Earlier this year, Sea-Tec employees saw a raise to a minimum of $15 an hour. Seattle followed suit with the area getting the same over the next few years. All I heard from Republicans and the Koch Brothers was that this would end the world, civilization would fall, dogs and cats living together, Armageddon. So what has happened in the area since the airport raised their rate? Was there a mass firing of employees? Did businesses close en masse? Or did unprecedented growth occur instead? Take a wild stab who was right and who was wrong here.
As basic economics dictates, when people have more money, they spend more money. So instead of Mad Max roaming the deserted streets of Seattle, instead we have seen record growth the likes of which is unparalleled anywhere else in the USA. Let's take a quick look back at what some business owners claimed would happen, compared to actual facts.
Local businessman, Scott Ostrander, owner of the Cedar Brook Lodge Hotel, stood in front of the city council and begged them not raise the minimum wage. Here is what he actually said:
"I am shaking here tonight because I am going to be forced to lay people off. I'm going to take away their livelihood. That hurts. It really, really hurts. … And what I am going to have to do on Jan. 1 is to eliminate jobs, reduce hours — and as soon as hours are reduced, benefits are reduced."
So what actually happened? It went through with a $16 million expansion that added 63 rooms, a spa, and, wait for it, jobs. No layoffs, no lost business, the opposite actually, and no one starving in the streets. The best part is he said the expansion was necessary to recoup the expense of higher wages, which is total bull. If people didn't have more money to spend, you would be downsizing not expanding, which shows the die-hard Republicans have a hard time facing reality even when it is staring them in the face. I am waiting for Obama to get the blame somehow and no doubt, it will also be tied to the ebola virus and, of course, Benghazi, which some, like resident moron on Fox and Friends, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, did the other day.
And then there is Tom Douglas, who runs 15 restaurants in the Seattle area. He warned that raising the minimum wage would cause the shoot down of 25% of his businesses should this minimum wage bill pass. The reality is that soon after, he opened five new restaurants instead to meet growing demand. Hmm, more money equals more business. Who would have thought that? ANYONE WHO ISN'T A TOTAL RETARD THAT'S WHO!
The rise is business is being seen across the region, and the sudden influx of cash is the reason. This is making the right look like the boobs they are, as this is actively disproving trickle down economics as a dismal failure, and much like pot legalization is going swimmingly against all those blowhards who screamed like Chicken Little, this will blow up in their faces by 2016 if they continue down this road.
I am sure some idiot out there is slamming this article asking what about new businesses, are they leaving in droves? Not only are they not leaving, there are many moving there as their businesses stand to do far better in areas where their products can be bought. The International Franchise Association sued to block the raise as they said no one "in their right mind" would start a new business in Seattle. Someone must have forgotten to tell Togo's sandwiches which is expanding massively into the area, saying publically the $15 wage didn't matter. Likewise the business Weyerhaeuser, a wood and paper company, decided to move it's HQ there, from Tacoma, along with 800 jobs. Yeah that minimum wage is causing havoc alright.
And what are Republicans doing because of this? Still fighting tooth and nail against giving people more money. Jodi Ernst, who is running neck and neck for Congress in Iowa, has publically stated she wants to eliminate the minimum wage completely, because nothing spells loyalty like working for a buck and hour. Yet somehow, someway, the mentally challenged in Iowa are still voting for her. Are there no depths to which the Republicans won't stoop to?
Even worse, for some inane reason, The NRA is backing her, sending out flyers supporting Ernst and her desire to eliminate the minimum wage. Isn't the NRA just about guns? Oh, that's right, the NRA is in reality nothing more than a fundraising apparatus of the GOP. Anyone still supporting this douchebag organization (and I support gun rights) is a shmuck and a traitor to this country.
The recent numbers suggest that some of you are waking up to the fact that Republicans are a blight on society and maybe should NOT be given control of the Senate. Their numbers, according to people like Nate Silver and other credible pollsters, have seen a 20% drop over the last two weeks, dropping the likelihood of the Senate going red from 70% to around 50/50. It's garbage like this that is turning the brighter of us out there against them. Please turn out in November and remember that while the Democrats may be scum sucking weasels, at least they are not rabid.
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