Are you Joe the Plumber?
October 20, 2008
I would argue that most entrepreneurs are just like Joe the Plumber. Perhaps you aren’t as folliclely challenged as Joe, but your dreams are very similar. You dream of having your own business and that it would be successful. You believe in the American Dream, the idea that in America we strive for equality of opportunity and those who have the drive, energy and stamina can succeed.
Americans are not bound by the caste systems of the old world, instead America is where ANYONE can succeed. Joe Wurzelbacher is a simple plumber. He has a dream, perhaps a foolhearty dream, to own his own plumbing company one day. Your dream might be to build the next Google or 37Signals. Joe has seen the American dream work for scores of people from Bill Gates to Warren Buffett to P. Diddy and he hopes someday to have it work for him. His biggest fear is that by the time it is his turn to achieve his dream, the fruits of that dream will be taken from him and given to someone else instead.
As individuals and entrepreneurs the idea that someone would take our hard work and give it to someone else who hasn’t worked as hard or hasn’t yet achieved his own ‘American Dream’ is an anathema to us. As a country it should deeply trouble us if government sought to remove the ‘profit motive’ from our daily lives. If additional productivity and hard work isn’t honored and rewarded it simply won’t occur. Why bother taking risks if those risks have no upside.
To buy his boss’s company, Joe the Plumber would need to raise capital in the form of a loan or equity - this ‘at risk’ capital would then be used to buy the business whereby Joe would either succeed and repay the loan or the equity. If Joe believes the incentive (i.e. the opportunity to make more money) was gone or diminished do you think Joe would be willing to borrow the money necessary to buy the business in the first place? If we continue to demonize capital formation (i.e. getting rich), power and money will tend to consolidate in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority. Joe the Plumber will NEVER get the change to become rich - instead rich people like George Soros and his heirs will grow richer and richer.
On a side note, Joe the Plumber has been demonized and pillaried in the press. Why? He simply admitted that he would like the opportunity to become rich. It turns out he has issues with licenses and taxes. Show me an entrepreneur who doesn’t and I will show you ten who have even bigger issues.
