Joe the Plumber ... I'm pretty sure you will share this. Absolutely!

 

Barack Obama discovers 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 exclusive neighborhood where  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 those who  make $250,000 per year a much higher amount so I can fix the plumbing of  poorer people for free," explains Joe. "It's always been my philosophy.  As a matter of fact, I lobbied government who pass this philosophy into  law. Now all plumbers do business this way. It's known as 'Joe's Fair  Plumbing Act of 2014.' 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 and the leak goes un repaired for 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."

"What! A few days ago you told me it would  cost $9,500!" Obama quickly fires back.

Joe explains, "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 payers. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers keeps rising.”

"Not only that, but for some reason the  demand for plumbing work for those who get it for free is skyrocketed.  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 too - all thanks to greedy rich  people like you who won't pay their fair share."

"Joe, this could be bad. If all the rich  people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you can't charge the  poorer people, you'll be broke. What will you do then?"

Joe immediately replies, "Run for  president!"