America's new millionaire class: Plumbers and HVAC entrepreneurs

I wonder how this article was pitched. Strange messaging, turning the news of private equity hoovering up HVAC companies into plumbers getting rich? Surely private equity will do what it always does, drive up prices, drive down quality, and bail out leaving behind a mess if or when it suits them. It also seems pretty funny to call it a “class” when they’re referring to a few dozen business owners, not really trades workers.

Did the plumbers getting rich meme start with Joe the Plumber? My cynical hypothesis is that it’s a movement to steer people away from college fearing a hollowing out of the working class and higher wages if everyone’s university educated. Are there other reasons this talking point keeps circling? Googling multiple sources shows plumbers making an average of $60k/year which is lower than the average teacher salary in the US. Neither of those classes is getting rich and both are feeling the squeeze of inflation, no doubt being contributed to by private equity.

> Did the plumbers getting rich meme start with Joe the Plumber?

If you believe nothing happened before the year 2008, yes.

Otherwise, no, of course not. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0582490/ aired 14 years before that.

> I wonder how this article was pitched

Easily. PE bad is trendy at the moment. And plumber becomes millionaire plays into the “anyone can become rich” narrative

I was talking about politics and our general social discussion about trade school vs university. Obviously that’s a centuries’ old discussion, but I don’t recall talk of plumbers vis a vis the benefits of college specifically before Joe the Plumber, and now it comes up all the time.

What does this sitcom episode demonstrate, exactly? Haven’t seen it, but from the description the title’s pun is based on the relationship of the characters, and not income or education. Is there a relevant storyline not described in the notes?

The article didn’t run with PE bad, it’s implying the opposite. And yes, exactly, reinforcing the questionable American Dream narrative while sort of ignoring or obscuring that they’re talking about a tiny number of people getting one-time lucky at the expense of everyone, especially the average tradesperson.

I remember being at a boat ramp in Norwalk, CT sometime around 1992 and commenting that most of the boats I saw were being pulled by trucks owned by HVAC companies.

My friend, the sailboat owner, replied "yeah, cause they're the ones with money."

So no, it's far from a recent concept.