Joe the Plumber !!
Barack Obama discovered 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.
Obama asks Joe how much it will cost. Joe immediately says, "$9,500."
"$9,500?" Obama asks, stunned, "But you said it's an easy repair!"
"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
2009.' Surprised you haven't heard of it.
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. The leak under Obama's
sink goes unrepaired for the next several days.
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."
"A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!" Obama quickly fires back.
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?"
Joe immediately replies, "Run for president, apparently."
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