2008-10-18 Update on Joe (not really Joe and not a licensed plumber).

I was reluctant to write this post. I’m not 100% sure why, but I think it might be because I hate to memorialize what I think was one of Barack Obama’s greatest gaffes through the debates. I just don’t think he addressed this Joe the Plumber nonsense directly enough…

McCain tried to make Joe the Plumber sound like Joe Sixpack, but the fatal flaw that Obama failed to call out was that Joe Sixpack isn’t generally contemplating BUYING HIS EMPLOYER! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Joe the Plumber. I know that since I started working for myself I feel a lot fewer stresses in some areas of my life (a considerable number of additional stresses in others given the current economic climate), but really…

Cut me a break… Barack should have addressed this head on. I just wish he would have said, “Joe, I’m very happy you have worked hard and put yourself into a position to consider BUYING YOUR EMPLOYER, but this is not the position that the majority of American’s are in, and we need to shore up the vast majority of small business that make less that a quarter of million dollars a year and we need to come together to help the vast majority of Americans who have not had the same good fortune.”

We’re all supposed to empathize with the guy because he has to reconsider BUYING HIS EMPLOYER because there may be negative tax consequences should he do that???? WTF? Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all in the position to consider buying out our employer. Wouldn’t it be nice if those guys on the picket lines at Boeing could have an influential ownership interest in the company? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had the capital to take a DIRECT ownership interest in the engines of the economy? Call me an anarcho-syndicalist if you’d like, but I think that would solve several serious problems with the labor/industry relationship in this country. If the CEO could be fired by the employees when he chose to line his pockets with nice warm $100 bills rather than seriously propelling the company he leads into sustainable innovative endeavors, well, perhaps he would have an interest in actually helping the company succeed rather than driving it into the ground and walking away with an $8 million severence package.

Does the government need to oil the wheels of the economy? Yes. Can the government do this effectively by generically decreasing the taxes of the wealthiest citizens? Hell No! That doesn’t work. That’s Bush’s mode of operation and it brought us to this tragic point of overwhelming deficits and near financial ruin. Only very narrowly and carefully targeted incetives to business can truly develop jobs and the economy. As I recall this is part of why we were prosperous (beyond the bubble) during the Clinton years. Targeted incentives to the high tech industry, not across the board tax cuts for corporations, will rebuild this country’s economic infrastructure.

Anyway, the short of it is that at present Joe the Plumber will NOT see his taxes increase under Obama’s tax plan. And quite frankly, if Joe’s taxes will increase if he BUYS HIS EMPLOYER and has NET profits over a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000.00, write that down to get a feel for it), then he certainly has enough dough to sustain a tax increase. How many times does Barack Obama have to explain that his tax plan won’t impact the majority of us making a reasonable living wage (though $250,000.00 a year is clearly well above a living wage)?

I should mention it is a little bit difficult to type with the old man on my lap, but he’s happier there, so again, forgive the typos…