Mathematically, given the quantity of money in circulation, the difference between $10 an hour and $15 is so trivial (in the scheme of things) as to be not worth discussing.
It's like having $10,000 in your pocket, and going to buy some Virginia ham at the deli, and worrying if you can more afford a half pound, or three quarters of a pound. Sliced.
Specifically, raising the minimum wage would help businesses in poorer neighborhoods(because their clientele would suddenly have some disposable income) and hurt businesses in richer neighborhoods(who would have to pay higher wages)
No, it is not. The difference between a worker working full time for $10 to making $15 is astounding.
It goes from someone who has no real spendable money (all you have is enough for your rent, food, household amenities and student loans) to one that suddenly has a flush of extra income to spend on luxeries like going out to eat and buying that trivial but entertaining thing you've coveted.
In the past four years I've been that person. Making what I make now (around $15 an hour) vs. what I was making four years ago at $10 an hour is incredible. I don't have to stress out anymore. I can buy some of the finer things I want. I can actually spend my money on NON-ESSENTIAL things.
Mathematically, given the quantity of money in my wallet, the difference between $10/hour and $15/hour (in the overall scheme of my paycheck), is the difference between 2/3s and 1/2 of my income going to rent.
We were sold the story of supply-side economics with the idea that if companies didn't have to spend so much money on oppressive regulations, they could afford to pay more to their workers and spend more money innovating. Now we know they won't do that either unless somebody makes them do it.
First, this whole dogma of "majority of people want a $15/hour minimum wage" is absurd. That poll was funded by BIG LABOR. If a polling firm that had a secretary who use to be a roommate of a best friend of someone who went out with the cousin of a Koch Brother found majority of people against raising the minimum wage, Goldy and The SStranger would cry foul.
Second, this poll refers only to Seattle, which by now anyone with half a brain can see is a neo-liberal shithole infested with hipsters, racists Marxists and other assorted douche-monkeys. A REAL POLL found that most Americans are against raising the minimum wage above 10/hour. Source: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/thedai…
Second, supply side economics (aka common fucking sense) is doing fine in North Dakota, with the lowest unemployment rate in America, and also doing fine in places like Singapore, with no government mandated minimum wage and very little local poverty. What little poverty exists are people fleeing Malaysia for work and they don't stay poor for long.
Third, a part of me hopes this does pass. Why? So it will be the final nail in the coffin that makes people like me, who have sense and don't want to work in a socialist-gulag-city, leave this region. By all means, quarantine Seattle and throw all the neo-liberal, gun banning, free-speech oppressing, plastic bag outlawing, ridiculous housing ordinance passing, businesses hating, vegan "burger" eating, Che Guevara worshiping, non-bathing pieces of shit in the city limits and let us thinking people leave.
And just as gay marriage and pot, both of which I support, btw, made conservatives leave the area, this unpayable wage garbage is going to make libertarians leave the area.
So this will only enhance the divide between free states like Texas (which is about to decriminalize cannabis) and slave cities and states like Seattle.
So go ahead, pass this crap. I'll take my bisexual African-American working class ass out of this city and head to Houston. I'll have more freedom to decide my own starting salary, lower costs of living, no zoning laws, and no efforts to destroy my job.
Better to be a sweaty free man than a slave surrounded by beautiful mountains.
And I would just love this question answered: what would happen if a socialist ran for elected office in Texas? Would the reaction be similar to the one Sawant had here? What if someone went door to door in Houston to get people to vote socialist, how would they be received?
I would love Goldy to answer that question. Not holding my breath though...
Watch out for that first argument in opposition. When the restaurant association opens its coffers you will see that argument plastered everywhere. What you should be looking at is the intensity of support among that 68%. If many of these people are only weakly supportive, the lead Goldy is so giddy over will evaporate by election day and it will be a tight race.
It may be a gross oversimplification, but I've always said Republicans believe the economy should be driven by profits and Democrats believe the economy should be driven by wages.
@10
I NEVER said this was a good idea. I only said a part of me wants this to pass in Seattle so I can leave and it can become a haven for all the liberal douche-monkeys. All the freedom loving people can leave for Texas or Colorado or Alaska, and the slaves can feel free to move here. Cross migration is not a bad idea.
And NO engineer enjoys Seattle's hipster culture. That's why most of them live on the East Side.
@14 & 12
By "neo-liberalism", I mean AMERICAN "neo-liberalism," which is opposed to classic liberalism. I apologize for assuming people would be educated enough to understand the difference between American and European terminology.
And thank you for proving my points about Seattle people by nit-picking my choice of words and completely ignoring the questions raised in my post.
@13
Unlike the socialists of this city, I don't have a trust fund or rich parents to mooch off of. Hence, I need to work and save my money before I leave this bi-phobic, cloudy, earthquake prone, hipster infested, big government loving, free speech squashing excuse for a city and head someplace freer, like Texas or Colorado. Texas is about to decriminalize weed and Colorado voted against a tax increase to fund education.
Bottom line is this: there are plenty of places a 15/hour minimum wage will NEVER fly. Texas will vote in favor of such a thing about as soon as Seattle votes to ban vegan restaurants.
We should get a kick starter to send him to Texas but he can reach slog over the internet as easily from his moms basement as a hovel in Harris County.
I agree that our present situation requires that we augment demand right now but it's unfair to slander supply-side thinking just because s-s economics cannot fix the current depression. Though super high-tech plants linger up north, manufacturing growth is greater down South and in the cheapo markets overseas. The US has boomed since Reagan and Volcker broke US labor. Aren't stranger writers always soliciting more density? Looking at the Piketty graphs I'd say this is one of the bigger issues of our time. Nimby regulations are a supply-side nuisance, no?
note: supply-side economics is not "trickle down"
I like min wage improvements because they're political winners and raise living standards but it's a very economically and ecologically clumsy way to address the demand side. Raise the city gov's own spending and keep it topical! Hire a bunch of daycare providers, seasonal gunless pedestrian cops, teachers, bus drivers, muralists - why not reproduce famous pub domain masterpieces on every boring wall? target hiring to workfare eligible moms/dads - lady and trans pep spray and muay thai knee defense trainers, piano tutors, math tutors, Spanish tutors, mandarin tutors, ESL tutors. a jazz band in every cafe! this could happen: hispanics, uni students, musics, painters and cripple vets are famous for working cheap and they're in no short supply!
we kno y the city doesn't buy this useful, non materials-intensive labor for its citizens: the workers wood unionize, as public sector staff does, and the jobs would become permanent, growing expenses, slow gov program growth. that's a supply-side barricade on the clearest green route to full employment. blue state govs r going thru what corpos did in 70s with unions retarding expectations for public investment. we should be less concerned with making every pub sector job a great job and more concerned with the variety and amplitude of services. we should tighten labor markets and thus improve worker power broadly by the frequency of our hiring, not just create an island of security that encumbers the state, which ought to be the economy's most dynamic actor. we are the boss and customer of pub sector labor. we should be left neoliberals
progressive cities in r2w states like madison and the black south's capitals have much potential
Mathematically, given the quantity of money in circulation, the difference between $10 an hour and $15 is so trivial (in the scheme of things) as to be not worth discussing.
It's like having $10,000 in your pocket, and going to buy some Virginia ham at the deli, and worrying if you can more afford a half pound, or three quarters of a pound. Sliced.
No, it is not. The difference between a worker working full time for $10 to making $15 is astounding.
It goes from someone who has no real spendable money (all you have is enough for your rent, food, household amenities and student loans) to one that suddenly has a flush of extra income to spend on luxeries like going out to eat and buying that trivial but entertaining thing you've coveted.
In the past four years I've been that person. Making what I make now (around $15 an hour) vs. what I was making four years ago at $10 an hour is incredible. I don't have to stress out anymore. I can buy some of the finer things I want. I can actually spend my money on NON-ESSENTIAL things.
Second, this poll refers only to Seattle, which by now anyone with half a brain can see is a neo-liberal shithole infested with hipsters, racists Marxists and other assorted douche-monkeys. A REAL POLL found that most Americans are against raising the minimum wage above 10/hour. Source: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/thedai…
Second, supply side economics (aka common fucking sense) is doing fine in North Dakota, with the lowest unemployment rate in America, and also doing fine in places like Singapore, with no government mandated minimum wage and very little local poverty. What little poverty exists are people fleeing Malaysia for work and they don't stay poor for long.
Third, a part of me hopes this does pass. Why? So it will be the final nail in the coffin that makes people like me, who have sense and don't want to work in a socialist-gulag-city, leave this region. By all means, quarantine Seattle and throw all the neo-liberal, gun banning, free-speech oppressing, plastic bag outlawing, ridiculous housing ordinance passing, businesses hating, vegan "burger" eating, Che Guevara worshiping, non-bathing pieces of shit in the city limits and let us thinking people leave.
As Seattle gets more neo-liberal, places like Texas get more conservative and libertarian. Source: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2…
And just as gay marriage and pot, both of which I support, btw, made conservatives leave the area, this unpayable wage garbage is going to make libertarians leave the area.
So this will only enhance the divide between free states like Texas (which is about to decriminalize cannabis) and slave cities and states like Seattle.
So go ahead, pass this crap. I'll take my bisexual African-American working class ass out of this city and head to Houston. I'll have more freedom to decide my own starting salary, lower costs of living, no zoning laws, and no efforts to destroy my job.
Better to be a sweaty free man than a slave surrounded by beautiful mountains.
And I would just love this question answered: what would happen if a socialist ran for elected office in Texas? Would the reaction be similar to the one Sawant had here? What if someone went door to door in Houston to get people to vote socialist, how would they be received?
I would love Goldy to answer that question. Not holding my breath though...
I NEVER said this was a good idea. I only said a part of me wants this to pass in Seattle so I can leave and it can become a haven for all the liberal douche-monkeys. All the freedom loving people can leave for Texas or Colorado or Alaska, and the slaves can feel free to move here. Cross migration is not a bad idea.
And NO engineer enjoys Seattle's hipster culture. That's why most of them live on the East Side.
You don't even know what neoliberalism means. GTFO, half-wit.
By "neo-liberalism", I mean AMERICAN "neo-liberalism," which is opposed to classic liberalism. I apologize for assuming people would be educated enough to understand the difference between American and European terminology.
And thank you for proving my points about Seattle people by nit-picking my choice of words and completely ignoring the questions raised in my post.
Unlike the socialists of this city, I don't have a trust fund or rich parents to mooch off of. Hence, I need to work and save my money before I leave this bi-phobic, cloudy, earthquake prone, hipster infested, big government loving, free speech squashing excuse for a city and head someplace freer, like Texas or Colorado. Texas is about to decriminalize weed and Colorado voted against a tax increase to fund education.
Bottom line is this: there are plenty of places a 15/hour minimum wage will NEVER fly. Texas will vote in favor of such a thing about as soon as Seattle votes to ban vegan restaurants.
note: supply-side economics is not "trickle down"
I like min wage improvements because they're political winners and raise living standards but it's a very economically and ecologically clumsy way to address the demand side. Raise the city gov's own spending and keep it topical! Hire a bunch of daycare providers, seasonal gunless pedestrian cops, teachers, bus drivers, muralists - why not reproduce famous pub domain masterpieces on every boring wall? target hiring to workfare eligible moms/dads - lady and trans pep spray and muay thai knee defense trainers, piano tutors, math tutors, Spanish tutors, mandarin tutors, ESL tutors. a jazz band in every cafe! this could happen: hispanics, uni students, musics, painters and cripple vets are famous for working cheap and they're in no short supply!
we kno y the city doesn't buy this useful, non materials-intensive labor for its citizens: the workers wood unionize, as public sector staff does, and the jobs would become permanent, growing expenses, slow gov program growth. that's a supply-side barricade on the clearest green route to full employment. blue state govs r going thru what corpos did in 70s with unions retarding expectations for public investment. we should be less concerned with making every pub sector job a great job and more concerned with the variety and amplitude of services. we should tighten labor markets and thus improve worker power broadly by the frequency of our hiring, not just create an island of security that encumbers the state, which ought to be the economy's most dynamic actor. we are the boss and customer of pub sector labor. we should be left neoliberals
progressive cities in r2w states like madison and the black south's capitals have much potential