Where's Joe the Plumber When You Need Him?

by SAM PIZZIGATI The Gilmer Mirror

Where's Joe the Plumber When You Need Him?

Without someone at least ranting about sharing the wealth, no one's talking about sharing the wealth.

BySam Pizzigati

Four years ago, a chance encounter between Barack Obama and Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher injected inequality right into the heart of the 2008 presidential race.

Obama explained to the then-unknown Wurzelbacher that when you spread the wealth around, its good for everybody. GOP nominee John McCain immediately jumped on Obamas remark, suddenly making wealth redistribution one of that campaigns hottest issues.

Joe the Plumber has since largely faded from view. Hes running alackluster campaignfor Congress as a conservative Republican. And the issue that lent him celebrity status has more or less disappeared. In the 2012 presidential debates, weve had not one mention of Americas incredibly top-heavy distribution of income and wealth.

President Obama, to be sure, has talked about taxing the rich back to Clinton-era levels. But those Clinton rates didnt stop the concentrating of Americas wealth. Our rich have seen their fortunes soar for over three decades now.

And where do we stand right now with this concentration? One stunning answer has just come from researchers at Credit Suisse, the Swiss banking giant. Americas rich arent just pulling away from the rest of America, the Credit Suisse Research Institutes newGlobal Wealth Reportdetails. Theyre pulling away from the rest of the worlds rich.

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Where's Joe the Plumber When You Need Him?