Here's a quote from that entry:
I hope you will join me in expressing a simple bit of solidarity with this guy, Spartacus style. I AM JOE. I am a Wal Mart schlub in flyover country who changes my own oil and unclogs drains without a license. I smoke and drink beer and toss the football in the front yard with my kid, and I figure I can fend my way without handouts from some Magic Messiah's candy bags. Most everyone in my family and most everyone I grew up with is another Joe, and if you screw with them, you screw with me.
Here are some areas where I disagree with this sentiment:
- Solidarity is nice, but joining one guy's group just to oppose another's is just one more way to create division, and a pretty dumb reason.
- Referring to "some Magic Messiah's candy bags" obviously refers to Obama's tax plan as somehow giving out money to the poor, which is not it's goal. It is a partisan comment and therefore fuels the position this fellow is taking, and to boot, reveals a lack of understanding.
If you watch the 5-minute clip that started all this crap, unfiltered by the media, you hear that the "increased" tax is a 3% difference for folks bringing home $250K+ (39% vs. 36% tax rate), which A) only returns taxes to the place they were pre-GW, and B) wouldn't increase Sam the plumber's taxes anyway -- it would lower them. - Stating that you are a "Wal Mart schlub" shows that your interest is more focused on yourself than the economy of the country in any case, as Wal-Mart's vendor policies are focused on lowering prices to their customers at any cost -- even the cost of those vendors' companies. Supporting money-grubbing companies and saying that makes you more for the little guy just doesn't jive with me. YMMV.
I am no economist. I've heard both candidates state their plans, and I've made my own decision on which makes more sense to me. It just so happens that Scott Adams' survey of US economists agrees with me, but that survey can be viewed through many lenses.
I work for a living. I mow my own lawn, I've changed my own oil. I drink beer and kick the soccer ball in the front yard with my kid. I don't smoke, but like my friend who wrote the blog entry that led to this post, my child goes to a pay school (not a public school). Unlike him, I've never made $250K or more in one year -- never came close, and likely won't.
But am I NOT some "schlub" who's main goal is to make my way on the shoulders of others -- either by not paying taxes, working without proper licenses, or getting a free-ride from the government rather than putting the effort in to make my own money -- what they incorrectly think is the goal of Obama's tax plan.
I am NOT Joe.
I am not the same as this guy, and neither is the guy who wrote the quote above, nor the guy who writes the blog that pointed me there. We are all different, living in different circumstances, and facing them in different ways.
What happened to Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher after he stood in front of news cameras and asked the favored presidential candidate if his tax plan would increase his taxes when he bought a plumbing company (which he has no plan to) and it made $250K+ a year (which it might, but wouldn't go directly to him anyway), and then heard an answer that was honest and straightforward (rather than pandering to what the candidate thought he might like to hear), is a sad story.
First, the candidate that Wurzelbacher supported brought him to national attention, using him as a campaign foil (regardless of the fact that his opponent's plan favored him much more than his own), then the media dove into his past and exposed every conceivable negative aspect of it to the world.
Was it fair for him to be treated this way? No, not really. Should his story have been exploited for political gain? No, he's not representative of very many folks. Should the media have tried to discredit him? No, but if you expect the media to be fair and unbiased, then you are living in a fantasy land.
The media machine's goals are and always have been, to sell their media -- newspapers, TV, web, etc. -- in order to make money from ad revenue. And with today's 24-hour media free-for-all where news is what you make of it, less and less gets more and more attention.
Welcome to the 21st Century, Sam "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher.
I'm sorry that your decisions led you to where you are, but I can't stand with you in opposition to the big bad politicians and corporations that exploited you.
I'm already opposing them my own way -- through my vote for the candidate with the best plan.
