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Everyone predicts doom and gloom when Seattle enacts a progressive policy. Seattle’s economy is still doing well. I view this as essentially fixing a loop hol

by Nbox9 6y ago

Everyone predicts doom and gloom when Seattle enacts a progressive policy. Seattle’s economy is still doing well. I view this as essentially fixing a loop hole around their existing minimum wage laws.

dantheman 6y ago
These policies don't have an effect in a day - it takes time. People need to move - if Amazon wanted to move it would take them years just to build a new campus; let a lone try to transfer employees. People are sticky to a location, so the city can extract more and more from them until they eventually decide to leave. It will slow growth as people choose not set up there; it will make the economy less flexible as people have few choices. These policies will destroy wealth and will hurt those who currently do these jobs. Remember the people doing these jobs are doing them because they're the best option available to them - this include far more than just the wage. It's going to be harder and harder to find jobs for low skilled workers in Seattle.
- Retric 6y ago
  Seattle’s median household income is $93,500 (2018) and it has a population of 744,955. Their clearly doing something correctly.
  - devmunchies 6y ago
    you can barely afford to live there if you make less, so of course the median is high. I hated living in Seattle, loved the rest of Washington though.
  - anoxor 6y ago
    If you don't make solid money, you move out of the city because it is too expensive. The minimum wage law is less than 2 years old, and it's possible for Seattle to continue it's boom momentum despite recently policy. If the policy is bad, it isn't hurting the tech workers, it's hurting the smaller businesses and people who work there. When a burger and beer is $25, people eat out less and businesses have fewer $16 an hour people on staff.
    - Retric 6y ago
      Minimum wage doesn’t increase restaurant prices much. It varies a lot, but ~8 people can handle an average of 50 customers an hour. That’s an extra 90cents per meal assuming their all paid an extra 7.50 an hour. More realistically several of those people where already making more than minimum wage so the impact is even less. Further, rent is based in large part on how profitable the location is. So, land lords end up picking up a chunk of the difference.
- Nbox9 6y ago
  To me this is about a group of laws being passed in Seattle that raise wages for labor and tax corporations. Seattle has a very long history of such laws. Corporations keep expanding in Seattle and people keep moving to Seattle because it’s such a great place to do business. These laws are about ensuring that the great amount of wealth being generated in the area is shared among the entire community.
bpodgursky 6y ago
It's a bit more complex than this (source: I live in Seattle). Seattle is saved from the impact of a lot of the progressive policies because many of them are shut down by the courts (all the attempts to instate an income tax, for example). And while the Seattle area is doing well, a lot of the growth and new jobs are now in Bellevue, not Seattle itself, to avoid the various head taxes which are proposed or enacted (which, btw, is another case of Seattle enacting a progressive tax and then immediately dropping it because of business outcry -- so it's not really correct to say that Seattle's economy is doing well "in spite of" the policy). And as other point out... these things take time. Amazon isn't going to pull up and leave overnight. But it will shift jobs out of downtown over the course of 5 years, and Facebook and Google have easy options to do the same (Google has a large Bellevue presence as well).
- ozten 6y ago
  Big companies are establishing offices in both Seattle and Bellevue. It isn't an either or situation. I think sourcing talent is a bigger priority. Example: Google has a new-new building in South Lake Union, but they are also in Kirkland.
  - bpodgursky 6y ago
    It's true, but the SLU campus has been in the works for most of a decade. There's a really long trailing indicator on new construction, and few if any big employers are laying down plans for new downtown offices starting in 2020. Maybe it's not 100% of the goal, but I'm very confident that legal jurisdiction hedging (w/ the ability to move staff at less-than-decade notice) is a big part of splitting offices across SLU and Kirkland.
- unobtaniumstool 6y ago
  As a resident of Seattle, nothing would make me happier than seeing one of our big corporate residents pack up and go elsewhere.
readams 6y ago
The result isn't really doom. It's just you have shitty taxi services and everyone is sad. Nobody remembers the reason is bad regulation. Uber started in the first place because taxis in San Francisco were and are so bad that they were basically unusable.

by Nbox9 6y ago

dantheman 6y ago

These policies don't have an effect in a day - it takes time. People need to move - if Amazon wanted to move it would take them years just to build a new campus; let a lone try to transfer employees. People are sticky to a location, so the city can extract more and more from them until they eventually decide to leave. It will slow growth as people choose not set up there; it will make the economy less flexible as people have few choices. These policies will destroy wealth and will hurt those who currently do these jobs. Remember the people doing these jobs are doing them because they're the best option available to them - this include far more than just the wage. It's going to be harder and harder to find jobs for low skilled workers in Seattle.

Retric 6y ago
Seattle’s median household income is $93,500 (2018) and it has a population of 744,955. Their clearly doing something correctly.
- devmunchies 6y ago
  you can barely afford to live there if you make less, so of course the median is high. I hated living in Seattle, loved the rest of Washington though.
- anoxor 6y ago
  If you don't make solid money, you move out of the city because it is too expensive. The minimum wage law is less than 2 years old, and it's possible for Seattle to continue it's boom momentum despite recently policy. If the policy is bad, it isn't hurting the tech workers, it's hurting the smaller businesses and people who work there. When a burger and beer is $25, people eat out less and businesses have fewer $16 an hour people on staff.
  - Retric 6y ago
    Minimum wage doesn’t increase restaurant prices much. It varies a lot, but ~8 people can handle an average of 50 customers an hour. That’s an extra 90cents per meal assuming their all paid an extra 7.50 an hour. More realistically several of those people where already making more than minimum wage so the impact is even less. Further, rent is based in large part on how profitable the location is. So, land lords end up picking up a chunk of the difference.
Nbox9 6y ago
To me this is about a group of laws being passed in Seattle that raise wages for labor and tax corporations. Seattle has a very long history of such laws. Corporations keep expanding in Seattle and people keep moving to Seattle because it’s such a great place to do business. These laws are about ensuring that the great amount of wealth being generated in the area is shared among the entire community.

bpodgursky 6y ago

It's a bit more complex than this (source: I live in Seattle). Seattle is saved from the impact of a lot of the progressive policies because many of them are shut down by the courts (all the attempts to instate an income tax, for example). And while the Seattle area is doing well, a lot of the growth and new jobs are now in Bellevue, not Seattle itself, to avoid the various head taxes which are proposed or enacted (which, btw, is another case of Seattle enacting a progressive tax and then immediately dropping it because of business outcry -- so it's not really correct to say that Seattle's economy is doing well "in spite of" the policy). And as other point out... these things take time. Amazon isn't going to pull up and leave overnight. But it will shift jobs out of downtown over the course of 5 years, and Facebook and Google have easy options to do the same (Google has a large Bellevue presence as well).

ozten 6y ago
Big companies are establishing offices in both Seattle and Bellevue. It isn't an either or situation. I think sourcing talent is a bigger priority. Example: Google has a new-new building in South Lake Union, but they are also in Kirkland.
- bpodgursky 6y ago
  It's true, but the SLU campus has been in the works for most of a decade. There's a really long trailing indicator on new construction, and few if any big employers are laying down plans for new downtown offices starting in 2020. Maybe it's not 100% of the goal, but I'm very confident that legal jurisdiction hedging (w/ the ability to move staff at less-than-decade notice) is a big part of splitting offices across SLU and Kirkland.
unobtaniumstool 6y ago
As a resident of Seattle, nothing would make me happier than seeing one of our big corporate residents pack up and go elsewhere.

readams 6y ago

The result isn't really doom. It's just you have shitty taxi services and everyone is sad. Nobody remembers the reason is bad regulation. Uber started in the first place because taxis in San Francisco were and are so bad that they were basically unusable.