A business that generates $250k in PROFIT would cost $1,000,000 at minimum

[WallStreetNobody]

That's 4x earnings or a 25% ROI. That is about the highest ROI anyone would give you, in reality it would probably sell for over 5-6x earnings so $1.5MM or more. Now with the credit markets frozen, where does a dipshit like Joe the Plumber get the money? His house is only worth $122k and who knows how much of a mortgage he has on it. And he doesn't even have a valid license to "plumb".

Is there some wingnut secret strategy he plans to use to buy this business?

I doubt it.

He wanted to play the big-man in the neighborhood role, talk about how he was going to be somebody and make some big bucks and leave the rest of his neighborhood suckers behind. They all fell for it, because Joe keeps up to date on the world listening to Limbaugh and watching Fox. He knows about this thing called "socialism". Well he doesn't actually know anything about it, but he knows Limbaugh told him to call everything Limbaugh doesn't like socialism. And as a loyal dittohead, he complied.

If you haven't listened to any of Joe's interviews after his new-found fame, you don't know how big of a dipshit this guy really is. Words can't express. At least not my words, this is a job for Matt Taibbi I think. Or maybe KO can do a special comment on him.

[Ian David]

1. He plans to use "The Secret" and simply visualize the business becoming his. n/t

[Buck Rabbit]

2. Thank you for posting this and saving me the effort.

As an actual real life business owner, I had those earning multiples rolling in my brain the first minute I heard this tale of his. He is going to buy a business that nets 250K and he is worried about an incremental tax increase on profit above that level?

As a wholesale distributor my customer base is largely other small businesses. I can't tell you over the last 30 years how many times I have seen craftsmen/journeymen buy the business they work for from their retiring employer or quit and try a start-up from scratch with bizarre illusions of instant riches. The first tell, is they show up at the door driving a new tricked out behemoth pick-up that costs more than they made the previous year as an employee. These are the guys we don't extend credit to for at least a year or two, until reality kicks their teeth in. If they are still around after two years they will have about a 50% chance of making it another 5 years.

Small businesses that make over 250K in taxable income are a rarity indeed and seldom affordable to a Joe The Plummer living in a 120K house.