...the impact on restaurant workers. Amazon and Vulcan (Paul Allen from Microsoft) have pretty much remade the whole South Lake Union part of Seattle, taking it very much upscale from what it was. I suspect that might be factor at play as well - more sophisticated palates and plenty of cash to indulge. Aside from traffic and parking, things are great here.
Ugh. The biggest obstacle to my UW degree has been the commute, by far. (But that's what I get for refusing to live in the metro area.)
Anyway, yep. I do think it's worth noting that the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, which means it needs to be taken with a grain of salt, even if a lone economist describes it as credible. We will see what happens with the peer review and publishing process.
At this point I'm thinking it may wind up being a useful caution for certain types of economies: if there are too many moderately skilled workers relative to entry-level types, and not enough employers who see potential future dividends from supporting the entry-level workers, then the leftist strategy could certainly backfire and increase poverty among the less skilled.
But I am not at all convinced that Seattle fits that mold. As you were alluding to, Vodalus, massive corporate employers are a HUGE factor here, and they often see a reason (and can afford) to employ the entry-level types, even if the small restaurants do not. So this -
"And critics of the research pointed out what they saw as serious shortcomings. In particular, to avoid confusing establishments that were subject to the minimum with those that were not, the authors did not include large employers with locations both inside and outside of Seattle in their calculations. Skeptics argued that omission could explain the unusual results."
This excludes Microsoft and Amazon, two of our biggest players. And that automatically renders the study suspect for Seattle, as they go on to explain in the article.
And yeah, just as someone else who lives here, the "damage liberalism can do" is a hilarious and bizarre thing to say about our economy. The unemployment rate is 3.1%. Our house has nearly doubled in value in less than four years. There are too many fucking people. Etc.
Side note, I really wish they had managed to pass the basic income referendum in Switzerland, since I think that is a much more promising solution. It still would have been a severely limited experiment, given how small and homogenous the country is, but it would have been so interesting to read the follow-up studies.
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- 28/06/2017 12:13:42 AM
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