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posted by n1 on Thursday June 05 2014, @11:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the will-code-for-gold dept.

The NYT reports that in a unanimous vote, the Seattle City Council went where no big-city lawmakers have gone before, raising the local minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum, and pushing Seattle to the forefront of urban efforts to address income inequality. "Even before the Great Recession a lot of us have started to have doubt and concern about the basic economic promise that underpins economic life in the United States," says Council Member Sally J. Clark. "Today Seattle answers that challenge." High-tech, fast-growing Seattle, population 634,535, is home to Amazon.com, Zillow, and Starbucks. It also has more than 100,000 workers whose incomes are insufficient to support their families, according to city figures and around 14% of Seattle's population lives below the poverty level. Some business owners have questioned the proposal saying that the city's booming economy is creating an illusion of permanence. "We're living in this bubble of Amazon, but that's not going to go on," says businessman Tom Douglas. "There's going to be some terrific price inflation."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by velex on Thursday June 05 2014, @01:12PM

    by velex (2068) on Thursday June 05 2014, @01:12PM (#51644) Journal

    Ho-lee Shit.

    I thought we had better trolls than this!

    Just a bunch of Obamacare/Romneycare shit? It's like you guys are more hung over than I am!

    Come on, fellow trolls! Get your act together! At least tell me why Obama/Romney-care is a bad idea, and what that has fuck all to do with the minimum wage. Hell, from over here, a wage of $15/hr would disqualify you for most entitlement programs.

    Maybe that's the point. Push everyone into an income bracket that disqualifies them for assistance programs and then require them to buy health insurance, which is not health care! Ok, admittedly, health "insurance" is now required to provide preventative services for "free."

    Ok. Fuck! Why doesn't my car insurance cover preventative maintenance like oil chances for free?

    Never mind the ass hats on Faux News running their mouths about free Obamacare sex changes. Tell me where to apply! Srsly.

    tl;dr God damn it all.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 05 2014, @02:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 05 2014, @02:44PM (#51700)

    obamacare is totally awesome if you're one of the cream of the crop insurers who invested/gambled heavily in obama's elections

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 05 2014, @04:29PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday June 05 2014, @04:29PM (#51779)

    Well, its kind of off-topic...

    Obamacare is bad because the only way to start fixing the US system is to learn from elsewhere:
    1) go single-payer and remove the excessively costly insurance complexities. My doctors all have to hire one or two persons just to deal with insurances, guess who pays?
    2) get rid of the lawyers, who make the malpractice insurance cost so high everyone pays more. Establish an indemnity and doctor punishment system that doesn't involve stupid jurors (hi, everybody, you're just collectively dumb)
    3) force schools to only charge a small tuition to remain accredited. Many MDs start their careers with quarter-million dollar debts. Guess who pays higher fees? MD is a difficult highly qualified job with long studies. They should be paid well. But it is, a lot more so than the terrorism BS, in the supreme interest of the nation to have MDs cost less. Subsidizing their education rather than loading them with debt is a way to help keep them from charging insane prices from day one.

    But Obamacare doesn't even start addressing these. It's a band-aid at the edge of the wooden leg, helping for a little while.
    In 10 to 30 years, the situation will be critical again, because the real problems are not addressed.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 05 2014, @09:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 05 2014, @09:27PM (#51918)

    Think of it this way.

    Something costs 100 dollars today. With inflation in 10 years at 2% it will be ~120.

    Now lets say I GIVE everyone 100 dollars. What happens to the price of a good? It naturally goes up. As I getting 'free' money am more willing to spend it. As in effect it makes money worth less...

    However, if you want to read up more on it here is a very good source of it
    http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap06p1.html [steshaw.org]
    http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap13p1.html [steshaw.org]
    http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap15p1.html [steshaw.org]
    http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap24p1.html [steshaw.org]

    and what that has fuck all to do with the minimum wage.
    http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap05p1.html [steshaw.org]
    http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap19p1.html [steshaw.org]

    Min wage is about 1-2% of our GDP however it is 10-15% of our workforce. For me and you spending an extra 50 cents on a burger is no big deal. For people who make min wage they do not come out ahead. In fact they usually come out behind.

    But go on thinking obamacare is the best thing ever to happen. Right now it might all be roses. But in about 5 years. *EVERYTHING* in medical care is going to go thru the roof. Like most economic theories people only think 1 step out and forget the golden rule of all economic theories. Everyone is a dick.