Category: "News"

I oppose a Seattle income tax

May 7th, 2017
Sure, I oppose an income tax for Seattle, and hope it goes down in flames (Seattle Times reporting: "... A Rotten Tax System ...", "... mayor proposes income tax...", "... how did we get here ...").  Hell, I oppose one for the United States, generally,… more »

housing supply and demand

May 6th, 2017
Dan Savage may have a angry way of saying it, but the implication is correct - zoning limits decrease the availability of housing to levels lower than the community would choose if left to their own devices. more »

Legal Tender and ISIS

January 8th, 2017
... the ISIS currency is coinage made from Gold, Silver and Copper; the trick of the matter is that ISIS now compels jewelers to purchase these coins, which must then be purchased by other people for them to pay the ISIS taxes ... more »

your next go at finding an apartment in Seattle might be thwarted

December 12th, 2016
It's not clear how advocates expect to make housing more accessible in Seattle by taking steps that make it less available. more »

Seattle's minimum wage experience - early results

November 28th, 2016
I have been attempting to make the point that people who retain their jobs with the higher minimum wage are likely to also spend more as a consequence, but in the mean time, the $15 wage puts another group of people completely out of work. more »

Here's where employment will decline the most in Washington

November 27th, 2016
The election has upset plans and expectations around the globe, but there's plenty of additional disapppointment to come with the fallout, I'm sure.  One likely place to look will be around the consequences of large increases to the minimum wage allowed… more »

if voting could make a difference

June 13th, 2014
The Chicago Tribune alerts me to news in Illinois to improve the situation surrounding a topic I alluded to a few months ago - gerrymandering. Gerrymandering allows back room political deals to control political borders that protect special interests and their politician tools. The Tribune's John Chase writes: "Advocates trying to change the way Illinois political maps are drawn began the arduous process today of trying to prove they have enough signatures to get a constitutional amendment placed on the ballot this November." ---- Evidently there is some controversy regarding how much time has been allowed for the initiative sponsor to correct what the elections committee has provisionally declared to be invalid signatures. Maybe not surprising that agents of the state would try to roadblock the reform of one of the tools politicos use to remain in power, so I became interested in the organization sponsoring the amendment - "Yes! for independent Maps." more »

legally challenging

June 7th, 2014
I-1358 would revert the local initiatives to the prior condition of State control of minimum wage. The expectation is that since such a high minimum wage as passed the Seattle City Council has not become state legislation, the new $15 mandate would essentially by voided here. [However], Imagine the far greater damage to people's lives if a $15/hour limit kept unemployed hundreds of thousands of people across all of Washington, rather than the fewer people affected by more concentrated damage done to workers in the I-5 corridor around Seattle and Sea-Tac. So while I am on record in opposition to increasing the minimum wage, I have reservations about supporting Initiative 1358. more »

counting the consequence

May 29th, 2014
This was a question I started the evening asking myself - what might the city do to track the actual effects of this wage mandate. How might they seek to understand the wreckage imposed on people's lives, people who are first thrown out of work, and then forbidden from future employment within the city. The answer is an audit, details to be determined. Who knows, the localized nature of the measure may make a good case study to add to the broad existing understanding of the detrimental effects of minimum wage legislation. more »

not the only skeptic

March 22nd, 2014
As with all other aspects of internet security, this is one step among many. more »