By the ordinary English definition he is a plumber.
As a term of art within the industry he might be an "apprentice plumber", or an "assistant plumber", but he would still typically be called a plumber, the same was an associate professor would be called a professor by most people, even though they are a full professor.
And if he was even thinking about buying a business, apparently he's near the point we he would be a journeyman. How did he get the money, I have no idea, but that doesn't mean he didn't have it, or wasn't approaching having it. I know some people who don't have huge incomes who have saved up a ton of money so its possible, also maybe someone else was going to own part of the business, maybe he inherited money, or had some investment that did well (despite the recent poor performance of most types of investments). I don't really know, or care.
The issue to me isn't "Joe the plumber", its small businesses in general. "Joe the plumber" gets attention because people pay more attention when ideas can be presented in terms of people or narratives, but its the ideas and plans that are important, not one specific person. |
