mAY 16, 2018

Another day, one more government outrage. The social Do-Gooders in Seattle approves business tax for homelessness. You can hear the cries for social justice all the way from the heart of the grunge ghetto. 

"The Seattle City Council has approved a tax on large businesses such as Amazon and Starbucks to fight homelessness.

The council on Monday unanimously backed a compromise tax plan that will charge large businesses about $275 per full-time worker a year. It's lower than the $500-per-worker tax initially proposed.

The tax would begin in 2019 and raise about $48 million a year to pay for affordable housing and homeless services."

When a jurisdiction elect redistribution crazies, the net result is a society that is dependent upon the only growth organization; namely, GOVERNMENT. The public image for unfettered capitalism is the world's richest man, Seattle's own Jeff Bezos. Few honest critics would endorse the methods and cold-blooded managerial practices that perfect the Amazon monopoly. However, the basic objections that Amazon registers to the Seattle City Council are correct.

CNBC reports that Amazon's cloud chief Andy Jassy said on Wednesday it's "super dangerous" for Seattle to consider taxing companies to offset the effects of gentrification and homelessness.

“We are disappointed by today’s City Council decision to introduce a tax on jobs,” spokesman Drew Herdener said in a statement. “The city does not have a revenue problem — it has a spending efficiency problem,” Herdener said in his statement for Amazon.

Who could object to this reality that afflicts governments on all levels?

Yet,TODD HERMAN SHOW on KTTH sends a letter to Amazon, Dear Jeff Bezos: If you love Seattle, leave Seattle. Just maybe he is on to something.

"If you love this city, serve it tough love. The voters of Seattle are so busy, so rich, they pay no attention to what’s really happening. Or, they are so poor and so dependent upon government, that they will take any and all measures they can get, even if it kills them. Or, they are so radical that they will never encounter a tax they do not want. Well, unless it’s on pot."

Why not take this approach to its logical conclusion. Gee, Mr. Bezos, why not just band together with your corporatism cabalists and buy out the entire Seattle jurisdiction, lock stock and barrel? Then you can charge an exit fee toll to leave the socialist paradise of King County. As a fitting remembrance of the something for nothing culture, a departing gift of a Starbuck latte would hit the spot.

The Merchantry model certainly objects to the Amazon Conglomerate. Nevertheless, the petty and power hungry "public servant" bureaucrats who view employers as an endless source of tax income, are deranged. These revenue agents never will understand that Only a Chicken Lays Golden Eggs.  

The day is coming when the largest companies with transnational cash flow will simply establish and build their own company towns and control all the land, housing and buildings for a functioning residential area. They would establish their own governmental jurisdiction and buy any County, State or Federal representatives needed.

The day of buckling under to Metropolitan Mayors and City Councils is coming to an end. Now if this alternative is too harsh for the social warriors, who majored in economic redistribution from the productive to recompense the unproductive, demonstrate their lack of understanding on how wealth is actually created.

If the KIRO 7 poll reflects the public sentiment correctly, Seattle officials do not represent the people's voice. Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda said before the 9-0 vote. “They are dying on our streets today because there is not enough shelter” and affordable housing.

This mindset echo's a hysteria of the mob. The revival of the French Revolution is happening, so what will be next - Let Them Eat Cake?  

Thankfully, there are some rational businesses objecting to this madness, Not just an ‘Amazon tax’: Other Seattle businesses join head-tax fight.

'Meanwhile, more than 100 business executives, entrepreneurs and investors — mainly from the tech industry — posted an open letter Tuesday afternoon opposing the tax, even though not all of them would have to pay it.

“We oppose this approach, because of the message it sends to every business: if you are investing in growth, if you create too many jobs in Seattle, you will be punished,” reads the letter."

Just spending more money is seldom a solution for any public program. Businesses know this lesson all too well, because they are usually the one targeted to pay for the costs. So it is entirely appropriate to track the record of what actually has happened in Seattle. AFTER 10-YEAR PLAN, WHY DOES SEATTLE HAVE MORE HOMELESS THAN EVER?

"Seattle’s liberal voters and politicians don’t mind spending money on social problems. And there’s a lot of money here. King County has the largest United Way in the country. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — the world’s wealthiest — puts money toward the homeless in its home town.

All told, King County officials estimate that a billion dollars or more has gone to help the county’s homeless over the past decade. Nearly 6,000 units of affordable housing have been built, more than in any city except New York or Los Angeles.

Yet the effort is losing ground."

The progressive entitlement society never built a prosperous economy. If local governments believe they can tap the bank accounts of employers and use their deposits as a slush fund to cover the ineptitude of public civil servants, the structure of government is ready to collapse.

Continuing on this path of self-destruction, the Mayor of Seattle Jenny Durkan might want to dedicate the homeless facilities as the Kurt Cobain shelters. If this approach is compassionate, somewhere along the way the culture has lost its ability to distinguish between what heals the downtrodden from what rewards the wretched. Which are you willing to help?

James Hall - May 16, 2018    

http://batr.org/merchantry/051618.html