9 Months On, Koch Fears Realized After Town Raised Minimum Wage To $15

[Katashi_itto]

In January, the town of Seatac, Washington, put in to effect a new $15 per hour Minimum Wage. No ramp ups, no tiered implementation. One day it was the state standard, the next, the highest minimum wage in the nation. The Koch Brothers sank a fortune to fight this measure, which fell on deaf ears as the town rejected their trickle-down theories and instead voted for the measure. The result is that for one town, they became a test bed, to put the theories behind trickle-down economics to the test.

Now, nine months on, we are witnessing one of the most dramatic recoveries in the Pacific Northwest.

Last July, business owner Scott Ostrander claimed that the increased wage would force him to lay off staff, if not shut down his businesses.

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.

Instead, his business, the Cedarbrook Lodge hotel, is expanding, adding 63 more beds to meet demand. Instead of layoffs, he needs to hire more people. And his story is not the only one.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/14/15-now-seatac/

[B Calm]

1. K&R

[AzDar]

2. K & R

[Codeine]

3. Fucking awesome.

Who knew that if you let people earn more money they'd spend more money and revitalize the economy? What a revelation!

[stillwaiting]

9. +1; TPTB know this. This is not brand-new information.

I sometimes think that it has been decided that a strong middle class revival could destroy the planet. If that has been decided, then there will be no attempts to implement progressive reforms that would give new life to the working and middle classes. They will continue their austerity maneuvers around the world.

TPTB would not even need to share this knowledge with too many people. They would simply need to find and fund venal, selfish, and corrupt sociopaths to put in positions of power that will further their own financial interests at the expense of everyone else.

Now, of course TPTB are completely selfish assholes. But, I sometimes think that they have convinced themselves that they are saving the world and humanity by not allowing a resurgence of the middle class. That would be very convenient for selfish assholes no doubt.

[rurallib]

14. IIRC Henry Ford did this in the 1910s

and was immediately sued by the Dodge boys(?)

But his workers had money to buy cars and they did so.

[hifiguy]

36. I think it's safe to say most of them bought Fords.

Win-win.

[Telcontar]

48. It's more complicated than that

Ford was intent on eliminating any payouts for stockholders, intending to use all profit (at the time, I believe, about $60 million, or about $840 million in 2014 money) to build more plants, hire more workers, and increase worker salary. Laudable, except one of the reasons he wanted to do this was to squeeze out the smaller stockholders. If he could get them to sell back their stock at reduced value (since they weren't generating a profit), he would, in effect, have stolen the capital they invested in his company. We call this pump&dump and insider trading these days.

[ND-Dem]

50. No.

[calimary]

40. Exactly! You give the rich more money and they hoard it, sock it away, move it around,

Last edited Wed Feb 25, 2015, 10:23 PM - Edit history (1)

and hide it in the Caymans or Bermuda or Switzerland. You give the poor more money and they turn around immediately and start spending it - usually VERY locally, too. On things they need. Food. Clothing. Gas for their cars (if they have one). Products they need. School supplies for their kids. Stuff that's in local stores. Which then make more money. Which then can either hire more because of the increased demand, or at least not have to threaten to lay anybody off - which only adds to the overall problem.

I'd say if there's ever a question - GIVE THE POOR MORE MONEY. And to the naysayers and objectors and the cheapskate crowd and other assorted CONS - okay then, and I hate to be crass here, but I would say to these assholes: what the hell do you care if all they do is go buy booze? They're STILL putting that money back into circulation in the local economy, too. At least that means grocery and liquor stores make a little more money - and then THEY don't have to lay anybody off and add to the overall problem. Simplistic thinking, for sure, but sometimes the simplest minds and most shortsighted idiots are way up there at the top of the ziggurat. 'Eh, Wall Streeters?

[daleanime]

4. ........

[Fred Sanders]

5. Will the owner be serving humble pie as a lunch special?

[Dont call me Shirley]

12. ...

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://diylol.com/meme-generator/boromir-humble-pie/memes/humble-pie-nutrition-for-the-soul&h=301&w=510&tbnid=Xk1ENWGwadQTHM:&zoom=1&docid=AvxQc6XP5WcTJM&hl=en-US&ei=zsztVO37MbT_sATJq4JI&tbm=isch&ved=0CFAQMyhIMEg4rAI

[maxrandb]

23. Doubt it

the fuckstick will still probably vote the Tea-bagger block, and consume Faux News and Limpballs 24/7. I'm sure that he's convinced that it was only his "rugged individualism" that made this successful.

If we keep waiting for the "trickle-downers" and "T-baggers" to ever admit they were wrong, we'll be waiting a long time. They can't...asking them to accept reality, or admit that they may have been wrong, would be like asking a fundamentalist Christian to denounce Jesus!

It just ain't going to happen. They've been mind-fucked beyond repair.

[NewJeffCT]

35. He'll probably say it's due to

the consumer confidence given by the Republican takeover of Congress. (I heard this the other day - really - the economy is getting better because people are happy Republicans control the Senate and House...)

[marym625]

6. K&R!

This is fabulous news! I wish it were the minimum wage across the country

Hopefully, other cities and states will pay attention and do the right thing

[betterdemsonly]

7. It doesn't prove their fears were nonsense

so much as it proves they were probably lying about what their fears were. I think success in boosting the economy is what they feared. I think they like inequality because it gives them privledges, not because it is good for the economy.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

11. Probably a mix.

Sure, with the guys who make sure they get on tv to spout off, they're possibly lying for political reasons, but a lot of small business owners simply don't believe that they'll get increased business when more people have more income, or that people with more money will be willing to pay a little more for their product to offset increased labor costs.

There are some business models that do get crushed, as we saw with the indie bookstore wherever it was, that pointed out that they cannot simply raise the prices on books to make up the difference, because they don't get to set the prices in the first place, and that even if they could, they'd simply drive more traffic to Amazon. But most industries aren't like the publishing industry.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. Et, voila!

Or however that phrase goes. It looks like I'm mixing Latin and French when I spell it that way.

Small business owners parrot that doom and gloom endlessly when faced with actually paying living wages, but ignore that fact that all of those people who are underpaid now by everyone else, as well as themselves, are going to turn around and SPEND that extra money. And a lot of it will flow right back into their pockets. Smaller margins, but more purchases can often lead to even higher total profits, as these guys find out when they're actually forced to raise wages.

[UCmeNdc]

10. Did not read about this in the MSM!

Wonder why?

[Fred Sanders]

13. Shocking! Does not fit the agenda....But mini-toy helicopters in Paris?...where is my blankee!

[tomsaiditagain]

15. Republican lies and the payoff.

Lie for the KOCH Brothers and you shall receive large donations for your campaign among other things which go on in secret. Money is the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Yep, the Koch's even pay off the dems.

[tridim]

20. Yea, but then you have to pay the Koch's back.

And it's not cheap. Starting price, your soul.

[NewJeffCT]

37. Many of them don't have souls to begin with

so, it's a small price to pay.

[riqster]

16. Adam Smith rules, and Laffer drools.

Yet another case of basic math winning the day. Good on Seatac!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. well, well...imagine that. Pro-labor economics legislated

over the objections of free-market capitalists turns out to make everyone much happier. Including the free market capitalists.....

Who could imagine? Well, John Maynard Keynes, for one....

[Wounded Bear]

18. I always wondered...

Since the Repubs always claimed that unemployment was high because people didn't want to work, I always wondered what would happen if you increased the incentive for work by, oh I don't know, increasing wages, what would happen.

Apparently, people flock to those higher paying jobs.

[Myrina]

19. I don't think 'fears' is the right word.

I think they're pissed. I think they're 'inconvenienced' that now they have to buy more legislators and corporations to get this reversed.

But I don't think those 2 ratfuckers fear anything.

[mindwalker_i]

21. Hah! I was the 100th rec for this thread!

[LynneSin]

22. What happens when people make more money....

They spend it - especially when they are not the 1% who just pocket their extra money in an offshore account so they can brag about it

[niyad]

24. wow--who would have thunk that having more money to spend would energize an

economy?

[1StrongBlackMan]

25. But, all this evidence of growth is ...

anecdotal/coincidental/the product of a natural business cycle up-tick ... it's unrelated to the raising of the minimum wage.

Signed,

The "Who you gonna believe, me or your lying wallet" koch brothers

[randys1]

26. And RIGHT NOW, hundreds of THOUSANDS of Wisconsins and Missourians and others

are warming up their car engines just ITCHING to RACE to the polls to vote for right to work laws and AGAINST higher wages.

These people would vote to end AIR if it meant voting with people who also hate Black people and so on...




A rightwinger doesnt deny climate change or economic basics like MW equals more jobs based on the science or the math, a rightwinger is against that which is good for him or her because the people who are also against it are also racists, bigots, Muslim haters, etc.

Too much? Should I have just let everybody relax and enjoy this little victory?

It is just that just before I read this thread I read about Missouri and Wisconsin and the Koch Bros agenda against wages and I wondered if truth and sense matters anymore.

[Madmiddle]

27. This is why the bail out mony should have gone to main street.

Banks and our government, every fucking one of them, are the enemy of the American people...
There is a clause in our constitution to fix this and it is the only way...

[Sheepshank]

39. The "fucking government-enemy of the people" are the ones that just voted FOR the raise

...care to restate?

[WillyT]

28. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[Orrex]

29. I can't tell you how many arguments I've had...

with my fellow lower-tier wage-earners who express outright disgust at the thought of a mere food-service worker making $15 per hour.

I tell them three things, in these cases:

1. Any argument that those workers shouldn't earn $15 / hour is in fact an argument for why you should earn more

2. The fact that they earn $15 provides leverage when you petition for a higher wage for yourself

3. If their job is so easy and so overpaid, then quit your job and start flipping burgers

[father founding]

30. The Bible ?

Doesn't say the Antichrist is one entity.Could be brothers.

[jmowreader]

46. Ronald Reagan is the Antichrist

Ronald - 6 letters
Wilson - 6 letters
Reagan - 6 letters

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are Conquest, War, Famine and Death.

The Horseman of War is easy. That's Dick Cheney - not only did he push for war in the Bush 2 administration, he was defense secretary in the Bush 1 administration.

The Horseman of Famine is also easy. Revelation 6.5-6 tells us:

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The night before Shrub invaded Iraq, in his address to the nation he told the Iraqis not to damage their nation's oil infrastructure. Therefore, the Horseman of Famine has GOT to be George W. Bush.

There are a LOT of candidates for the role of Horseman of Death; nothing says he has to be an American...pick someone who does a lot of executions and I think you've got it.

This leaves the Horseman of Conquest, and from a political standpoint the Koch Brothers fit well.

[lark]

31. BINGO - they want us to fail.

They know that all the money given to them and other 1%ers stays with them and doesn't help the country's economy - they know this as well as you and I. However, they LIE and LIE BIG constantly because they want more money and don't care about the working class other than to keep them penniless. Every time increasing the wealth of the workers is tried, the economy booms. Every time taxes are cut for the rich, the economy goes into the doldrums because governments cut services for the working class who don't have as much spendable income which depresses business. KOCHS DON'T CARE about anyone anywhere! They only want to steal our government so they can get richer and unfortunately Repugs go along to get a cut of that pie.

[Android3.14]

32. Anything more recent?

This is from 5-6 months ago. How is Seatac doing today?

[Gore1FL]

33. If Jan 1, 2015 is current enough, apparently well.

http://www.wtsp.com/story/money/consumer/2015/01/01/seatac-minimum-wage-impact/21147885/

[Android3.14]

34. Cool

Thanks.

[Sheepshank]

38. 'ain't that just a lovely read!

I think I should post/share this somewhere else

[Hekate]

41. KnR. Wonderful wonderful. nt

[erronis]

42. SeaTac is a rather small "city" but +1 anyway

SeaTac is sorta nestled next to the so-named Sea-Tac (Seattle/Tacoma) airport. It is a strange mix of airport hotels and small homes which has only been around for 25 years. [link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaTac,_Washington]. Still it's good to see communities taking this on directly, especially one that has a lot of low wage earners at the hotels/etc.

[wickerwoman]

44. Yeah,

as much as I'd like to be able to draw the connection here, an airport hotel isn't doing better because the local town raised the minimum wage. Nobody in Seatac is going on vacation to their local hotel.

But glad that they are being paid a living wage and that he didn't fire anyone.

[ND-Dem]

51. and red-light businesses. or anyway, it used to be that way.

[C Moon]

43. This is so great, and the Koch part is the icing on the cake!

[SoCalDem]

45. Real (secure/honest) growth is fueled by DEMAND...

If people have money in their pocket and they need/want something, they WILL seek it out and buy it..

If no one makes what they want, they may decide to set up a business on their own.. IF they have the security of not being financially ruined if a family member gets sick (see ACA)

It is always good business to pay employees well.. They will be loyal, thrifty and industrious if they are treated well..

[sheshe2]

47. Great news!

KnR~

[brewens]

49. The opposite of what happens when you cut unemployment and "welfare" type benefits. So what

if a small percentage of people will buy things like beer and cigarettes with a little bit of the money they get? It keeps the local beer delivery driver and convenience store manager going. We'd like to see people make better choices but it's not a total waste.

[NYC_SKP]

52. Recommended. (nt)

[ut oh]

53. of course

"Instead, his business, the Cedarbrook Lodge hotel, is expanding, adding 63 more beds to meet demand. Instead of layoffs, he needs to hire more people. And his story is not the only one. "

He will never admit he was wrong publicly like he cried publicly about the legislation when it passed...