Penalizing Success…The Seattle Syndrome

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By Craig Andresen – Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

Homelessness is at an all-time high in Seattle, and the City by the Sound is doing something about it. No, Seattle isn’t doing anything to fix it…in fact…they’re making it worse.

Seattle’s biggest problem when it comes to homelessness is Seattle and it’s bent toward liberalism, a fact liberals will argue against, but a fact nonetheless.

Before I get into what Seattle is doing, that will make the homeless situation there even worse than it already is, let me explain why Seattle has so many homeless to begin with.

Seattle’s liberalism is legendary…it’s one of the most liberal cities in America. Other such cities include, but are not limited to…Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago. In fact, all of the cities named here are renowned for their liberalism, and all also have a big-time homeless problem.

They have something else in common too…a couple of dots liberals don’t want anyone to connect…

Those named cities are also…sanctuary cities, and most of them have a mandatory $15/hr. minimum wage law or they’re working on having one. Let’s be honest here…sanctuary cities and a $15/hr. minimum wage are both big planks in the liberal agenda, and therefore should not be ignored when one is having any serious discussion regarding the homeless problem faced by these cities.

For today, I’m concentrating on Seattle, which has seen its homeless population skyrocket since instituting their $15/ hr. minimum wage, and adopting its sanctuary city status.

Another liberal policy that’s not doing Seattle any good with regard to their homeless issue is that of Seattle’s first three legally sanctioned encampments. One of those encampments is called Licton Springs Village, which has about 70 “residents” in a 5000 square foot lot with a chain link fence around it in the midst of a residential neighborhood.

A good portion of the homeless in Licton Springs Village are drug addicts, roaring alcoholics, or mentally ill, but liberal tolerance says that’s just fine because it’s a “low-barrier” encampment rather than a homeless shelter that might insist on sobriety as a condition of being there.

Such “low barrier” encampments in Seattle do not push those who stay there to seek employment, do not push those who stay there to seek treatment, and calls it a way station for those waiting to transition into some form of real housing…although what it really does is create a final destination for the terminally homeless.

Liberals in Seattle and elsewhere are quick to tell anyone who asks that the recession back in 2009 led to the homeless boom there, but the fact is…it didn’t. According to Daniel Malone of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, “the recession barely affected the size of the single adult homeless population” that his group serves. Malone says that it has only been over the past three or four years that the numbers have grown.

Hello $15/hr. minimum wage and sanctuary city status.

Being a sanctuary city means that Seattle attracts illegal aliens, and illegal alien criminals who are taking the scant few entry level jobs left in the wake of the $15/hr. minimum wage law that saw companies either shut their doors completely, or reduce their workforce leaving many in Seattle without the means to pay the rent, and thus become homeless.

Certainly, there are other reasons for homelessness in Seattle, but tolerating homelessness, protecting homelessness and not being judgmental of homelessness is akin to issuing open invitations to attract even more homeless to Seattle, but the liberals just can’t seem to put two and two together.

But…Seattle has a solution, or at least they think they do, and in typical liberal/socialist fashion, it involves taking more of other people’s money.

Seattle has now instituted a “head tax” on any business that shows revenue of more than 20 million dollars per year, and while we’ve all heard about Amazon’s protests regarding this new Head Tax…they are not alone.

First of all…the “head tax” will cost any Seattle business with 20 million dollars in revenue $275.00 per employee and there is one specific word in that which needs to be highlighted…

Revenue.

Those Seattle businesses that are about to get penalized for their success are those with at least $20 million dollars in REVENUE…not PROFIT…and that’s noteworthy.

So…how many Seattle businesses are going to have to pony up $275.00 per employee?

At least 585.

Keeping in mind that we’re talking about revenue, and not profit here…businesses like grocery stores in Seattle that show a revenue of at least $20 million dollars per year, even though their profit level is thin, will have to pay the head tax. That means those grocery stores will have to succumb to one of three choices…they can raise their food prices to compensate…lay off workers to compensate, or just do what so many other businesses did when Seattle went to the $15/hr. minimum wage and close up shop altogether.

Again…let’s be honest…none of those options are good for business…and at least two of those options will lead to increased homelessness in Seattle.

In Seattle there are 99 wholesaler companies, 87 professional, scientific and technical services firms, 78 construction companies and 77 retail entities among the at least 585 businesses that are now subject to the new head tax…and many of those businesses…if they want to stay in business…are starting to look for greener pastures in states and cities where Seattle’s liberal/socialist bent won’t drain them of employees, revenue and/or profit.

According to the Seattle Sun Times, “other subsectors with substantial numbers of companies expected to be on the hook for the tax include personal and laundry services (28), food service and drinking places (14), real estate (13), accommodations (11), and performing arts, sports teams and related businesses (5).”

As I said before, Seattle’s biggest problem when it comes to homelessness is Seattle, and they’re not fixing it…they’re making it worse.

As the businesses in Seattle that are now subject to the new head tax start fleeing Seattle, the tax revenue generated by the new head tax will decline meaning there will be less and less of other people’s money to sink into “social programs” which in reality are socialistic programs meant to create low income housing, addiction treatment and mental health care for the homeless that are already there, not to mention those who are answering Seattle’s open invitation to receive more and more homeless people.

Earlier, I said there were reasons beyond the sanctuary city status and $15/hr. minimum wage at least partly responsible for the growing homeless problem in Seattle, and one of those reasons was the defeat of former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles who, between 2002 and 2010 cleared out homeless camps in his city on a regular basis…sending the message that homelessness in Seattle would not be tolerated.

The problem for Nickles was, although a democrat, he just wasn’t liberal or socialist enough to be tolerated by those who would rather tolerate homelessness and then penalize successful businesses in order to make the problem even worse.

Another reason for the growing homeless problem in Seattle is the lack of reasonably priced housing which has been driven by having so many successful businesses in the city. Now…Seattle thinks they have that problem solved as well, and yet again, they’re actually making it worse via another liberal policy.

The Fair Chance Housing Ordinance is new in Seattle, and it makes it illegal for a landlord to do a criminal background check or consider prior criminal convictions of potential renters. Mom and pop landlords have few recourses in the face of this new Seattle city ordinance other than to hike up the price of their rental units, be they houses or apartments sky high, or sell their rental properties to big corporations who would likely sell the houses off, and possibly replace apartments with some sort of retail space.

Either way…housing prices will be going up in Seattle, as there will be less rental housing available.

Simply put, if you happen to be a rental property owner anywhere, you should have the right to determine who will live in your rentals, and only rent to those you feel are a good risk, but Seattle’s liberal socialists are putting your rights as a law abiding citizen on a dusty back shelf in favor of the criminal elements of their city.

The answer to the homelessness problem in Seattle has a successful template that liberals hate…it’s called getting tough. If Seattle really wants to end the homeless problem it has dug itself into, they need to drop the sanctuary city crap, and put an end to the $15/hr. minimum wage for starters…then, do away with this new head tax nonsense to let businesses grow and thrive. After that, Seattle needs to build homeless shelters that insist on sobriety, and which also provide entry level job training with getting some form of employment as requirements to be in those shelters.

Getting off the backs of those who own rental properties in Seattle would also be a good idea so that such housing can be rented to quality rather than criminal elements of the city.

Those who don’t follow the rules by remaining sober and getting some sort of job need to be given a one way ticket out of town along with the promise of arrest should they come back to the streets of Seattle.

Liberals see this as far too harsh, and intolerant, but it works…and the template for it comes directly from America’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who also advocates stopping illegal aliens at the border before they can become seekers of sanctuary anywhere in our nation.

But Seattle is a liberal and socialist fool’s paradise that is destined to go the way of Baltimore and Detroit…coddling the very elements that will ultimately lead to its downfall regardless of how much money their liberals siphon away from others, and once they run out of other people’s money via penalizing success…the Seattle Syndrome…because the businesses subject to that tax will indeed leave…

whose heads will Seattle tax then?

Copyright © 2018 Craig Andresen / thenationalpatriot.com all rights reserved

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For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Diane Sori’s blog The Patriot Factor to read her latest article Jeff Sessions: Missing In Action…Again

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS…LIVE!

Today, Friday, May 25th from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss ‘Jeff Sessions: Missing in Action…Again’; ‘Penalizing Success…The Seattle Syndrome’; and important news of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history