Goodnight, Seattle, We Love You
I see that, on schedule and as predicted, the hard realities of progressive politics arecoming to bear in Seattle:
Seattle's $15 minimum wage law goes into effect on April 1, 2015. As that date approaches, restaurants across the city are making the financial decision to close shop. The Washington Policy Center writesthat "closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront."
Of course, restaurants close for a variety of reasons. But, Seattle Magazine[/I],
"Washington Restaurant Association's Anthony Anton puts it this way: "It's not a political problem; it's a math problem."[/QUOTE]
Actually, it's both. In one sense this is bitterly satisfying, in that the long-ignored warnings are now coming to pass: it's been resoundingly proven that, once again, the Left does not get it, that they can't quite grasp that there are certain things they lack the ability to understand, that economic facts do not change simply because a bunch of politicians held a vote somewhere. Day in and day out, liberal sentiment meets reality-and reality always wins, and it always looks like Seattle.
Political vindication aside, Seattle's plight is, in the end, depressing and upsetting: it's a kind of citywide tragedy played out at the individual level. These are real people, after all-real restaurant owners, managers, waiters and waitresses, hosts and hostesses, busboys-who will now be out of a job because a bunch of politicians wanted to feel good about themselves. Many of them have children; many have mortgages; most are probably quite scared at what's to come next. The transition may be fairly difficult and painful, and its effects could be long-lasting. Losing a job, let alone a restaurant one owns, is no joke. It's not quite that progressives don't care about these unfortunate souls; it's that, at the end of the day, they believe that such government-mandated suffering is an acceptable outcome of their preferred policies. It's tolerable, they feel, if a bunch of restaurants close, people lose their jobs, and prices go up everywhere else-so long as the remaining employed people get a wage that's acceptable to the progressive ego, in order for progressives to feel good about themselves. Seattle's plight is once again a reminder that, no matter the platitudes, the primary beneficiaries of liberal politics are liberals themselves
I see that, on schedule and as predicted, the hard realities of progressive politics arecoming to bear in Seattle:
Seattle's $15 minimum wage law goes into effect on April 1, 2015. As that date approaches, restaurants across the city are making the financial decision to close shop. The Washington Policy Center writesthat "closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront."
Of course, restaurants close for a variety of reasons. But, Seattle Magazine[/I],
"Washington Restaurant Association's Anthony Anton puts it this way: "It's not a political problem; it's a math problem."[/QUOTE]
Actually, it's both. In one sense this is bitterly satisfying, in that the long-ignored warnings are now coming to pass: it's been resoundingly proven that, once again, the Left does not get it, that they can't quite grasp that there are certain things they lack the ability to understand, that economic facts do not change simply because a bunch of politicians held a vote somewhere. Day in and day out, liberal sentiment meets reality-and reality always wins, and it always looks like Seattle.
Political vindication aside, Seattle's plight is, in the end, depressing and upsetting: it's a kind of citywide tragedy played out at the individual level. These are real people, after all-real restaurant owners, managers, waiters and waitresses, hosts and hostesses, busboys-who will now be out of a job because a bunch of politicians wanted to feel good about themselves. Many of them have children; many have mortgages; most are probably quite scared at what's to come next. The transition may be fairly difficult and painful, and its effects could be long-lasting. Losing a job, let alone a restaurant one owns, is no joke. It's not quite that progressives don't care about these unfortunate souls; it's that, at the end of the day, they believe that such government-mandated suffering is an acceptable outcome of their preferred policies. It's tolerable, they feel, if a bunch of restaurants close, people lose their jobs, and prices go up everywhere else-so long as the remaining employed people get a wage that's acceptable to the progressive ego, in order for progressives to feel good about themselves. Seattle's plight is once again a reminder that, no matter the platitudes, the primary beneficiaries of liberal politics are liberals themselves
