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Long Cardboard Box Homes, Inc. (CBHI)


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2018 May 18, 5:01am   2,181 views  10 comments

by MisterLefty   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

Seattle has an interesting take on the housing affordability problem -- tax the people who caused it.

The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a new “head tax” on its largest businesses, and while being termed the “Amazon tax,” many other prominent U.S. corporations stand to take a hit as well.

The tax comes out to 14 cents per employee per hour, or $275 per employee annually, on for-profit companies that net at least $20 million annually. The rationale for the tax is to raise money to pay for housing for the city’s homeless.

It sounds like a dream -- companies hiring people, giving them crazy stock option awards and salaries, and everyone profits, right?

Well, no. Those who don't work there don't profit. And as that continues over time what happens to housing prices and availability? It becomes impossible for anyone who doesn't have that million-dollar job!

Then you have a bunch of homeless people who got evicted from their apartments when they were torn down to make room for the next McMansion. What do you do with them?

More to the point, where do the people who work at McDonalds or pulling your coffee at Starbucks live?

They don't, basically. They can't possibly afford to to live in that area anymore.

Who vacuums the offices, who makes the pizzas, who drives the Ubers and Taxis, who cuts hair and who serves drinks at the tony bar across the street from Spamazon's office? How about the cops -- and firefighters?

In short, where do all the people who you need in order to have a functioning city live -- and how, when your "median" house costs $700,000 and a one-bedroom apartment is $2,000/month -- more than someone makes even with a forced $15/hour minimum wage?

https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=233502

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1   RWSGFY   2018 May 18, 6:25am  

MisterLefty says
Who vacuums the offices, who makes the pizzas, who drives the Ubers and Taxis, who cuts hair and who serves drinks at the tony bar across the street from Spamazon's office? How about the cops and firefighters?


Putting cops and firefighters in the same category as janitors and pizzamakers insults reader's intelligence. Especially while the story about that Coward County sheriff's deputy retiring on $8K per month pension hasn't yet faded from the news cycle. These people are paid on par with (or better than) engineers, so stop lumping them in with the fucking homeless!
2   HeadSet   2018 May 18, 6:27am  

Very interesting and thoughtful article, MisterLefty.

In some crowded an prosperous SE Asian nations, before one is allowed to buy a car one must prove they have a place to park both at home and at work. I wonder if Seattle could take a cue from that and require company to prove that any new employee would have a place to live before giving permission to hire.

Anheiser-Busch beer did something like that before building a brewery in Williamsburg, VA. A-B build the Kingsmill subdivision so their workers (especially upper management) would have a nearby, suitably upscale place to live.
3   HeadSet   2018 May 18, 6:32am  

Putting cops and firefighters in the same category as janitors and pizzamakers insults reader's intelligence.

Seriously? Many cops and firefighters moonlight as janitors and pizzamakers.

Actually, I think his point is to present jobs in a range of pay scales that in no way match the pay and allowances of the people who will be brought in by Amazon and compete with housing. He was not comparing prestige.
4   RWSGFY   2018 May 18, 6:40am  

HeadSet says
Many cops and firefighters moonlight as janitors and pizzamakers


ROTFLMAO. Where do people even get this kind of ideas?
5   HeadSet   2018 May 18, 7:40am  

Hassan_Rouhani says
HeadSet says
Many cops and firefighters moonlight as janitors and pizzamakers


ROTFLMAO. Where do people even get this kind of ideas?


Have you ever been out of the city? Many areas have moonlighting cops and even volunteer firefighters.
6   Strategist   2018 May 18, 7:48am  

When you tax something, you get less of it. Whoever thought a day would come when high paying jobs were not desired.
This is the result of too much success. Only in America, folks.
7   RWSGFY   2018 May 18, 8:37am  

HeadSet says
Hassan_Rouhani says
HeadSet says
Many cops and firefighters moonlight as janitors and pizzamakers


ROTFLMAO. Where do people even get this kind of ideas?


Have you ever been out of the city? Many areas have moonlighting cops and even volunteer firefighters.


What city? And why? The article is about Seattle, isn't it?

Dude, cops moonlight as security guards, security contractors/advisors, etc. NOT as a fucking janitors. Firefighters moonlight as paid-on-call firefighters in different fire dapartments on their off days at their main gig, not as pizzamakers. And it's usually done out of greed, not because they are inches away from living in a cardboard box.

Stop inventing shit.
8   RWSGFY   2018 May 18, 8:51am  

MisterLefty says
And as that continues over time what happens to housing prices and availability? It becomes impossible for anyone who doesn't have that million-dollar job!


Now, 'bout these "million-dollar jobs". At what level does "million dollar salary" starts at Amazon? Let me give you a hint: it's not at the level of Director for sure, and not even at VP level. SVP? Nope, not even there. Try Executive VP. Maybe. How many of these people are there at Amazon's HQ? Ten? Fifteen? Do we really-really in our heart of hearts believe that dozen of people with $1M salary move housing prices in the whole Seattle Metro Area?

PS. Author could've pointed at DINKs with engineering jobs and this could be a valid argument, but the fucking assclown decided to go ahead and bring up the fucking "million dollar jobs" and "janitor cops". This is what passes for journalism these days?
9   Ceffer   2018 May 20, 11:56pm  

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says
Nothing wrong with cardboard boxes if you can flip them.



That cardboard box should be worth the annual gross domestic product of an average third world country with a few upgrades and flips.
10   theoakman   2018 May 21, 5:04am  

wasn't raising the minimum wage to $15 supposed to solve all the problems?

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