Amazon and Seattle

[HawkDawg]

Is anyone here following the head tax on Amazon (+500 other businesses) issue? Seattle city council is voting on it next week, it could have a huge impact. For those that don't know, here are some of the facts.

1) The homeless crisis in Seattle is insane. I was there a month ago and there are tents on the sidewalks, needles are covering soccer/football fields and playgrounds. This is far beyond the "grunge" days in the 90's.

2) Seattle has spent over 1 Billion tax payer dollars over the past decade to combat this problem, only to see the problem get worse.

3) City council is pushing for a $500 per employee tax on the top 500 businesses. With this money they claim they will create affordable housing units for 14,000 people within 7 years.

5) Other cities like Chicago have experimented with a head tax (at only $50 per employee vs. $500), only to find out that it's a complete job killer...and have since killed the tax.

6) In response, Amazon put a hiring freeze on 7,000+ jobs and halted all construction in Seattle, putting construction workers out of work as well.

7) Amazon is about to make a decision on another headquarters (HQ2) and has narrowed it down to 20 cities.

Here are my thoughts. Housing will not address the drug and alcohol issues which many of the homeless face. Not all, but many. Focusing on mental health and job training is a more sensible approach. The Seattle housing/rental market is obviously out of control, but those who can't afford it end up moving to the burbs. This does nothing to help the homeless.

For Amazon, you're looking at the most efficient company built since the days of Henry Ford. They pinch every single penny. If City Council keeps on throwing rocks, Bezos can simply pack up and move away, which is evident with HQ2. If they leave, other tech companies just might follow suit. The bubble pops and Seattle ends up looking like Detroit.

If this tax passes, whoever is storing the classic "Last One To Leave Seattle..." billboard during the 70's Boeing exodus might want to bring out the dust rag.

Just my thoughts as a Ballard native who is completely disgusted with the people running the show right now. It breaks my heart. Curious to hear what you guys think?

[burrrton]

Curious to hear what you guys think?

When Seattle votes someone like Kshama Sawant to the city council, it's going to get what it deserves. Good and hard.

Yeah, completely idiotic move. Hope they learn the lesson before downtown isn't worth visiting anymore.

Here are my thoughts. Housing will not address the drug and alcohol issues which many of the homeless face. Not all, but many.

Not many- most. And agreed- they're trying to treat a symptom, not the disease.

[RiverDog]

I'm right there with you, HawkDawg. Man, talk about killing the goose that laid the golden egg!

I don't know where the City of Seattle draws from for their city council members. This is the same city council that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for bathrooms for the homeless only to have to remove all of them as they became 10 minute flops for the whores and their johns, the same city council that lost the Sonics. My biggest belly laugh came when they once drafted a resolution supporting the breaching of the lower Snake dams...as if that issue has anything to do with Seattle politics...and just loved the response resolution by the Moses Lake city council proposing to remove the Ballard locks and return the Lake Washington shoreline to its natural habitat. They really are insane.

That's why outside of the sports teams, I don't like being associated with Seattle and will go to great lengths to differentiate myself from them when I travel.

[burrrton]

...and just loved the response resolution by the Moses Lake city council proposing to remove the Ballard locks and return the Lake Washington shoreline to its natural habitat.

That was a *classic*.

I don't like being associated with Seattle and will go to great lengths to differentiate myself from them when I travel.

Yeah, people are always dumbfounded when I tell them I live in WA and get as much rain annually as Phoenix.

[Aseahawkfan]

Yeah. I'm following it. They created programs that attract the homeless to Seattle. Any further taxing and building of shelters for the homeless is going to attract more homeless to Seattle and thus increase the problem causing more problems. A head tax will kill jobs while the short-term gains used will be on programs to attract more homeless to Seattle. The left will never acknowledge that the more social programs you create to help the poor, homeless, and the like will attract more of them to the area. Then you start to find out that they have mental traits that are the reason they are homeless or poor, very few are recoverable, and having the attitude "If we save even one person and a thousand are ruining the city, then we've done right" is a bad way to govern. Let's say Seattle is no longer interested in attracting hard working, bright people building businesses. It's more like California heading towards extreme stratification with rich and poor, where the rich pay taxes to support the poor while employing police and security to keep the poor out of their neighborhoods. It's the old attitude of the wealthy where they feel good helping the peasants, but don't want the peasants around. Thus the dwindling middle class has to suffer the consequences of their policies that kill jobs and bring a bad element into the community.

I figure cities outside of Seattle will pass tax reform to attract businesses to their cities, thus poaching business from Seattle. Seattle will decay over time much like Detroit or Los Angeles, while other cities with smarter governance will bring business to their location. Washington will hopefully be ok, but Seattle will head down hill if they pass this garbage head tax. Business will look to get out as soon as they can or just pass the cost on to the consumer causing inflation.

[RiverDog]

I heard one city council member saying that they don't want to cave into Amazon's blackmail tactics. Blackmail? Isn't that when someone wants something very badly and uses a threat, like when sports teams petition a city for a new stadium and threaten to move if they don't get it? Please tell me, what is it that Amazon is asking for from Seattle that would constitute blackmail?

The city of Seattle are the ones that picked this fight, and unfortunately for them, Amazon holds all the aces in what's going to be a very high stakes poker game.

[burrrton]

The city of Seattle are the ones that picked this fight, and unfortunately for them, Amazon holds all the aces in what's going to be a very high stakes poker game.

Yup. Using terms like "BLACKMAIL" merely illustrates they know they have literally no leverage in this, except what Amazon chooses to gift them. Amazon can afford to pack up *tomorrow*.

Sorry, Seatown- love you, but you picked the wrong fight. Wise up.

[Aseahawkfan]

Yup. Using terms like "BLACKMAIL" merely illustrates they know they have literally no leverage in this, except what Amazon chooses to gift them. Amazon can afford to pack up *tomorrow*.

Sorry, Seatown- love you, but you picked the wrong fight. Wise up.

I wonder if the city has ever heard of the word extortion. Right now they are acting like Mafioso's seeking to extort money from people living in their neighborhood.

[burrrton]

Right now they are acting like Mafioso's seeking to extort money from people living in their neighborhood.

Partially agree, but I think extortion would be more accurate if the 'extortionee' had little choice in the matter? Not so here, and I hope Seattle doesn't find that out the hard way.

[Seahawks4Ever]

This is one of the WORST IDEAS that has EVER been hatched by these FOOLS on the Seattle City Council. Sawat isn't a "socialist" she is a full on Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist! She wants government to take over EVERYTHING! We moved out of Seattle LAST year, we finally couldn't take any more of the raising of our property taxes. Now, they come up with THIS after their City Income Tax was shot down as unconstitutional.

We STILL need to get out of King County. You know how PC it is here??? "King" County was NOT named after MLKIII. BUT, a couple of years ago the county council "changed" the "King" that the county had been named after. They said that the original King of which King Street Rail Road Station right NEXT to where the King Dome used to sit and IT wasn't named after MLKIII at first EITHER but they stole that from the white Mr. King too. Ever hear of the Great Northern Rail Road? You probably know it as Burlington Northern R.R. anyway, there was another road named after him, it was called Empire Way but that one was the first to be changed to MLK Way.

The county council did all of this to make everyone forget that the original "King" had been a WHITE former slave owner and that was excuse enough to ERASE this man from our HISTORY. Forget the FACT that he built his Rail Road AFTER the Civil War.

Head Tax, how EGREGIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what is next a POLL TAX??? A STAMP TAX????? If I take a drive you tax the street, if I take a walk you will tax my feet, if I try to sit you will tax my seat. Well, you get the idea. YES, Seattle IS as BAD as it appears to be from afar. DON"T MOVE HERE!!!

[RiverDog]

..what is next a POLL TAX??? A STAMP TAX????? If I take a drive you tax the street, if I take a walk you will tax my feet, if I try to sit you will tax my seat. Well, you get the idea. YES, Seattle IS as BAD as it appears to be from afar. DON"T MOVE HERE!!!

They already added a tax to soft drinks, so I would imagine the next tax would be on candy bars followed by Big Mac's and French fries. And although it didn't originate in Seattle, our liberal governor recently proposed a carbon tax that was thankfully shot down by the more conservative state legislature.

[RiverDog]

It looks like the Seattle City Council finally came to their senses as they repealed the tax they just approved a few weeks ago:

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-seattl ... ent-2018-6

Just reading between the lines in several other articles, it seems to me that they finally figured out that no matter how much money they throw at their homeless problem, they're not going to fix it.

[burrrton]

they finally figured out that no matter how much money they throw at their homeless problem, they're not going to fix it.

WHAT? You mean it's not a money problem??

#ThingsEveryoneElseKnewfor200

[edit- I have to admit it's kinda satisfying watching the learning taking place, even if it's in slow motion]

[RiverDog]

WHAT? You mean it's not a money problem??

#ThingsEveryoneElseKnewfor200

[edit- I have to admit it's kinda satisfying watching the learning taking place, even if it's in slow motion]

That's one of the reasons why I grew up to reject liberalism very early in my life. I am old enough that I can remember Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty, and saw first hand millions of dollars spent on federal housing projects to replace slums....there's one in Pasco not too far from the train depot. It was only a matter of a few years before the projects became as run down and drug ridden as the slums they replaced. It was a total waste of money.

It's not about eliminating poverty. That problem is always going to be with us. It's about giving those born into it a way out if they so choose. I would much rather see my tax money spent on education...schools, vocational programs, scholarship programs, etc, designed to give those that find themselves caught in a no win situation a way out if they want to work for it with the understanding that there might not be very many that choose to take advantage of such an opportunity.

I'm not saying that the city of Seattle should ignore their homeless problem and hope that it will go away. But from what I've experienced, I feel pretty safe in concluding that the money of the type they proposed to spend wasn't going to fix it.