Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Seattle Set To Destroy Economy With Highest Minimum Wage Increase In The World

By Rachel Alexander

The city of Seattle is about to phase in a drastic increase in the minimum wage to $15/hr, thanks to the efforts of its new socialist city councilwoman, Kshama Sawant. Seattle’s far left mayor Ed Murray has now taken up the effort, and it is expected to be passed into law by the city council soon. The increase will affect nearly 100,000 workers, including almost all fast-food workers. Around 30 percent of all jobs in Seattle currently pay less than $15/hr.

What is going on is pay-to-pay politics, led by the unions. The losing mayoral candidate, incumbent Mike McGinn, unsuccessfully tried to save his campaign with a union quid pro quo. He received a $100,000 contribution from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union 21 last year, coincidentally timed about the same time he came out publicly opposing a new Whole Foods development in West Seattle.

Whole Foods does virtually everything the left wants - except they’re non-union. Whole Foods already pays its non-management employees an average of $15/hr, provides excellent benefits and health care, including same-sex benefits, and executive pay is capped. The company routinely makes Fortune’s list of “Best Companies to Work For.” Whole Foods is now the largest natural foods chain in the nation, not exactly a far right type of organization. Even though Whole Foods would be perfect for bohemian West Seattle, the unions take the approach, “Either you’re union, or we will go after you and destroy you.” They have a stranglehold on the

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12 comments:

  1. This makes me wonder about tipping- what is the proper amount to tip when the server is making such a high wage?

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    1. I used to dine with an Italian citizen now and then with whom I had both a business relationship with and a somewhat surface level/casual friendship with...I think it was more a curiosity on his part about me at the thime.

      I was working for a German company, with my Italian last name, and he was working for a Italian vendor of said company and he just came over to the States a few times a year.

      He would always insist on paying the bill when we went out to eat. The first time this happened I noticed he left an embarrassingly small tip(around $2 and change on an $80 bill).

      I actually told him I had to use the bathroom on our way out, and went back to the table to leave 20% without him knowing.

      lol....This pattern continued every time he came to the States and took me out to eat, and I always made an excuse to double back to the table until one day I brought up wages in a sideways manner over a meal and their relationship to tipping.

      It was then I found out that Italian waiters are paid a much higher wage by Italian law and are hardly ever tipped by Italians themselves. Having only been to Italy a couple of times myself, I found out they still have a sense of entitlement about getting tips from Americans....lol

      Anyway, when I informed him what waiters in Charlotte, NC were getting paid per hour and how the bulk of their living was made off of tips he went dead silent...lol....I think I paid every bill for every meal after that.

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    2. Well the "proper" amount would be zero, but among the entitled and self-important parasites of Seattle, anything less than 20% will probably get you spit in your burger, regardless of how high their wage is...

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  2. As a firm believer in markets and human action, I welcome this move with open arms. The progressives constantly try to push for this sort of thing while libertarians and some fiscal conservatives fight it. What results is something in the middle that proves neither side right or wrong. If we are to believe that the US is, and should be, an experiment with 50 states each acting in its own self interest, this is exactly what we want to see. If we believe further that each state should be an experiment with each city acting in its own self interest, this is exactly the test we should be seeking.

    Let's cheer as Seattle goes down this road unimpeded by common sense. My guess is that they will soon learn the lessons imparted by reality on the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and every other state that has attempted to legislate fairness and equality. Let's cheer as the Seattle suburbs prosper just as those of Detroit, Kansas City and countless other rust belt holdouts have. Bring it on!

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    1. "As a firm believer in markets and human action, I welcome this move with open arms. The progressives constantly try to push for this sort of thing while libertarians and some fiscal conservatives fight it. What results is something in the middle that proves neither side right or wrong."

      This is like saying, "as a firm believer in human dignity and freedom of association, I welcome slavery with open arms." Why would you- as a firm supporter of markets- want to see such a move?

      "If we are to believe that the US is, and should be, an experiment with 50 states each acting in its own self interest, this is exactly what we want to see. If we believe further that each state should be an experiment with each city acting in its own self interest, this is exactly the test we should be seeking."

      Wow, you used "we" four times in two sentences! As a non-party to any contract involving any government, I don't think any of these "experiments" in controlling markets are legitimate...

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    2. seanot,

      They won't "learn" anything. To the extent that this fails, they'll blame it all on corporate greed. When layoffs come, they will point to company profits and declare that these corporations "could afford" to keep hiring workers at $15 an hour. They will demand more regulations and more restrictions.

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    3. Except that it is the opposite of free markets.

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    4. Rick, the voters of Seattle are getting what they voted for "good and hard" to quote HL Mencken. Having watched conservative opposition answer progressive policy initiatives with answers that say, basically, "we want socialism too, just not so much" for the past several years, it's difficult for me to envision anything but a slow creeping toward a purely collective outcome. I believe that the system needs to break down of its own weight in order to see real change that would appeal to my libertarian sensibilities.

      Hey, it looks like I limited my usage of "we" to just once in my reply. 'Any other writing faux pas to which I need to address?


      Matt, you are correct. And if such a response happens, let it. You don't kill the beast by keeping it on life support.

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    5. Mark, elections are not about free markets. They are about the majority using the force of government to have their way with the minority. Or, perhaps more accurately, they are about a well organized minority convincing the majority to give them what they want. A free market occurs where there is no unilateral force set on having its way with those over which it rules. 'Not too familiar with where that is in this world.

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    6. " I believe that the system needs to break down of its own weight in order to see real change that would appeal to my libertarian sensibilities."

      I agree with this. Unlike the multitude of times this has happened in the past, it's harder for the PTB to control the message as to "why" with the internet, which is probably a more important invention than the Gutenberg press.

      Then again, I have been guilty of underestimating the stupidity of the general population...maybe I'm being too optimistic.

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  3. This should be proof to anyone that the people pushing such a destructive self-interested policy hate the poor and lower middle class and see them as nothing but expendable fools for their gain. The unions will win, the government of Seattle will become even more unaffordable for the average person and Seattle will become another exclusive place for the Rich to live without the inconvenience of having to deal with an underclass.

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  4. Bourgeois who worked hard to increase their wages should learn their harsh lesson, in future they should not dare to focus on their own selfish interests (and the satisfaction of their bourgeois customers) when they could have simply joined the collective for the "greater good" and "social justice".

    Mises taught us that human action always seek more productive ways to remove certain uneasiness, when political transactions are easier and can add more value compared to market competition then humans will tend to organize for creation of whimsical laws rather than creating good products or services.

    Friedrich Hayek explains why it's "Not individual but group selfishness is the chief threat":

    "While public indignation and in consequence also legislation has been directed almost entirely against the selfish actions of single monopolists, or of a few conspicuous enterprises acting in concert, what is chiefly threatening to destroy the market order is not the selfish action of individual firms but the selfishness of organized groups. These have gained their power largely through the assistance government has given them to suppress those manifestations of individual selfishness which would have kept their action in check. The extent to which the functioning of the market order has already been impeded, and threatens to become progressively more inoperative, is a result not so much of the rise of large productive units as of the deliberately furthered organization of the units for collective interests. What is increasingly suspending the
    working of the spontaneous forces of the market is not what the public has in mind when it complains about monopolies, but the ubiquitous associations and unions of the different 'trades'.They operate largely through the pressure they can bring on government to 'regulate' the market in their interest"

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