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Old 11-07-2013, 04:17 PM
 
Location: Nashville
3,533 posts, read 5,827,208 times
Reputation: 4713

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Even Russia finally realized that the Soviet communist style of economics led to poverty, instability and eventually economic devastation. How comes the United Socialist States of America (USSA) cannot learn from the mistakes of the USSR..

And for those tooting their horns about Scandinavia being the perfect model of socialism, think again. The Nordic countries are starting to collapse economically as more and more immigrants are coming to the country and having huge families, not working and demanding the government to pay for their lifestyles at the expense of tax-payers who already are faced with an overwhelming tax burden and high cost of living. Talk to your average Swede, not your socialist propagandist and you will find the quality of life is lacking in regards to other developed countries. Yes, they are not poor people, but we will see what the future holds. With the massive immigration and unemployed population, their economy will not hold up forever. We also must remember these Nordic countries have oil, which is another major economic boost. On the other hand, America is not an oil producer, but an oil consumer, as our energy requirements outweigh our production and resources.

The only thing about Scandinavia that keeps its head above water, in addition to oil reserves, is that they have considerable less corporate taxes and no global taxes like the USSA, which makes it a better business environment for corporations, but not so good for the average Joe Citizen who is forced to pay for the welfare state for all the newly arriving free-loaders. In some ways Sweden is less socialist than the USSA. Back in the day, Sweden, Norway and the other Scandinavian countries could survive with the socialist system because of the strong work ethic and conformity of the populace. Not many would leech and take advantage of the system, but that is changing.

America, on the other hand, is a society of leechers and many people are professionals in finding ways to suck off the system. Not to mention we support one of the largest illegal immigrant populations in the world. This makes a pure socialist system totally unfeasible in the USA as it does in Scandinavian countries, which now are starting to experience the same degradation of their economy, due to their open immigration policy. All those free social programs, high wages, benefits, free health care, paid vacations, maternity leaves, etc all come from somewhere. Too many people are naive to realize who generates the wealth that feeds the economy and think it miraculous comes out of some politician's backside, when in fact it comes from the sweat, toil, labor and ingenuity of businesses who bear all the financial burdens.
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Old 11-07-2013, 04:37 PM
 
9,961 posts, read 17,512,704 times
Reputation: 9193
What's being done in SeaTac is similar to living wage minimums instituted at a few other West Coast Airports(LAX already has a minimum of over $15 an hour).

The measure is slightly different as it's a citywide measure for workers at and connected to the airport though it applies to:

Quote:
Certain hospitality and transportation industry workers within city limits. The law would apply to employees working for businesses at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and to nearby businesses that rely on the airport, such as hotels, car rentals and parking lots.
This increase wouldn't be for the entire city. Someone else tried to do an analysis of how many businesses would actually be affected under the wording of the proposition.

Who is Covered by SeaTac

I don't believe that fastfood restaurants not at the airport nor would local grocery stores actually be required to adhere to the measure for one.

Quote:
exempts small businesses in SeaTac. Prop 1 specifically exempts SeaTac restaurants, grocery stores, and all other small businesses. Prop 1 also exempts small hotels (less than 100 rooms and fewer than 30 non-managerial employees), small airport parking lots (fewer than 25 non-managerial employees) and small retail businesses inside the airport (fewer than 10 non-managerial employees). (Proposition 1, Section 7.45.010)

Last edited by Deezus; 11-07-2013 at 04:45 PM..
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Old 11-07-2013, 04:40 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,588 posts, read 27,377,194 times
Reputation: 9059
Quote:
Originally Posted by RotseCherut View Post
Even Russia finally realized that the Soviet communist style of economics led to poverty, instability and eventually economic devastation. How comes the United Socialist States of America (USSA) cannot learn from the mistakes of the USSR..

And for those tooting their horns about Scandinavia being the perfect model of socialism, think again. The Nordic countries are starting to collapse economically as more and more immigrants are coming to the country and having huge families, not working and demanding the government to pay for their lifestyles at the expense of tax-payers who already are faced with an overwhelming tax burden and high cost of living. Talk to your average Swede, not your socialist propagandist and you will find the quality of life is lacking in regards to other developed countries. Yes, they are not poor people, but we will see what the future holds. With the massive immigration and unemployed population, their economy will not hold up forever. We also must remember these Nordic countries have oil, which is another major economic boost. On the other hand, America is not an oil producer, but an oil consumer, as our energy requirements outweigh our production and resources.

The only thing about Scandinavia that keeps its head above water, in addition to oil reserves, is that they have considerable less corporate taxes and no global taxes like the USSA, which makes it a better business environment for corporations, but not so good for the average Joe Citizen who is forced to pay for the welfare state for all the newly arriving free-loaders. In some ways Sweden is less socialist than the USSA. Back in the day, Sweden, Norway and the other Scandinavian countries could survive with the socialist system because of the strong work ethic and conformity of the populace. Not many would leech and take advantage of the system, but that is changing.

America, on the other hand, is a society of leechers and many people are professionals in finding ways to suck off the system. Not to mention we support one of the largest illegal immigrant populations in the world. This makes a pure socialist system totally unfeasible in the USA as it does in Scandinavian countries, which now are starting to experience the same degradation of their economy, due to their open immigration policy. All those free social programs, high wages, benefits, free health care, paid vacations, maternity leaves, etc all come from somewhere. Too many people are naive to realize who generates the wealth that feeds the economy and think it miraculous comes out of some politician's backside, when in fact it comes from the sweat, toil, labor and ingenuity of businesses who bear all the financial burdens.
Many thousands of these people on public assistance have listed their profession as "active military". They are sacrificing themselves for the country people like you act like you love so be careful who you call a leecher. An American earning 50,000 a year pays something like 36 dollars in taxes toward Food Stamps but 4,000 in corporate subsidies so be careful who you call a leecher. Over 40% of homeless people are employed. They very likely could have resorted to some sort of illegal activity to survive which, despite the risk, would bring bigger gains but instead, decided to do their best at making an honest living so be careful who you call a leecher. At the height of the Great Recession, those like you kept preaching the same crap. Your message never changes despite the fact that, at that time, there were 12 million people out of work but 3 million jobs. today, the disparity is much smaller but even if the people to jobs ratio is 3 million to 6 million, there is still a glaringly obvious need there. Not everyone can be engineers, or doctors or lawyers. There was a story in the Bay Area speaking to this exact thing. There were more law grads than there were jobs for them so they were working fast food and retail. they did what everyone said they were supposed to do but the jobs they were promised weren't there. And again I ask, if everyone goes that route, who's gonna serve your food, clean your hotels when you travel around the country? Who's gonna assist you when you have a question about something in a store? People keep saying that minimum wage increases will drive up prices. Newsflash! When have prices NOT gone up? Over the last few decades, I have watched prices rise while wages remained pretty much stagnant. Not a good argument. At one time, service jobs provided enough income for people to earn a modest living. Service was also much better in this country than it is now too. Wonder if the two are related? if you get bad service from someplace remember, you get what you pay for.
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Old 11-07-2013, 04:57 PM
 
71 posts, read 113,890 times
Reputation: 64
Quote:
Originally Posted by branh0913 View Post
How about getting up of their ass, getting skills so they can have a better job? I mean THAT's an option too. Believe it or not.


Even if everyone has employable skills, not everyone will be employed. What do?

Are you seriously suggesting that if everyone just had more "skills" there would be no unemployment?

I just can't talk to someone that simple.

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Old 11-07-2013, 06:13 PM
 
13 posts, read 68,467 times
Reputation: 31
If you're a business owner upset about the minimum wage being too high, I have a very simple solution for you.

Stop calling your employees "employees". Instead, call them "interns". When you advertise these "internships", simply explain to your future "interns" that they'll get valuable educational experience, work experience for their résumés, and perhaps a recommendation to supposedly help them get future jobs. Young, affluent college students and recent grads will sign right up, an you won't have to pay them a dime in actual currency.

Once the more lazy, entitled interns start demanding money for their work, get rid of them (without recommending them for future jobs, they don't deserve it) and replace them with new, hardworking interns who will work for free.

Yes, this is technically illegal, but don't worry about lawsuits. The interns know that their working reputations will be ruined if they sue or protest, because they can't use you as a reference when applying for future employment. Also, politicians use interns all the time.

So as you can see, minimum wage doesn't matter. Ambitious young people will work for anything in return, without worry about what stupid "laws" say. Only lazy, entitled, greedy brats want money for their work, and you don't want those types working for you anyway.
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Old 11-07-2013, 06:48 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
5,281 posts, read 6,585,656 times
Reputation: 4405
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrt144 View Post


Even if everyone has employable skills, not everyone will be employed. What do?

Are you seriously suggesting that if everyone just had more "skills" there would be no unemployment?

I just can't talk to someone that simple.

Yeah, so we should encourage people to be poor, and not do any meaningful work. Hey, my father could never find a job, and he had a lot of skills. The economy of my home town (Kansas City) sucked back in the 70s. And he was a black man, and let's face it, Kansas City was pretty freakin racist back then. So what did my father do? Oh he created his own business. And before you say "not everyone can create their own business", he didn't do it officially. He used his skills as an electrician to undercut larger companies for the same service. He made a pretty good living doing that for many years. Now he had other issues like woman chasing and drugs, but he never had issues making money.

By the way, my father was a high school drop out. He had nothing higher than an 8th grade education. He just read a ton of books on electrical systems, and trained himself. A lot of master electricians gave him accolades on being a very skilled electrician, and felt if only he became more official, he would have been rich by now. The way he handled business gets him a lot of respect in many circles.

Now you may feel people should sit on their ass and try to make as much money doing things that there really is no demand for. The difference between your burger being served by a human being or a kiosk is just a matter of numbers on someone's computer. That's it. No one needs a human being to do these jobs, which is why they have never commanded much of a salary. As much as I hate customer service, I could take my fat ass to McDonalds and press 2 buttons on a cash register as well as hand someone some change. For God sake, I've seen mentally handicap people doing it.

So the way I see it, time is working against low wage workers. It appears that they probably need to put something together or be on the streets. If forced with two options of trying to get a job that doesn't exist anymore, or get some actual skills to at least give me a chance at a job, I would choose the latter
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:03 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,588 posts, read 27,377,194 times
Reputation: 9059
Quote:
Yeah, so we should encourage people to be poor, and not do any meaningful work. Hey, my father could never find a job, and he had a lot of skills. The economy of my home town (Kansas City) sucked back in the 70s. And he was a black man, and let's face it, Kansas City was pretty freakin racist back then. So what did my father do? Oh he created his own business. And before you say "not everyone can create their own business", he didn't do it officially. He used his skills as an electrician to undercut larger companies for the same service. He made a pretty good living doing that for many years. Now he had other issues like woman chasing and drugs, but he never had issues making money.
pefect! let's say everyone did that. Once again who would make sure your hotel room is clean and serve you foo...oh that's right, there's this:
Quote:
Now you may feel people should sit on their ass and try to make as much money doing things that there really is no demand for. The difference between your burger being served by a human being or a kiosk is just a matter of numbers on someone's computer. That's it. No one needs a human being to do these jobs, which is why they have never commanded much of a salary. As much as I hate customer service, I could take my fat ass to McDonalds and press 2 buttons on a cash register as well as hand someone some change. For God sake, I've seen mentally handicap people doing it.
Now you seem to be implying that these jobs are not needed. So, beyond the fast food, you wouldn't mind washing your own bed linens and general housekeeping when you're traveling? And let's say we automate everything at fast food places. let's even pretend that machines even cook the food and make sure that the food has no defects or other issues the way a live human could. You are basically advocating eliminating those jobs. Those people would then get the skills you say they should. More people cramming into fewer jobs just because they are skilled jobs. Whew, we did it. no more people doing unskilled work. Everyone now has equally decent jobs with more equal pay. Dammit there's a problem. That just created a socialist like system, can't have that. So to keep with the free market approach of supply and demand, we can now pay less as the number of people doing them now far exceeds the number of jobs so employers can give the jobs to those who are willing to do the work for less, creating more profits for themselves and less economic activity for the main working class. Dammit, we've already done that too.

How is it humanly possible that you completely lack the capacity to see how flawed your suggestions are?
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:04 PM
 
Location: Past: midwest, east coast
603 posts, read 877,215 times
Reputation: 625
Quote:
Originally Posted by RotseCherut View Post
Even Russia finally realized that the Soviet communist style of economics led to poverty, instability and eventually economic devastation. How comes the United Socialist States of America (USSA) cannot learn from the mistakes of the USSR..

And for those tooting their horns about Scandinavia being the perfect model of socialism, think again. The Nordic countries are starting to collapse economically as more and more immigrants are coming to the country and having huge families, not working and demanding the government to pay for their lifestyles at the expense of tax-payers who already are faced with an overwhelming tax burden and high cost of living. Talk to your average Swede, not your socialist propagandist and you will find the quality of life is lacking in regards to other developed countries. Yes, they are not poor people, but we will see what the future holds. With the massive immigration and unemployed population, their economy will not hold up forever. We also must remember these Nordic countries have oil, which is another major economic boost. On the other hand, America is not an oil producer, but an oil consumer, as our energy requirements outweigh our production and resources.

The only thing about Scandinavia that keeps its head above water, in addition to oil reserves, is that they have considerable less corporate taxes and no global taxes like the USSA, which makes it a better business environment for corporations, but not so good for the average Joe Citizen who is forced to pay for the welfare state for all the newly arriving free-loaders. In some ways Sweden is less socialist than the USSA. Back in the day, Sweden, Norway and the other Scandinavian countries could survive with the socialist system because of the strong work ethic and conformity of the populace. Not many would leech and take advantage of the system, but that is changing.

America, on the other hand, is a society of leechers and many people are professionals in finding ways to suck off the system. Not to mention we support one of the largest illegal immigrant populations in the world. This makes a pure socialist system totally unfeasible in the USA as it does in Scandinavian countries, which now are starting to experience the same degradation of their economy, due to their open immigration policy. All those free social programs, high wages, benefits, free health care, paid vacations, maternity leaves, etc all come from somewhere. Too many people are naive to realize who generates the wealth that feeds the economy and think it miraculous comes out of some politician's backside, when in fact it comes from the sweat, toil, labor and ingenuity of businesses who bear all the financial burdens.
Great post.

I think people underestimate the role of demographics and population when making their partisan attacks (both ends). The U.S. is the 3rd most populous nation in the world and is only growing. We have a huge illegal immigration problem and a large chunk of our population that does not produce anything. We are a very diverse nation when it comes to socio-economic status, race, etc. so one economic system will not fit all like it does in Scandinavian countries, which all have small populations, homogenized demographics, no illegal immigration problems, etc.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:14 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,588 posts, read 27,377,194 times
Reputation: 9059
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seatown1 View Post
Great post.

I think people underestimate the role of demographics and population when making their partisan attacks (both ends). The U.S. is the 3rd most populous nation in the world and is only growing. We have a huge illegal immigration problem and a large chunk of our population that does not produce anything. We are a very diverse nation when it comes to socio-economic status, race, etc. so one economic system will not fit all like it does in Scandinavian countries, which all have small populations, homogenized demographics, no illegal immigration problems, etc.
Sweden Riots put Sweden's open-door immigration policy in spotlight | Reuters Illegal Immigration News: Sweden Immigration News

Meanwhile in the US:
Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero
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Old 11-08-2013, 12:08 AM
 
Location: Seattle area
9,182 posts, read 12,120,375 times
Reputation: 6405
Quote:
Originally Posted by eccentricgal View Post
If you're a business owner upset about the minimum wage being too high, I have a very simple solution for you.

Stop calling your employees "employees". Instead, call them "interns". When you advertise these "internships", simply explain to your future "interns" that they'll get valuable educational experience, work experience for their résumés, and perhaps a recommendation to supposedly help them get future jobs. Young, affluent college students and recent grads will sign right up, an you won't have to pay them a dime in actual currency.

Once the more lazy, entitled interns start demanding money for their work, get rid of them (without recommending them for future jobs, they don't deserve it) and replace them with new, hardworking interns who will work for free.
why don't you call them slaves?
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