[rant]Those who vilify the 47% should take a few moments to think about just who that 47% consists of. If you continue to disenfranchise and eliminate all economic support to them, thus eliminating them altogether, who will mow your lawns, care for your children, clean your houses, prepare and serve you food at your favorite restaurant, build and maintain your roads, supply clean and safe water, keep the lights on, patrol your streets, put out your fires, save your life when you have an accident, teach your children, build your houses, sell you the things to maintain your houses, repair your houses, take care of your garbage, treat your sewerage, fix your plumbing, grow and harvest the food that feeds you, work their asses off so you can buy more stuff? You? I didn't think so![/rant]

I forgot some: Those who build, maintain, and repair your cars, yachts, and planes.

They wear blinders. As long as it all gets done, they do not want to know, see or hear about it.

The guy who fixes my car charges his time around $80/hr, he's not part of the 47%, neither is the guy who fixes my house.

He certainly isn't if he charges around $80/hr.

Based on a typical 40-hor work week, that's a bit over $166K. With overtime, maybe a shade under $200K. Not too shabby, but hardly 1%-er income. Then factor in a tax rate in the high 20%s - mid 30% range; vehicle maintenance, parts, tools, materials, possibly a small payroll or sub-contracted assistants, insurance, rent or mortgage, trade license fees, etc...

So who's your plumber — Larry Ellison?

$80.00 per hour. A real rip off artist that is. What does he use gold tools to fix the cars.

*sigh*

What a lot of people don't consider is all of the things Steve listed...plus there's no guarantee the mechanic is working 40 hours a week. Especially if he is running the business by himself. I charge quite a bit... but then several hours a week I am the accountant... repair guy.. floor sweeper... ordering equipment and shipping merch back to clients.. blah blah blah.
If I got my hourly rate @40+ per week... yeah, babay.. then I would be rolling in some dough.
AND.. on the weeks I do have 40 hours of work... all of that other crap still has to get done... so it's a 60 hour week... which diminishes what appears to be a high hourly rate.

Yep. Unless you've run your own biz, the concept of overhead is not top of mind.