numbskull coworkers who identify with "joe the plumber"

Miccio:

It's great to finally give this archetype a name. Joe The Plumber: the guy who isn't rich now, but worries that if he somehow becomes rich, he won't enjoy it. Why? Because he'll pay 3 cents to the dollar more on what he makes over a quarter million.

― jaymc, Thursday, October 16, 2008 6:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Apparently at least one of my 170k/yr coworkers is convinced he is middle class and that most ppl in DC make more money than he does.

― quincie, Friday, October 17, 2008 12:21 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Was gonna start 'numbskull coworkers who identify with "joe le taxi"' but I got nothin'.

btw this "I'm only makin' $170K" IT dickhead is one of my favorite DC archetypes, though I'm sure he exists elsewhere.

Not a coworker, but definitely a numbskull: LOU DOBBS was liking the cut of Joe's jib, and then took it one step further as he humped his bully pulpit and called for more common folk (and less laywers / politicians) JUST LIKE JOE to enter politics (and presumably keep illegals off his driveway).

I hate white trash so much

Show your coworkers a picture of Michael Chiklis, and they'll stop identifying with Joe The Plumber.

not a co-worker, but here's a direct quote from a real live person:

"Lookit, most of the people (households) you know who are dual income earners are probably making this kind of money and will have to pay under Obama's plan. It's just not that much any more."

?!?!?!?!? I could not even respond. had to walk out and scream FFFUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUU in my mind.

it ISN'T that much, if you've decided to reach for an unsustainable, suburban American lifestyle

i just don't understand the pure, unadulterated greed behind sentiments like that. you think that extra like .10% of your income is gonna get you to heaven? what the fuck. i hate a lot of americans.

?????

u talkin to me

yeah you are a selfish bastard.

(i am talking to this real live person fretting about having to pay slightly more taxes in his dual-income household)

Not to give away my class or anything tacky like that, but I wouldn't even know what to do with $170k. Especially right now. What, buy treasury bonds?

It's a ton of money for survival purposes, but it does disappear really fast if you're putting 3-5 kids through college and stuff like that. Plus if those kids are girls, dowries are gettin mad expensive yo.

I just love the idea that once you hit that magic line your quality of lifestyle is immediately going to drop down to horrible caveman 1998 levels because the democrats will take away your lexus.

damn i would love to make $170k a year

yeah word, me too. i'd put a jetski in every room

I wouldn't even know what to do with $170k

http://www.electronichouse.com/images/uploads/6159_eli2-web-opener.jpg

ok genuine lolz

I also love the entire point-missing of the US tax system, namely that it's the money you make OVER $250K that gets hit with the higher tax, not your entire salary.

ok see i didn't even know that, dan!

i love that he's watching himself on tv

xpost dan no one can be bothered to actually understand how taxes work, this is how mccain gets away with saying things like "obama wants to eat your money and poop it out into little communist bread loaves"

no it's totally all your money. they take it from you and give it to whining layabouts who probably don't even know how to get up in the morning (me).

Probably going to be the focus of Obama's TV thing at the end of the month. "It's like THIS, folks."

A check of state and local licensing agencies in Ohio and Michigan shows no plumbing licenses under Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher's name, or even misspellings of his name.
—Toledo Blade, " 'Joe the plumber' isn't licensed," Oct. 16, 2008

"Joe the Plumber's" name appears on Ohio voter registration rolls with a slight misspelling—as Worzelbacher, not Wurzelbacher. And that sort of data-entry error might be enough—were Joe a new registrant—to have him disqualified from voting in Ohio, Florida, or Wisconsin this year, depending on the outcome of ongoing litigation.
—Politico, "Purging Joe the plumber?" Oct. 16, 2008

A series of receipts uncovered today reveal that Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher launched his career in the home of former Weather Underground leader William Ayers. In 1995, Ayers contacted Wurzelbacher, then still an apprentice plumber, to fix a leaky faucet in his Hyde Park home. After earning high marks from the one-time domestic terrorist, "Joe the Plumber" built a thriving practice with Ayers' referrals to the Trinity United Church of Christ and the Chicago chapter of al-Qaida.
—Bloomberg News, Oct. 17, 2008

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher today admitted responsibility for the mysterious bulge in President George W. Bush's back during 2004's first presidential debate. "I was feeding him lines," Wurzelbacher confessed to a group of reporters outside a Toledo plumbing-supply store. "Everyone thinks it was Karl Rove talking into that earpiece, but he had a pinochle game with Ahmed Chalabi on Friday nights."
—USA Today, Oct. 22, 2008

Prototypes for Palm Beach County's infamous butterfly ballot have been found in the tool belt of Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher. The shocking discovery was made on Thursday as part of a weekslong Department of Justice investigation into alleged voter fraud perpetrated by Mr. Wurzelbacher. A search of Florida records indicates that the celebrity plumber voted 537 separate times in the 2000 presidential election. "There's nothing we could've done—you can spell Wurzelbacher too many different ways," said former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
—USA Today, Oct. 23, 2008

A DNA test has confirmed that "Joe the Plumber," the everyvoter who rose to fame thanks to repeated mentions in last week's presidential debate, is the father of Sarah Palin's 6-month-old son, Trig. In the highest-rated episode in the history of Maury, the Alaska governor confronted blue-collar Ohioan Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher for failing to acknowledge paternity. Upon hearing that he was, in fact, the father, Wurzelbacher stormed off the stage without comment, as Palin repeatedly shouted, "I told you! I told you!" while wagging her right index finger at the studio audience.
—New York Times, Oct. 31, 2008

The White House Plumbers—the team of operatives that perpetrated the Watergate break-in on behalf of President Richard Nixon—were the brainchild of Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, according to new reporting by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. A source identified only as "Deep Basin Wrench" tells the veteran Washington Post reporters that Wurzelbacher had it out for the Democratic Party. Also, he's a Muslim.
—Associated Press, Nov. 1, 2008

these are all niggling details, obv you people don't recognize a tax-and-spend liberal when you see one

i think it's pretty clear from mccain's genuine surprise at the exemption for small businesses in Obama's health care plan that progressive taxation is the least of the things that McCain genuinely does not understand.

he wants to spread your wealth between two intact pieces etc.

http://politica2008.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/che_obama_1.jpg

xpost dan no one can be bothered to actually understand how taxes work

that's why we need joe plumber asking the hard questions. he's gonna pin down those snaky pols for some straight talk about taxes and what they mean

this was a Bush voter ('00 & '04) btw, and I just wanted to say "hey, you c*nt, YOU'RE the reason we are FUCKED. prior to that, the budget was balanced, we weren't involved in a war that's been one of the greatest debacles of the last century, etc, etc. And ss someone who supported that idiot, especially in '04, you should totally be prepared to pay 60% of your income. you fucking fuck.

Ok I can say this -- if I made that kind of money, I'd sure as hell buy better furniture than that.

xpost they're always bush voters. i mean, that just comes with the territory. i don't know where they hell they think the government is supposed to get the money to pay for their xenophobic rageohol but whatever.

but ally, tax cuts increase revenue!

exactly. *taps temple, taps nose, winks, etc*

yeah especially in this economy

guys did you read about DEEP BASIN WRENCH yet???

joe plumber knows reading books is what got us into this mess. that and taxes.

important joe the plumber information can be found here

Q: What's his dogs name?

A: Labrador the Retriever

― joe the plumber (ice crӕm), Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^ ok this is great

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pound/kungfu.html ?

(in re: "DEEP BASIN WRENCH") ?!?!? plz 2 'splain

I spent 20 minutes after the second debate trying to explain the concept of a marginal tax rate to an angry right-winger. Never got through.

yeah, I just had the following exchange in email with co-workers yesterday:

Actually, Obama's real answer was, "Yes, under my plan, you will pay an additional 3 cents tax on your $250,001st dollar of personal income, but not the $250,000th" which was especially generous considering that Joe the Plumber doesn't seem to understand the difference between "making $250,000" and "a business worth $250,000," which are two very different things.

>>> A*** B**** 10/16/2008 3:07 PM >>>

I don't understand why everyone is focusing on whether or not this guy is a plumber. I fixed my leaking sink last weekend so technically I'm a plumber too. Plumber, painter, contractor, etc. I think we all get the idea here. All this guy was doing was asking a fair question as your typical blue collar working stiff. Are we trying to discredit him because Obama's answer, my plan is a distribution of wealth, won't sit well with most blue collar working stiffs?

FYI: DEEP BASIN WRENCH is in and what's last post to this thread

Pancakes Hackman you are a saint.

As is milo z.

20 minutes after the second debate trying to explain the concept of a marginal tax rate

BORING

It's a ton of money for survival purposes, but it does disappear really fast if you're putting 3-5 kids through college and stuff like that

children are a huge expense. something to consider before having 3-5 of them.

wait is the schef living in jho's econo-crisis shanty town?!?

What did the right-winger not understand about marginal tax rates?

srsly, tell these people to read the instructions to a 1040; it's all explained in there.

"Why would anyone keep working at all if they can't have $1000 bills hanging out of every orifice?"

contrary to rumors the i love cricket-branded official economic meltdown 2008 shantytown is still under construction and has no residents yet

wtf i am not living in some kind of cricket shantytown.

We can fix that Wikipedia article for you so that you are...?

i like that idea

nfl analyst and noted friend of barack obama adam schefter has taken up residence in the infamous mckibbin lofts, aka a cricket shantytown in bushwick, brooklyn.

its an "I LOVE CRICKET"-branded shantytown, crazy

ok sorry

nfl analyst and noted friend of barack obama adam schefter has taken up residence in the infamous mckibbin lofts, aka an I LOVE CRICKET shantytown in bushwick, brooklyn.

the edit is subtle but effective, I think

the full name is the "I Love Cricket" Official Economic Meltdown 2008 Shantytown featuring Free Wireless Internet

oh wow now i can't stop laughing

xpost not at MAX

I was going to make a link to a cricket shantytown page but figured that would have been a little too much.

rolling ilc shantytown thread 2008

cool with me if u dont laugh schef u dont even live in my shantytown

i don't need to live in yr shantytown, i got a fireplace and a dishwasher unit

i make car parts for the american working man cause that's who i am and that's who i care about

ya my shantytown got a free wireless internet and a nilla wafers

max wins, both of those things are totally more useful

nilla wafers are gross also i cannot eat sugars so much so whatever, enjoy

o i will

oh i will

banana pudding, though.

the fuck that gotta do with anything!

you put the nilla wafers in the banana puddingses.

yick

you put the nilla wafers in the banana puddingses.

^^win

you put the nilla wafers in the banana puddingses OR ELSE YOU GETS THE HOSE AGAIN

precisely

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o315/Vannostren/mcshitsflyercopy.jpg

gis for "cricket shantytown"

^^^ max u look different from when i first met you

i am imagining now a romantic evening in front of a toasty fire, with an injudicious helping of banana pudding, and the faint hum of the dishwasher from the kitchen. Heaven.

you really have a special knack don't you

your blessing and your curse

haha xxp: must you ruin everything

What did I say? Ok I'll get my coat.

It was the combination of "romantic evening" with "injudicious helping of banana pudding" that did me in; can't speak for Ally.

Except for I don't like bananas, that scene sounds perfect. I can has dishes washer?

how about some UNDERGROUND LAUNDRY MACHINES ALL TO YOURSELF

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA /rich person

srsly romance and pudding should never, ever mix

(lol came very close to typing "pussing")

I guess the thing I don't get about people like Joe the Plumber is that if you're lucky enough to make $250k/yr, then why harp on the increased taxation? Even with taxes, you're still making a shitload of money! I mean, I basically don't expect to ever make that much money in my life. Count your fucking blessings, you know?

^^^ max u look different from when i first met you

Dude looks more like a tubby version of Elmo.

if you're lucky enough to make $250k/yr, then why harp on the increased taxation?

I guess that people who aren't making that kind of money imagine themselves in that situation but still keep their watching every penny heads on, whereas the genuinely wealthy don't squawk so much about taxes they just quietly evade them as much as possible.

but jaymc, the american dream. the AMERICAN DREAM. who's to say what a shitload of money is? maybe my load of shit is a lot more than you're lil socialist load.

haha getting into that mindset came complete with word usage error.

also lol there's ALWAYS something else to spend yr money on whether your in manhattan or south dakota.

Eh, this is true in a general sense, but it remains true that there are differences in the cultures and markets of different places that make income work differently. If you're in a cluster of serious wealth with a certain type of ethos, you can spend millions on home, dine and shop at luxurious places, consume constantly, and still be a normal part of your peer group. If you happen to be incredibly wealthy in a normal midwestern town, the ethos is different and the things available are different: e.g., you're less likely to spend 8 million dollars on some ridiculous palace that overshadows every other building in town, you're less likely to eat every single night at the one expensive restaurant nearby, your kids may even go to public school like everyone else, etc. You're less likely to violate the ethos of the place, which isn't built around wealth and consumption in the same way; you don't want to be tacky about it, do you? This doesn't mean you won't still find plenty of ways to spend your money, but it's going to go in different directions and get you different things. And if you ask me, it's going to go "farther," in terms of your perception of your own wealth -- if only because it'll only take a fraction of that wealth to have nicer stuff than the people you see around you on a daily basis!

(Plus also notice the "market" part -- you're not competing for things with equally and more-wealthy people)

And how do you get huffy about taxes if you don't get the basics?

There's a cause-and-effect here, actually: Aside from the ones who simply hate them for pure ideological reasons, it's not understanding them that tends to make people huffy about them.

HAY OBAMA, ONE DAY I WAS PLANNING ON BEING RICH, WAY TO SPOIL MY DREAMS