I Am Joe.

I am Joe The Plumber.

No, I am not a plumber, and my name is not Joe, and I do not make $250,000 per year.

But I am Joe The Plumber, just the same.

In 2006, I quit my job as a company driver at a lumber distribution center where I made a little over $40,000 per year. I took my retirement savings, my personal savings, my grocery and rent money, and whatever I could borrow from family members, and put a down payment on a tractor trailer truck of my own.

Had things stayed the way they were, the payment would have been manageable, and I would have been very successful.

But they didn't.

When fuel prices doubled that year, the freight rates stayed the same, and I did several weeks of work for a man who just decided not to pay me for it. I worked harder and harder, for more and more hours each week, for less and less money, until January of 2008, when the finance company came and took the truck away from me.

I worked 16 hours in the truck the day they took it away.

I wound up right back in a company truck, only without the money that I had saved up, my credit rating shot to death, and still in debt.

I worked as hard as a man can work, and in the end, I would have been better off if I had taken a year off and played video games.

That's how it goes. When you take risks, you sometimes lose.

But - If I had been successful, I would have bought another truck by now, maybe two. I would have employed another driver or two, maybe a part time book keeper. My trucks would have provided work for a local mechanic, business for the local truck parts store, tire dealer, and fuel stop.

THAT'S "spreading the wealth around".

But I failed.

And nobody bailed me out. Nor would I have wanted them to.

You see, I know, because I found out the hard way, how difficult it is to be successful running your own business, and the people who make it work should be celebrated by the whole community.

Not labeled "The Rich", and attacked and expected to hand over ever increasing amounts of the rewards that they earn through their sacrifice, talent, or plain old hard, back-breaking and tedious work.

I will try again. Some day, I will again be self employed, employ other people, and spread the wealth around my community the way it should be done, and I will take the lessons that I learned the first time and build upon them so that I stand a better chance at success next time.

And I get very angry when I see others around me attempting to stack the deck against me before I get there, simply because they themselves are unwilling to take the chances , work the hours, shoulder the responsibility that I do.

I am Joe The Plumber.

And so are you.