The political rhetoric for the 2004 presidential election year is heating up, and I'm afraid that entrepreneurs are key targets in the campaign.

Of course entrepreneurs are not referred to specifically. Rather, they are called "the rich." They are also referred to as "the evil people who have lobbied the current administration into giving them enormous tax cuts."

If political parties want "the rich" - whoever they are - to pay more taxes, fine. Pass legislation and have them pay more taxes. Just don't demonize them or suggest that they are not doing their fair share.

Of course not all rich people are entrepreneurs, but the overwhelming majority of them are. In a recent Forbes magazine list of 552 billionaires, 326 are self-made.

Because they are going to be targets this year - as they are every election year - I would like to say something in defense of the largest block of "the rich" entrepreneurs.

It was not so long ago that entrepreneurs were hailed as the crown jewels of the American economy. They helped the United States become the world's most productive economy. With less than 5 percent of the world's population, Americans produce almost a third of the world's revenues. Americans are rich because Americans are so productive.

I understand that Bill Gates has created thousands of millionaires from the workers who helped build Microsoft. Other entrepreneurs have created thousands of millionaires as they earned their fortunes.

Business people are being attacked because they are not hiring as much as the politicians would like and may be shifting jobs overseas. They are characterized in cartoons as fat old men in suits smoking cigars. But don't let the cartoons fool you. The majority of entrepreneurs are hardworking slacks-and-shirts kinds of men and women.

I believe Americans are productive because enterprising entrepreneurs have led the "creative destruction" to replace old and aging technologies.

Economies that have tried to protect jobs by preventing new competitors from offering goods and services at lower prices have substantially higher unemployment rates and lower standards of living. True, in the short run, fewer jobs have been lost. But protecting jobs leads to higher prices, staying with less-productive methods and ultimately economic stagnation.

The rich are also being attacked on the premise that they are not paying their fair share of taxes. But the top 1 percent of taxpayers earned 21 percent of all income and paid 37 percent of all income taxes. The top 5 percent earned 35 percent of income and paid 56 percent of all income taxes. The top 50 percent earned 86 percent of income, but paid 96 percent of all taxes.

In 1981, the top 1 percent paid 17 percent of all taxes; in 2000 they paid 37 percent. In 1981, the top 10 percent paid 49 percent of all taxes; in 2000 they paid 67 percent.

I believe that people who earn more income should pay more taxes. But instead of demonizingthem, we should be grateful that they are creating the jobs and technologies that have made America the world leader in growth and innovation.

If entrepreneurs are targeted because they are rich, we will have fewer of them. We need more, not fewer, of them. They are heroes, not demons.