's say that he gets 5 of those people in a foul mood and causes one of them to start driving like a jerk the rest of the commute home as well. Obviously, this has a cascading effect.
Further, let's say that, because he's so high strung, he has no outlet for his frustration and takes it out on his two boys. Not physical abuse mind you, just emotional belittling. And, since he's working so much, they're neglected. They've got problems at school but all he does is criticise them for bad grades and whining about their problems. Eventually they despair of everything and decide to take out their problems on their school, especially the bullies that picked on them.
The shooting spree makes headlines across the country. 12 students and 3 teachers killed. But, it turns out that one of the teachers, while fatally shot himself, was able to stop the two boys in time before they killed even more people.
Meanwhile, the barrista is always pleasant and engaging with everyone. She connects with her customers on a personal and emotional level. While she might only be in someone's life for a few minutes a day, everyone walks away feeling even more uplifted and engaged.
One of her customers happens to be a Phys Ed teacher who is despondant about life. His wife just left him, his finances are in shambles, and he's thinking he might just skip work to go home and end it all.. run the car in the garage. The barrista picks up on his problems and sits down to talk to him... her simple act of going out of her way gets him out of that funk.
He goes to work at the school that day when two angry young boys come in and start shooting. Putting away any thought for his own safety, he charges after them and manages to wrestle a gun away from one of the boys and shoots them both. He's shot in the process but, as he dies, he knows that he's helped save many others.
So, in this extremely contrived scenario, you could argue that, from a social standpoint, the barrista made the much more positive impact.
In other words, it's probably better to judge people on the moral of their character rather than the size of their paycheck.
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