[Rhodes22-list] POLITICAL Hey Plumber Joe: Been There, Done That

[Herb Parsons]

No one, including the union spokesman, has accused him of working in 
people's homes without a license. He works for a company that has a 
license, and as far as anyone knows, he only does plumbing work with a 
licensed plumber.

However, licensed or not, he has the right to ask the question he asked, 
does he not?

Andrew Collins wrote:
> Dear pdgrand nospam:
>
> awful post
>
> " ... when decades of liberal energy policy came home to roost "?
>
> This post isn't worthy of even this lowly slug-fest we call a sailing forum.
>
> And whaddabout the subject line? Ed where are you?
>
> Can we have a new rule: you have to write it yourself not cut and paste any
> old uncorroborated opinion that oozes across the web?
> And if Joe is an unlicensed plumber, he is just that. He should be licensed,
> take the tests, go to trade school. Do unlicensed pilots fly? Do
> unregistered engineers practice, do unlicensed beauticians give facials? No,
> they don't
>
> This unlicensed tradesman is manipulating gas installations, connections to
> the public water supply, connectiions to public sewer systems, etc. This
> work brings with it responsibilities that every municipality requires be
> satisfied by obtaining a plumbing license before being allowed to this kind
> of work.
>
> Andrew
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:37 PM, <pdgrand at nospam.wmis.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> October 17, 2008
>>
>> Hey Plumber Joe: Been There, Done That
>>
>> By C. Edmund Wright<http://www.americanthinker.com/c_edmund_wright/>
>>
>> God love you Joe. Bless your heart Joe.  You, and people like you, are
>> what makes the country work. You make the country great. You get it -- you
>> act on it -- and you enrich the lives of your family and your friends and
>> your communities and your charities as a result.
>> But I think what I should say now is "God help you Joe."  Look, 16 plus
>> years ago I was where you are now. And I must tell you  if Obama wins, I
>> am pulling the plug in a few months. I am out. I have had it.  I am
>> preparing to destroy almost 100 jobs and lower my tax bracket and I can't
>> wait.
>>
>> Consider: 16 years ago I was statistically in poverty, but I had dreams
>> and a plan. At the time, the remnants of Reaganomics still set the
>> economic tone and a fired up Newt Gingrich was forcing conservatism on the
>> Clinton White House every time Bill and Hillary tried to move left.  There
>> were actually politicians who praised business owners and business in
>> general.  Against that backdrop, I've had a pretty good run. It's been
>> extremely challenging and the move up was not a straight line, but I am
>> better off than I was 16 years ago. And 8 years ago. And 4 years ago. And
>> so are a lot of folks who have been on this ride with me.
>>
>> But Joe, I am not better off than I was just 2 years ago. That's when
>> decades of liberal energy policy came home to roost and four dollar gas
>> took several hundred thousands from my bottom line faster than I could
>> possibly react.  That same gas price slammed my customers -- and my
>> customer's customers -- forcing our company into a vice of rapidly rising
>> costs and rapidly dropping revenues. Oh, and for fun, slower payments from
>> our customers.
>>
>> That started the ripple through the sub prime mortgage industry, and we
>> have all seen the unraveling of our financial system which was more or
>> less totally underpinned by real estate "values." Those assumed valuations
>> were the basis for any number of derivatives and credit swaps and so on.
>> Well, forget all that Wall Street talk. To you and me it means employees
>> are more desperate for money, customers are less willing to buy, slower to
>> pay and banks less willing to lend. It certainly means whatever homes and
>> 401K's you have are worth less too which makes your bank even less anxious
>> to lend to your business. It is the main street carnage of "unfettered
>> government" onto small business. It is the destructive fruit of
>> environmental leftists, the Fannie-Freddie cronies in government and other
>> corrupt liberals in positions of power.
>>
>> And sadly, this is also the result of George Bush giving into these folks
>> all too often in defense of his "new tone." (That worked out well, didn't
>> it?) This was helped ironically by John McCain "reaching across the aisle"
>> to vote against tax cuts and vote for energy restrictions and so on. All
>> of this was nicely summed up by Mitt Romney when he said that our problems
>> stem from "too many Republicans acting too much like Democrats." Now, if
>> the polls are anywhere near accurate, we are going to get a taste of "real
>> Democrats acting too much like Marxists" for at least a few years.
>>
>> Mitt was right, but the pundits said McCain was more acceptable to the
>> moderates. Hmmm. Wonder if a financial turn-around specialist like Mitt
>> might sell to the moderates now? Just a wild thought from someone not
>> smart enough to be a beltway pundit.
>>
>> Now Joe, as someone whose been there, let me tell you how this works,
>> though I think you have a good idea.  At the end of the year, as an LLC, I
>> do file taxes with the business profit on my personal returns like many of
>> others do as well.  And yes, that figure is much bigger than 250 thousand.
>> But that's not really MY MONEY to keep. It's how I underpin my business.
>> When customers disappear or take their time paying bills, I still have to
>> pay my employees, rent, suppliers, and countless other expenses. Every
>> penny that the tax man takes out of that profit is less money that I have
>> to carry forward to stay in business for the next year. And if Obama and
>> Reid and Pelosi take more of this by "raising taxes on the rich" then of
>> course my business will suffer. And so will all the employees.
>>
>> This is exactly what almost none of those lawyers turned politicians
>> understand.
>>
>> But of course, you will have to send tax money into the government, Joe,
>> because the man who is in charge of spending that money -- Charlie Rangel
>> -- damned sure wasn't paying his fair share as we know now. Get out that
>> checkbook.
>>
>> Of course, all of this matters only if you can afford to fill your
>> plumbing vans with gas at gosh knows what price. It could be that the
>> recession will lower the gas price, but that's not terribly good news for
>> you either, since customers don't spend as much money in a recession. I
>> mean, I hate to burst your bubble, but small business owners are
>> surrounded by a sea of challenges outside their control and almost all of
>> them are caused by liberalism. Government has formed a business firing
>> squad and it's a doggone circle!
>>
>> I wish you well, guy.  You might just have the genius and persistence to
>> pull this off. I really do hope so. As for me, I have had enough. I have
>> fought creeping liberalism and managed more wins than losses over 17
>> years. We have progressed to where  our business,  now a corporation,  is
>> big enough so that Obama and his ilk now have their own ideas about "what
>> larger businesses can afford" and what "corporations can afford."
>>
>> Well I've got news for him. I cannot afford what they think I can afford,
>> so I am breaking her up and giving her away to some key employees.  I wish
>> them well too. They are like you, tough and smart. Perhaps if they stay
>> small enough and never can carry forward more than 250 thou to the next
>> year, they will be allowed to keep their businesses through a downturn.
>>
>> As for me? I'm outta here.
>>
>> -------------- next part --------------
>> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
>> Name: untitled-[2]
>> Url:
>> http://www.rhodes22.org/pipermail/rhodes22-list/attachments/20081017/5a0870b2/attachment.txt
>> __________________________________________________
>> To subscribe/unsubscribe or for help with using the mailing list go to
>> http://www.rhodes22.org/list
>> __________________________________________________
>>
>>     
> __________________________________________________
> To subscribe/unsubscribe or for help with using the mailing list go to http://www.rhodes22.org/list
> __________________________________________________
>
>
>