Guest Article: Know15.com Direct to $15 is too EXTREME!

Anonymous July 1, 2015

Is this a joke? I do agree that $15 is probably too high for a city like Tacoma, but please stop making your point so ineffectively.

Stein July 4, 2015

[quote]Is this a joke? I do agree that $15 is probably too high for a city like Tacoma, but please stop making your point so ineffectively.[/quote] It's a political cartoon pointing out how insane and ridiculous the arguments against 15 now are. 15 now is a good thing and every argument we've heard presented against it is a hot fucking garbage appeal to emotion or some other ridiculous stereotype of an argument. The owner of the Cloverleaf is a complete moron who is threatening to leave tacoma like anyone gives a shit or that they'll actually leave. They won't and they can't. The entire picture is satire on how people who are trying to shut down 15 now are hand wringing, lying dickheads looking to exploit employees and delay the raise as long as possible.
- Dave July 7, 2015
  
  [quote]... every argument we’ve heard presented against it is a hot fucking garbage appeal to emotion...[/quote] Uh, excuse me? Pointing out the widely recognized law of supply and demand ("It's a consensus! The science is SETTLED!" Recognize that?) isn't quite "an appeal to emotion". [quote]The owner of the Cloverleaf is a complete moron...[quote] ...who has somehow figured out how to operate a successful business that provides employment to 28 other human beings. That's quite a trick for a moron. Say, what's the headcount at your place? [quote]... who is threatening to leave tacoma like anyone gives a shit or that they’ll actually leave. They won’t and they can’t. [/quote] Don't look now, but this isn't Sea-Tac airport. Long-established businesses can and DO leave for greener pastures, even those that appear to be firmly rooted. Remember the Frank Russell Co.?
  - Maximilian Hyland October 14, 2015
    
    lol because supply and demand is relevant to this discussion in some way. Laboring power is a commodity, but because of its unique nature is must be sold or the provider (the worker) will starve to death. So the supply and demand of labor is all fuckered up, because the supplier must sell as much as possible or die- they can't box it up and save it for later. It's also not settled; economics is a social science for a reason- because shitwit bourgeois economists couldn't predict the sunrise or organize a sock drawer, let alone map out the economy. At no point has the doom and gloom predicted by anti-worker stooges ever come true. Wages go up, unemployment goes down, prices stay stable, businesses flourish- but holy shit, wage inequality decreases, economic opportunity increases, and jesus fucking christ, people are lifted out of poverty. That's bad for business. People coming out of poverty means workers who have the power to demand better conditions and actually win them. People coming out of poverty means people have their heads up and can see the world after years of struggling to survive and might start asking hard goddamn questions like why public policy is dictated by the rich. Tacoma is a working class town, and we're taking the goddamn keys.

Jesse July 1, 2015

"Let's find a logo that makes sexual inuendo for Tacoma" It's hard... If that's what you want to do.

Altered Chords July 1, 2015

Graphs and charts are good. T-Town versus Seattle Good picture RR A haiku poem expressing my feelings for this picture.

UP neighbor July 2, 2015

Jokes! We love jokes. Infographic that opposes raising the minimum wage, made by people who support raising the minimum wage to make people who oppose raising the minimum wage look bad, but made subtly enough that it's not exactly clear at first which side of the issue they're really on. I support sarcasm in my politics. I also support clarity in my infographics. Turns out this post only has one of those things.

thackerspeed July 6, 2015

Picture a convicted felon working at your favorite Tacoma business. The Department of Corrections has finished processing him, so now he's ready to serve our community. An extreme resource? Tacoma, you decide later. But right now employers can hire a processed felon and get a 40% tax break.

RHTCCComedyfan July 11, 2015

If we were going after crooks there would probably be much fewer businesspeople as many of them like to cook the books or have other crooked business practices.Not to say all of them just many of them.
- thackerspeed July 12, 2015
  
  No doubt that there is a secondary economy of non-tax paying, illegitimate business dealings. Many such operations have a legitimate appearance. Other operations are merely overt disorganized crime, which the mass-media reports on daily. In either case, law breakers risk government prosecution and notoriety in the form of public records. The primary axiom of economics is "Man Seeks Gain." Self-determination is an ideal worth pursuing; not subservience. Once the concept of legitimate autonomy is grasped, the propagation of a higher standard of living, intellectually and culturally, will dominate thinking and behavior; and the active pursuit of illegitimate business dealings or the active pursuit of minimum wage survival will each diminish in importance.
Maximilian Hyland October 14, 2015

God forbid people ever be allowed to rejoin society after doing their time, amirite? God forbid we work to alleviate the damage caused by the criminalization of large swaths of the poor. God forbid we resist the prison industrial complex and the caste-system it imposes on us. Ban the Box.

Xeno July 6, 2015

Remember folks, pizza oven accidents. Happen.

4thRow3rdSeat July 7, 2015

Maybe the minimum wage should be higher than $15/hour. Just think of the types of businesses it would dissuade from locating in Tacoma, and the types where such a minimum wage isn’t an issue because they only need skilled labor that is paid much higher. I, for one, can do with fewer nail salons. With an even higher minimum wage you get rid of those low skill jobs and, eventually, you get rid of the low-skill workers. Get the surrounding communities to impose a higher minimum wage, too, and maybe we can drive the population with low skills elsewhere. Wouldn’t that be nice? Hey, it might even make the traffic more tolerable. Yet another benefit.... $15/hour, however, isn't high enough to achieve this lofty goal. It might just encourage people who can secure those jobs to ‘make do’ and not strive for improving their lot in life by learning additional skills. After all, getting a bump from $10/hour to $20 provides more incentive to get educated or learn a skill than a bump from $15/hour to $20/hour. That leaves us with an even larger segment of the population with little motivation to improve their skills (but, hey, at least they can go see a movie). So, perhaps the minimum wage should be $50/hour. In all seriousness, the Council should not put forth a second option. Let the voters vote. The Chamber should hope for a resounding defeat. If it barely fails to pass, it will have a chilling effect on businesses that use low skill labor thinking of locating in Tacoma. Doing so, given a close vote this time, would be risky. Doing so, knowing the Council seriously considered an equally bad proposal, would also be risky. Finally, both the Council and Chamber should consider doing some proper analysis of the proposals. Or at least ‘borrow’ Beacon Economics’ analysis of the L.A. minimum wage.

Maximilian Hyland October 14, 2015

When we want to motivate CEOs and Senators, we give them obscene amounts of money. When we want to motivate proles; we threaten them with a deepening of their poverty or even flat out starvation in the street. I wonder why that is. Maybe because the system is build to exploit my people, to keep the men in suits' hands pretty and soft.

altered chords July 7, 2015

Well folks....Starbucks has officially raised their prices. The inflationary spiral has begun. No amount of minimum wage increases can help us now. Before you know it the house you live in will no longer be underwater. That's what this is really all about. Raise min. wage, spark inflationary pressure, sell house that has finally returned to positive equity, move to better city - like Fife.

Xeno July 12, 2015

Fife? The worst most nonsensical city. We should be so lucky to watch it be reset by a Rainier lahar.

joe-nate July 10, 2015

The work ethic is the idea that constructive and directed labor activity inspires personal initiative that changes a community. All of the public investments downtown and in Upper Tacoma would mean nothing unless businesses opened and created jobs and commerce. The $15/hour wage initiative is misguided. Business creation will become anemic and investors will instead direct their attention to the suburbs, ironic because jobs for young people are needed in Tacoma. Small business is the heart of the American economy. For every homerun like the State Farm Insurance offices in downtown Tacoma, a new coffee shop in a Tacoma neighborhood is a base hit for the economy. Nobody forces anyone to open a business--as it stands $15/hour will be a job killer. Sure, Tacoma living is not free but it is less than the price of dwelling in Seattle. As for $15/hour in the City of Sea/Tac, the expense account businesses using airport-area corporate hospitality businesses are more able to digest those wage costs than independent businesses in Tacoma without such a wealthy customer base. The debate about $15/hour at least makes the issues of the working poor ripe for public discussion. But do not kill small businesses in Tacoma--they also need to survive for the city to grow. Jobs for teens and early 20-somethings remain an important social goal, too.

RHTCCComedyfan July 10, 2015

Amazing work by comrade RR Anderson. If hypothetically a minimum local wage of $15 was implimented here a positive benefit would be the mitigation of the harmful to the environment Tacoma to Seattle commute by many of its residents.Also it would save scarcer fuels and costly infrastructures. It would be much better if we could work locally as close as possible to home rather than have to have the insanity of long commutes. It would be better would be if we lived so close to our workplace that motor vehicles could be eliminated or greatly reduced in usage.

Altered Chords July 13, 2015

@fan - those of us who put up w/ the insane commute are not doing it so that we can earn 15/hr. The 15 now proponents are focused on the wrong end of the income ladder. Tacoma needs higher end employers not a higher paid unskilled workforce. Focus on educating Tacoma citizens and attracting employers that pay more. By the way - there will be a competing initiative on the ballot.

Tacoma Lifer July 14, 2015

The thing we really need to ask ourselves is do we really want to support a town full of min wage employers? This measure will surely put pressure on those min wage employers to find residence elsewhere, good. Think about it, if the company already pays over $15 they will be unaffected by this measure. This creates a more gentrified Tacoma, not a less employable one. Yes, it will put pressure on businesses who plan their business model around minimum wage labor. Good riddance, last I checked, min wage meant you couldn't support yourself independently, even at full time. These min wage jobs, we don't need more of them, we need less. What entrepreneur is providing some ground breaking worthwhile service with an army of min wage labor- no one. Jesus people, pull your heads out of your bro-classical economic asses. Less minimum wage employers= good for Tacoma Less minimum wage earners = good for Tacoma Both sides of this debate are fighting FOR minimum wage jobs, they're just fighting for HOW MUCH to pay them. Time to start thinking differently, and thinking about NOT fighting for more min wage fast food jobs on 38th and toward MORE skilled labor employers in Tacoma that can actually provide the upward mobility a determined and persistently or force demands. Also, someone mentioned Russsell Investments in relation somehow to min wage?? Seriously bro, that's an investment company where even the mailboy makes $50k a year...sheesh, has nothing to do with min wage, even janitors cleaning up the building make more than min wage.

Published Author RR Anderson October 14, 2015

Here are 7 reasons to vote NO on $15 Now! http://comics.feedtacoma.com/tacomic/tacomic-seven-7-deadly-reasons-vote-no-15/

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