Stossel: How Seattle’s Economic Illiteracy Kills Jobs, Economic Stupidity in The Big Damp

As we’ve said in the past it is time to call these economic illiterates out. If one has no understanding of basic supply and demand one has no business making economic decisions. And the thing is there are TONS of elected people who have no understanding of these basic concepts. From city councils to Congress we have people all over who have absolutely no business making laws and regs.

These people need to be publicly identified and they need to be highlighted because they are hurting people everywhere.

(From Reason)

Members of Seattle’s city council want all big Seattle businesses to pay a tax of $500 per employee.

In response, Amazon stopped building a new complex. Construction workers joined Amazon in protesting the new tax.

On the other side are city council members like Kshama Sawant. She and members of her political party, Socialist Alternative, demonstrated in support of the tax. They chanted, “Housing is a human right!”

Seattle does have large encampments of street people. Some are mentally ill. Some are young people looking to get stoned and live free. Some are homeless simply because they cannot afford apartments. There are many reasons for that, but one is that Amazon and other companies have brought so many new jobs to Seattle that the demand for housing exceeds the supply.

Normally, when that happens, the free market quickly solves the problem. Builders view the rising prices as a wonderful thing. They quickly build new housing to sell to the new customers. But in Seattle, and many towns in America, politicians make that very hard.

Seattle’s building code is 745 pages long.

Again, it’s not JUST that they don’t know what they are doing. It’s not JUST that they are ignorant of concepts of which every 6th grader should have a grasp. It’s that they are HURTING PEOPLE with their ignorance of basic market dynamics.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/