Many people have asked me, “Just who is “Joe Average”? This could take awhile, but I’ll try to be brief and still answer the question.
There is no “typical” Joe Average. Average being the key word here. “Joe” has many different descriptions. “Joe” comes from a variety of economic, educational, religious, social and any other description backgrounds. It is more of a mindset than any other way to describe him.
There are approximately 330,000,000 people in the United States of America. The so-called 1% or 3,300,000 are the wealthy or super wealthy. On the other end of the economic scale are about 20-25% of the 330,000,000 are the poor and working poor, about 82,500,000. This figure depends on where exactly we draw the line and are approximate.
These numbers are a good “guesstimate.”
That leaves about 247,500,000 who are not poor or wealthy, “the middle class.” The point is there are a lot more in this group than in the other two groups. And this is where we find “Joe Average” American Citizen and his wife “Mary.” Joe and Mary could be from any of the economic, social, educational, religious groups. Or any other way we can classify people. It is more of an attitude and a way of thinking than anything else.
Joe and Mary are hard working, sincere, dedicated – to each other – and their children. Most follow the Christian faith, although they may not always go to church. Some may believe in other faiths. They are employed, but not always in the job of their dreams. In the community, they participate in activities and events, interact with friends and acquaintances. With their children, they attend school functions and support these activities. For the most part they are honest, law abiding people and stay out of trouble. Maybe a traffic ticket or two but have respect for the law and for those around them.
But increasingly Joe and Mary are frustrated by events that occur both locally and nationally. They wonder why the government officials cannot solve the problems that affect them. They pay taxes and vote but little if anything is resolved. When they speak up to express their viewpoint often they are given the run-around, criticized or worse just ignored. What they think is those in office only do what needs to be done to stay in office. At least it seems that way.
There are many other characteristics for Joe and Mary – far too many to mention – but in short Joe and Mary Average American Citizen are regular people, dare I say, “normal” people? They are primarily middle of the road politically, tending more to the conservative side, but open to any ideas they might truly improve their life.
Herb Dettmer is a retired Bowling Green resident, U.S. Army veteran and writes this column representing the viewpoint of “Joe Average” citizen. He is freelance writer and author of “Others,” a devotional book. Call or text “Joe” with comments at 419-494-4641.
