Economics Lesson - Joe the Plumber

Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it.

Joe drives to Obama's house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it's clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per year.

Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it's an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.

"Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for free," explains Joe. "It's always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do business this way. It's known as 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.' Surprised you haven't heard of it, senator."

In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves.

Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing.

A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there's a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.

Joe goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says "Let's see - this will cost you about $21,000."

Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. "Well, because of the 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act,' a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free plumbing I'm doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day.

"Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there's a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they're not being replaced - nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won't make any money. I'm hurting now too - all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay their fair share."

Obama tries to straighten out the plumber: "Of course you're hurting, Joe! Don't you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you'll be broke, and then what will you do?"

Good points. I was tinkering with my jalopy SUV, well, it has seen better days, it is 14 years old, and I took it for a spin. I live in a modest area of ranch homes, cape cods split levels and so on, you know, 1950's era starter homes. Well, there is a new plan of carriage homes that was put up, they are rentals, IIRC, $1100 and up. Even a Pittsburgh Steelers lives there. I've seen a fair share of Hummers, Escalades, Jags and so on on. I saw lots of OBummer signs. Here in the "poorer section" where I live, I've seen a few OBummer signs but many more McCain/Palin. As I drove around in my heap, I thought to the well off OBummers, "you are a bunch of dumb asshats, if OBummer gets in, say goodbye to your nice homes and Escalades."

Right now, I do some work on the side, but in between steady jobs. I'll take most anything except cooking and graveyard shift, one I'm a terrible cook and the second screws up my health. I figure I'm not too picky so I can do 95% of any jobs out there. I am not asking for anything from the government or society. Sure if a natural disaster comes or if I'm disabled, I'd like help but beyond that, let me make my own way or try to. My Explorer is old, to some, may be on it's last wheels, so I have to fix a number of things myself with the aid of my buddy at the auto parts store. I have a fair chance of getting on at the auto parts store, the question is when, would be a good career move, with the OBummer economy, people are going to need parts to keep their jalopies running, including me, plus I'll learn some skills on fixing cars. We are headed to bad times, learn as many skills as you can.

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