Seattle Socialists Strangle Golden Goose

[jediuser598]

You run these huge businesses out of the Seattle area, rent would go down.

[DBTrek]

You run these huge businesses out of the Seattle area, rent would go down.

That it will.
You can get a house in Detroit for $1.

... for all the good that’s done the citizens of Detroit.

[C-Mag]

I don't pretend to know how all if it works, but I can say it only works because Federal Tax dollars pay for us to keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

With all we know about the quality deep-thinkers we have in government, I don't see it as sinister. They aren't in a backroom planning all this. It's all floundering about in a 3" swimming pool pretending they are going to drown any minute and responding to that.

They just aren't smart enough, from what I can see.

Look at our House. Maxine Waters, Barbara Bachman - both sides of the aisle; idiocy is not in short supply.

I do believe there are sinister elements too it. Bring in more low information needy potential voters, supply them with assisstance, reap the votes, stay in office to keep the big donor bucks coming in and living the fat life.

Where it is really sinister to me, is that the politicians are only self serving, they are not doing the job they are supposed to be doing. Strictly looking out for themselves.

[jediuser598]

You run these huge businesses out of the Seattle area, rent would go down.

That it will.
You can get a house in Detroit for $1.

... for all the good that’s done the citizens of Detroit.

Housing prices in Seattle are cray cray.

You've probably seen this:

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/1 ... use-549000

[DBTrek]

I think it’s a function of politics and economics having entirely different goals. In politics your primary concern is to hold your office for 2-4 years, then win the next office. How do you do that in a state full of leftist know-nothings? You pass LGBT-centric laws, throw money down the toilet in the name of fighting homelessness, crusade for minimum wage, vilify the rich, champion rent control, advocate for programs favoring minorities, etc, etc.

Terrible, terrible, economic decisions all up and down the line. But very good decisions if you’re trying to get another political term in looney-bat Seattle. Plus, you keep moving to higher political offices so by the time Your disastrous policies play out you can claim that the problems actually stemmed from other events that transpired over the years.

When good politics is bad economics you know things are headed for a downward spiral.

[jediuser598]

Or, think of it this way, the rising tide doesn't lift all boats.

Say you've lived in Seattle a while, never really had enough money to buy a home, always rented. Well, all these tech companies and Amazon, you'd probably hate those people because guess what, they raise the price of rent. That's directly not in some people's interest. So a more booming economy in Seattle would price them out of living in Seattle. It's not in some people's best interest for more tech workers to come in.

[DBTrek]

Not in some people’s best interest. Indeed. Some people being minimum wage workers who feel entitled to live in downtown Seattle.

Look at it this way, we’d all love a beach house in Maui. But there are only X number of beach houses and there are 315 million of us. Obviously we can’t all have what we want. So what’s the most efficient way to allocate those limited beach houses?

Well - we could let interested parties bid for them, allowing each beach house to claim maximum value for the seller and move into possession of the most motivated buyer. Or ... we could say that this approach is against the interests of “some people” and come up with some arbitrary government scheme to ration beach houses out.

Which way is more vulnerable to corruption? Which way is more likely to lead to more beach houses being built?

Capitalism and cronyism both have winners and losers, but only one has built in incentives to increase supply to meet demand.
/shrug

[jediuser598]

I'm reminded of this podcast I heard a while back.

A man gets a knock on his door, opens it up and it's the local HOA representative. He's a renter though. HOA rep says to him, "Hello sir, we're signing up people to help clean up any garbage there is around the community, and help plant trees to beautify the area."

Guy is like "Fuck no I don't want to help you, if there's less garbage and the place is prettier, and property values go up, then my rent goes up."

Slams the door on the HOA rep.

[DBTrek]

Exactly why catering to the low-rent, anti-improvement, completely self-interested demographic is a mistake.

When everyone else losing equals them winning it’s time to cut that dead weight loose, not empower it on a city council.

[jediuser598]

Exactly why catering to the low-rent, anti-improvement, completely self-interested demographic is a mistake.

When everyone else losing equals them winning it’s time to cut that dead weight loose, not empower it on a city council.

Sawant was elected, not appointed. How exactly are you going to cut that dead weight loose? Only one legitimate way, go to district 3 and get people to campaign against her, and work in those campaigns.

https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/electi ... ict-3.ashx

She's legitimately elected representative of the people. Legitimate democratic process.

Good luck. Gotta love democracy.