Monday, February 24, 2014

"Seattle Now Resembles a Mini-Venezuela"

RW Note: In the below Counter-Punch article, Shamus Cooke is clearly sympathetic to the job destroying $15.00 minimum wage. I have linked the piece here at EPJ because it provides a important insight into the developing political movement behind the $15.00 minimum wage. And although Cooke appears to be hostile to unions and their approach to the minimum wage, it should be noted that he is an elected officer of SEIU 503. 

The SEIU appears to be a strong supporter of the $15.00 minimum wage. It appears to be part of their grand plan to unionize fast food workers.

Finally, I find it instructive that Shamus likens Seattle, ground zero for the $15.00 minimum wage, to a mini-Venezuela.  Venezuela is now the land of massive government interventionism, massive unemployment, massive corruption and price inflation of over  50%. If Shamus would like to see the economy of Seattle destroyed like the Venezuelan economy, then a $15.00 minimum wage is a good start. He has that right.

The Murky Politics of the $15 Minimum Wage
By Shamus Cooke

Seattle now resembles a mini-Venezuela. It’s not a perfect comparison, but like the average Venezuelan the people of Seattle are experiencing an explosion of political consciousness. Recently I took the three-hour drive from Portland, and although Seattle is only a couple of hundred miles away, it’s politically thousands of miles ahead of “progressive” Portland.

The “fight for $15” is the reason Seattle is in a political uproar. Unlike any other American city, all the Seattle politicians — including the Mayor and City Council — have publicly committed and are working to implement the $15 minimum wage, and Seattle workers now expect it. The coffee shop workers I talked to were eagerly looking forward to their big raises.

How did this happen? Kshama Sawant is the answer. The new socialist city council member won her recent election by relentlessly campaigning on a $15 minimum wage. Her campaign was devastatingly effective, using her Socialist Alternative organization to mobilize hundreds of volunteers who’ve collectively tilted the politics of Seattle and beyond (the Washington governor recently came out — under heavy pressure — in favor of a statewide wage of $13 an hour). No Seattle politician dares to come out against $15 publicly, the public debate has already been decided; a recent poll showed that 68 percent of Seattle residents now support $15 without exceptions.

And although Sawant has been assured by the Seattle mayor that $15 is a done deal, she’s warning the Seattle public otherwise. Sawant recently spoke at a conference organized by the coalition “$15 Now,” and blasted the intrigue of the mayor’s committee set up to implement the new wage. Sawant knows the inner workings of the committee because she’s on it.

Read the rest here.

17 comments:

  1. My reading comprehension isn't the best, but I got no indication from that article that Cooke was hostile to labor unions. It appeared to me that he was delighted to see unions gain power exponentially from this $15 minimum wage campaign.

    I'm curious to see how fast business floods out of the city after this is passed.

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    1. -- I'm curious to see how fast business floods out of the city after this is passed. --

      Oh, you'll be surprised how many fools fancy themselves "socially-responsible entrepreneurs." Most will stay to keep appearances, until they run out of money. Socialism is an expensive hobby.

      Delete
    2. "SOCIALISM IS AN EXPENSIVE HOBBY" is the best reply EVER!!!

      Bob, I hope you spread this wise phrase far and wide.

      Delete
    3. Just more space for crony businesses to occupy.
      With further intervention and taxpayer support they'll get by.
      If that doesn't work the government will just take over the businesses it deems necessary.

      The answer to too much government is more government.

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    4. "If all workers made $15, the leverage of unions at the bargaining table would increase exponentially."

      This is the truly expensive part that is almost always overlooked.

      Once the bottom of the pay scale is brought way up, then the unions will say, "Look how much the fast-food people are making! We are highly skilled and are barely making any more than them!"

      Delete
  2. I would have preferred something bolder. Say, $50 per hour. Something incredibly stupid and self-defeating. Something so obvious that the subsequent implosion would be irrefutable evidence that government-imposed wage laws are either ineffective or destructive.

    But $15 is a start. The job destruction ought to be enough to be measurable.

    There are a lot of $10/hour workers who should be very nervous in Seattle right about now, but I suspect most of them are simply too ignorant of basic economics to comprehend that they'll be receiving pink slips, or to have enough brain matter to understand why they've been priced out of the labor market.

    Hey, there's always Obamacare, food stamps and Mom and Dad's basement bedroom to fall back on.

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    1. I chatted with a bartender in Seattle on Twitter who made $9.50 and her boss told her if the law passed she and others would be fired.

      Delete
    2. "There are a lot of $10/hour workers who should be very nervous in Seattle right about now, but I suspect most of them are simply too ignorant of basic economics to comprehend that they'll be receiving pink slips, or to have enough brain matter to understand why they've been priced out of the labor market."

      That's where the argument for a society with absolutely no coercion falls short. Because ignorant masses need to be subdued somehow in an organized fashion so that they don't get political control and ruin everything as they are now.

      Delete
  3. Curious what major city becomes the next Detroit first; Seattle or New York?

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  4. "Venezuela is now the land of massive government interventionism, massive unemployment, massive corruption and price inflation of over 50%." You must not know anything about how Venezuela was before then and what's changed since the 1990's. Before Chavez well over 90% of the oil income went straight into corruption and out of the country now they go to something undoubtedly even worse according to the authors and readers of this site: social programs that have actually helped millions out of poverty. Programs that by the way that have such tremendous support that the right-wing candidate, Capriles, in the last presidential election had to promise they would not be dismantled to even have a shot at having popular support (then again I am not sure what you think about things like popular support and democracy). After all your ideology were implemented best by Pinochet right? The free market needs torture centers, supply and demand and all that.

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    1. Your either a horrible troll or badly confused. First of all libertarians aren't apart of the right-wing in this country. A quick search can find you that conservatives hate libertarians as well and accuse us of being liberals in disguise. Second you'll never find a real libertarian make excuses for Pinochet. Pinochet's Chile was just as authoritarian as Castro's Cuba and the rest of the authoritarian states in Latin America.

      Delete
    2. "Before Chavez well over 90% of the oil income went straight into corruption and out of the country"

      We don't support crony capitalists and neither does the free market. As for money going out of the country, so what? It's their money. Keeping it in to benefit those who are Venezuelan is just nationalist socialism.

      "now they go to something undoubtedly even worse according to the authors and readers of this site: social programs that have actually helped millions out of poverty. "

      It's called theft, no matter how poor the thief is. When a guy who has less money than you picks your pocket, you don't tell him go ahead, you file a report with the police. Even when he can use the money even better than you can.


      "Programs that by the way that have such tremendous support that the right-wing candidate, Capriles, in the last presidential election had to promise they would not be dismantled to even have a shot at having popular support (then again I am not sure what you think about things like popular support and democracy)."

      The same way we feel about a gang of rapists and a woman voting on whether or not rape is justified, and who gets to be the victim.
      And of course the right wing candidate would do that. All politicians are cowardly, corrupt scumbags who would sell their mother if it would get them votes. There is no difference between left- and rightwing politicians when it comes to that. Are we supposed to be surprised?
      By the way, "popular support" is just code for mob rule since government force is being applied here to achieve an aim. Of course socialists love mob rule as long as it's in the favor of their own ideology.


      "After all your ideology were implemented best by Pinochet right?

      No. Not right. Our ideology COULD NOT EVER be implemented by any politician, let alone a dictator thug. That's the difference between you and us. We don't like dictators. We don't like politicians, period.
      So no, our ideology was not best implemented by Pinochet. What he implemented was a fascist thuggish dictatorship for the benefit of American corporate interests, as a response to socialist, thieving BS. Allende and Pinochet deserved each other.


      "The free market needs torture centers, supply and demand and all that."

      The free market has no place for government, therefor no place for crony capitalists, therefor no place for politicians, or aggressive wars, or torture chambers.
      Of course you wouldn't know this, because you have no clue what the free market actually is, nor what we here support as has become obvious from your immature, neoliberal/neoconservative-baiting little post.
      And of course, it would also have no place for people who want to be high and mighty philanthropists with other people's money (or as we call them, THIEVES)

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    3. -- You must not know anything about how Venezuela was before then and what's changed since the 1990's. --

      My Venezuelan friends know, and it wasn't the hell that Chavez created for those foolish enough to stay.

      -- Before Chavez well over 90% of the oil income went straight into corruption --

      This is a meaningless accusation.

      -- now they go to something undoubtedly even worse according to the authors and readers of this site: social programs that have actually helped millions out of poverty. --

      It certainly helped the poor, poor politicians linked to Chavez's party.

      Delete
    4. "After all your ideology were implemented best by Pinochet right?"

      Wait. What? You think Pinochet, a DICTATOR, was some kind of laissez-faire capitalist?

      LOL!

      Know any other good jokes?

      Here. Get an education: mises.org

      Delete
  5. I've spoken to Venezuelans recently. To say that they are experiencing an "explosion of political consciousness" is embarrassing. There is great unrest among the anti-Chavistas. What is actually happening is a campaign of terror by pro-government paramilitaries on motorcycles against anti-Chavistas - usually middle class people or students who oppose socialist repression. They are very afraid.

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