There are questions on how Seattle is spending their money on the homeless. I comes out to $10,000 or so a head.
Then there are the tent cities that spring up everywhere, the discarded needles and simply the astonishing amount of trash that builds up.
One of the city council members optioned that Amazon could easily pay twice or four times the head tax. As a socialist, she completely fails to comprehend economics.

Note how Amazon is looking for a city to locate a "second" HQ? I'm wondering if it will end up being the future only HQ?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Amazon, the city’s largest employer, would take the biggest hit.

A semi-rhetorical question: when Amazon books out of there and moves to a city without such ridiculousness, what then?

They aren't going anywhere given who runs that company. I'll bet money though they'll receive whatever carve out they want on this one in the final bill.

They aren't going anywhere given who runs that company. I'll bet money though they'll receive whatever carve out they want on this one in the final bill.[/QUOTE]

This. They'll cut a backroom deal and walk away unscathed. Watch for a press release talking about thier dedication to the issues and tax deductable contributions to the problem. Pay particular attention to the armed security detail located discretely offscreen during while they discuss gun violence and the homeless. Hypocrites.

quote:

The company has more than 45,000 workers, meaning it would pay more than $20 million a year under the tax. It would likely owe even more when the tax switches to a 0.7 per cent tax on business payroll in 2021.”

The City of St. Louis instituted a "City earnings tax" in 1950. At that time the population of the City of St. Louis was about 860,000. People began moving out immediately. Businesses began moving out. The surrounding area, St. Louis County, which had no earnings tax, grew rapidly following the enactment of the City earnings tax. The population of the City of St. Louis has fallen to less than a third of what it was.





Some people don't learn from the mistakes of others ... but someone should ask Seattle officials how they think the City earnings tax worked out for the City of St. Louis.

"After 14 Years, I’ve Had It. I’m Leaving Seattle"

In a scathing op-ed published in the Seattle Times, Alex Berezow, a biomedical science fellow at the American Council on Science and Health, blasted Seattle's City Council for prioritizing virtue signaling over the plight of the city's most vulnerable residents and its increasingly strapped middle class.

When Berezow first moved to Seattle 14 years ago, homelessness didn't exist in the neighborhood of Northgate, where he continues to live.

But as home prices have skyrocketed - to the point where the median home value has reached nearly $900,000, placing homeownership in the city far beyond the reach of most American millennials - Berezow said homeless camps have begun appearing in the neighborhood. Many of these camps have no access to social services and are subjected to disease and abuse and as a result, crime has risen.

Seattle

In short, Seattle has become a city that is hostile to the middle class.

But it wasn't until a meeting with city council woman Debora Juarez that Berezow was inspired to pen an editorial for the Seattle Times. After the council woman blew off his concerns about the homeless and about housing (the city has been accused of artificially restricting supply through overly strict zoning laws), Berezow decided to appeal directly to the city's residents.

Seattle's politicians are so focused on being anti-Trump, they spend more time talking about issues they have no control over - like foreign policy - than ensuring that Seattle's streets are clean and safe, that potholes have been repaired, and that younger residents can at least entertain the hope of home ownership some day.

* * *

Read the full editorial below:

I KNEW Seattle was no longer a place for me when I met with Debora Juarez — the District 5 City Council member I had voted for.

Last September, at what I thought was going to be a friendly one-on-one meeting between an elected official and her constituent, I expressed some concerns that were on my mind. I fretted over the deterioration of a city with which I had fallen in love — a city that, despite my 21 trips to Europe, I still believe to be the most beautiful in the world.

I told my council member that Northgate, my home, had seen a noticeable increase in litter and graffiti. To my dismay, she seemed to suggest these issues were someone else’s job, not hers. So, I moved on to a bigger issue: homelessness.

When I first moved to Seattle 14 years ago, to attend the University of Washington, homelessness essentially didn’t exist at Northgate. Though I have never been a victim of or witness to a crime, some of my neighbors have been, and they believe homeless camps are the reason. Additionally, the conditions in such camps are often atrocious — not only are the homeless more likely to be victims of violent crime, they are susceptible to infectious disease, such as the hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego that sickened nearly 500 people and has killed 20.

I believe strongly that it is not compassionate to leave people who are unable or unwilling to care for themselves to suffer and die on the street. Because many (but certainly not all) homeless people struggle with mental illness or drug addiction, I suggested that Seattle find a way to make it easier to provide treatment to these troubled souls — involuntarily, if need be. It could literally save their lives.

Juarez exclaimed, “What is this? Nazi Germany?”

Appalled — in part because my grandparents survived Nazi Germany — I got up and walked out.

As a professional science writer, I’ve certainly grown accustomed to the crass insults that have become routine in our toxic political environment. I just didn’t expect it from a person for whom I voted. But perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Slowly but surely, Seattle has become an angry place. Councilmember Kshama Sawant called a police shooting a “brutal murder.” She also tweeted that it was “terrible” for a feminist organization to wish that Barbara Bush, on her death, rest in peace. As a congressional candidate, Pramila Jayapal supporters implied that her respectable opponent, Brady Walkinshaw, was a misogynist and racist. And former Mayor Ed Murray, whose pattern of alleged sexual behavior finally caught up with him, remained defiant until the bitter end.

For a city that prides itself on being “anti-Trump,” it is difficult to see how exactly we’re supposed to possess the moral high ground over “The Other Washington.”

The toxic politics are bad enough, but the city also has become unaffordable for the middle class. Partly, that is due to high demand (which is a good problem for a city to have), but it’s also due to self-inflicted wounds, such as a restrictive housing policy that artificially caps supply. Seattle is well on its way to becoming the next Vancouver, British Columbia, with the median housing price having spiked to an eye-watering $820,000, far outside the reach of the middle class. Unless they are able to save for about 14 years to afford a down payment, millennials can forget about homeownership entirely.

The $15 minimum wage has added gasoline to the fire. Though it hasn’t even been fully implemented yet, the most recent study last summer revealed that when the minimum moved from $11 to $13 an hour, low-wage workers lost about $125 per month. That means that the law raises costs for businesses and customers while actually harming employees it was meant to help.

But stubborn facts and a hurting middle class don’t seem to faze the City Council, which seems far more concerned about issues over which it has zero control — such as climate change and foreign policy — than it does about issues over which it has at least a modicum of control, such as the cost of living, homelessness, crime, traffic and potholes. For our City Council, virtue signaling is more important than governing.

So, my wife and I are heading to the Eastside. We really would prefer to stay in Seattle. But if safe streets, clean sidewalks, an affordable place to live and polite discourse is asking too much, we’ll gladly seek refuge in a city where quality of life and civility still matter.

* * *

Seattle's city council recently announced it would pursue an employment tax on the city's largest companies to create a fund to provide emergency services to the homeless, as well as permanent relocation services.

The only problem? The city's largest taxpayer, Amazon, is threatening to halt construction projects and cut down on employment in the city if the measure goes through.

Opponents of the law say it would penalize employment and ultimately hurt the city's economy, while doing nothing to alleviate the housing crisis.

But at least progressive lawmakers could finally say they're doing something.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news...hostile-middle-class

quote:

Originally posted by Tn226:

Supporters insist the online retailer and others that have benefited from Seattle’s prosperity and contributed to growing income inequality and skyrocketing rents can and should pay.

Yeah, it's Amazon's fault for maintaining a growing, prospering business. They need to be punished.

Idiots. I hope Amazon packs up and moves to Texas or somewhere less idiotic and take their 'evil commercial success' somewhere that will appreciate them.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:

quote:

Originally posted by Tn226:

Supporters insist the online retailer and others that have benefited from Seattle’s prosperity and contributed to growing income inequality and skyrocketing rents can and should pay.

Yeah, it's Amazon's fault for maintaining a growing, prospering business. They need to be punished.

Idiots. I hope Amazon packs up and moves to Texas or somewhere less idiotic and take their 'evil commercial success' somewhere that will appreciate them.

Maybe that's why they are planning an HQ2, to start moving out of a growing socialist mecca.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
So essentially they are wanting to bite the hand that feeds.

Would be great if Amazon popped smoke and set up elsewhere.

That’s what will happen too

I only spent a year there, and couldn’t wait to leave. It’s a f’in socialism experiment gone horribly wrong. I met so many on the kool-aid, and few who weren’t on it. One of the happiest days of my life was eyeing that 18 wheeler pull up to load my shit and go back home. Best drive or ride of my life was outta that shit hole. Overpopulated, few main highway arteries, and granola eaters everywhere like roaches in an unkept sugar factory.

A great many "homeless" people are homeless by desire, and they are not wanting "affordable housing". Yes, they are possibly in need of mental health treatment, but providing cheap living quarters will not fix that.

flashguy

quote:

Supporters insist the online retailer and others that have benefited from Seattle’s prosperity...

They just have no clue. "Seattle" - referring to the entity - did not implement prosperity while the businesses went for the ride.

The businesses are what drove any success the area may have had. They invested, took risk, hired tax-paying employees, paid wages...

It's absurd how these socialists think.

quote:

Originally posted by Silent:


Seattle: Fifty years from a total S-hole Detroit.

Silent

FIFY. I hope if they move, Amazon leaves their socialist ways. Otherwise dont come here. We have enough problems without you creating new ones like what your leaving

I hope it passes - in spades !! Then we can watch the homeless issue completely disappear there.

This is how well the Seattle Area does- Regular gas is $3.49 and never went below $2.

The roads and mass transit are shit.

There's No Chance anyone in Seattle can or will fix the homeless problem- It's a business.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Sadly they will migrate to conservative areas that are thriving and spread their liberal nonsense like a cancer.

I have started looking at Coeur D Alene. I am watching this tax situation closely.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
I hope it passes - in spades !! Then we can watch the homeless issue completely disappear there.

More like the homeless problem will disappear everywhere else, because the word is out that Seattle is just handing out free money and everyone homeless elsewhere will come join the fun. What a Charlie Foxtrot that passes as city government.

quote:

Supporters insist the online retailer and others that have benefited from Seattle’s prosperity and contributed to growing income inequality and skyrocketing rents can and should pay.

Ummm... Amazon is a global company, and it's business comes from everywhere...so how exactly can the city of Seattle lay claim to it's success? And now simply the fact that they are successful makes them responsible for other's lack of success?

Also, as someone who deals with the same drunken and drug-addicted homeless people on a regular basis, providing them with "affordable housing" is only going to result in the destruction of said housing, a further tax burden to clean it up, and an ongoing problem with homelessness.

But I guess it's a waste of time and oxygen to present facts to the liberal mind.

quote:

It's a business.

...if a gov.policy that feeds on a notion of public guilt & responsibility while feasting on public funding can be considered a 'business'; in any case the stink-hole politics that supports the notion that all we need to fix things is a bigger hole to shit in is well on display in Seattle/King Co. "IMHO".

quote:

Amazon is a global company, and it's business comes from everywhere...so how exactly can the city of Seattle lay claim to it's success? And now simply the fact that they are successful makes them responsible for other's lack of success?

Seattle had NOTHING to do with Amazon's success. Merely the lucky beneficiary. Seattle had NOTHING to do with Microsoft's success, either. If anything, it was Microsoft that created the high-tech environment where Amazon success became possible.

But all of this is lost on these self-important city council members. Through over-restricting housing and development, they drive up the cost of housing and create the homeless problem.

Then, to "fix it" they threaten to kill the golden goose.

Blaming the high cost of houses for the homeless problem is silly. Anyone that thinks that the bums shitting on the sidewalk are there because the average price of a 2 bedroom bungalow topped 900k are high. But truth, reason, and common sense are in short supply anywhere in my fine state, most of all in the puget sound area. Bread and circus is all that the vast majority of our state needs, and the bread is weed.