Who exactly is Joe Six-Pack?

Who exactly is Joe six-pack?

The image of the average non wealthy middle class/lower class American has been somewhat blurred in the media within the past year, in my opinion.

Sarah Palin likes to talk about Joe Six-Pack, but I don't think that she really knows who that is. And her Joe-the-Plumber doesn't fit into that category since he has a publicist and a book deal - how many people do YOU know that have a publicist and a book deal?

The real 'Joe six-pack' of America is the guy that works hard 'for someone else' all week, usually punches a time clock or at least is on a strict time schedule – and on Friday evening (or whatever day he receives his pay) when he cashes his paycheck pulls into the liquor store and plops down 'cash' for a 'six pack or a case of beer'. Many don't have credit cards and many don't even have a car - they 'bum' a ride with a friend to the store in order to buy some cold ones to take home. The Joes of the world cut their own grass, change their own oil in their cars if they have one, they save their change in a jar, they sick a bucket under the leaky pipe under the kitchen cabinet when they don't have the spare money to call someone to fix it, if a storm comes and knocks down a tree they go outside with their chainsaw or their neighbor's chainsaw and cut it up!

Joe's wife is the wife that cuts coupons to take to the grocery store when she goes grocery shopping and looks for the 'double coupons' deal. She hits the yard sales in order to purchase her kids clothes when they have grown out of the ones they have and to find cheap furniture for her house and other things for her house because she can't go and buy new stuff. She knows how to stretch the family's paycheck from week to week in order to put food on the table and still be able to pay the electric bill. She prays at night that her family will stay healthy especially if they don't have insurance. She prays that her husband will be able to hold onto his job so that they will be able to keep a roof over the heads of their children.

Sarah Palin says that 'Alaskans eat therefore they hunt'.
Well in Alaska they shoot wolves from helicopters. People that I know do not eat wolf meat - at least not nowadays unless they are stranded out in the wilderness and have to eat one to survive and I doubt that happens very often if ever. (Be sure to contact your Congressperson to express your disdain for the practice of shooting animals to death in this manner if it offends you - if it doesn't offend you then please take a few minutes to think about it.)

The 'Joe six-pack' in my world, he likes to fish and usually takes beer with him along with a few of his buddies and a couple of packs of 'smokes'. He fishes mainly because it is a form of relaxation and it is something that he can afford to do as opposed to going on a real vacation, and if he catches a few fish then the family will have a free meal that will be turned into a celebration on the weekend. Given a choice he would probably opt to take his family on a real vacation, but most Joe six-packs haven't traveled with their families very far from their home towns. If he has taken his family on a 'real' vacation then it is usually one that he has planned for several years and has saved up money for over several years.

Many Joe Six Packs know what it is like to stand in line to sign up for unemployment checks, food stamps, and a government medical card. Many have endured the affects of poverty, physical/mental/verbal abuse, substandard educations, divorce, discrimination, racial profiling, etc.

When Sarah Palin starts up her rhetoric again (and I am sure she will in the future) about the Joe Six-Packs of America and the 'real Americans' then please ask her WHO IN THE HELL IS SHE TALKING ABOUT!

p.s. I hope I have expressed myself coherently enough for everyone to understand the meaning of my words - At the moment I am one beer less than a six-pack myself this evening ;)

On one hand (obviously I have a huge political bias, otherwise I wouldn't be posting here on DU) there are working class people who take pride in how despite setbacks they try to be good people, parents and providers, and who realize all the benefits that others have given them. People who take pride in the benefits they get from their union, their community and as a result feel a need to give back.

But working class pride also makes the working class fodder for fascism and plutocracy (fascism is usually supported by the military, working class and industrial class, groups which on the surface should be at odds). You prey on people who work hard by saying 'they' (whoever they may be, just as long as 'they' are different somehow. mexicans, blacks, liberals, jews, catholics, communists, etc) want to punish you or control you, and 'they' are not as hard working, patriotic or devoted as you. You sow divisions between the 'real' citizens and the 'fake' citizens while stoking resentment and anger in the 'real' citizens by pointing out how destructive, lazy, freeloading and different 'they' are. Then the wealthy use those divisions to divide and conquer long enough to loot the store. If the military can be used to oppress any sort of resistance, all the better. It is not a coincidence that fascist countries not only go after political opponents, they also destroy trade unions.

So the working class can go either way. They can be the backbone of reforms to help the working class, or they can be pawns of the wealthy. I have seen them do both in my life, and I'm fairly young.

to get wolf-meat for the kids.

Doesn't everyone?

:silly: