Breaking News: Restaurants Closing All Over Seattle As $15 Minimum Wage Mandate Starts April 1st.

[TyroneSlothrop]

Sorry Righties Seattle Restaurant Closures Are NOT Due To 15 Minimum Wage If You Only News

The city of Seattle, Washington, embarked on a bold experiment when the city council voted to phase in a $15 an hour minimum wage. In recent weeks there has been a rash of restaurant closings in the city, and of course, the right is very happy to blame the new minimum wage for those closures. Would it surprise you to learn that they’re not telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

American Thinker, a site where the writers seem to do anything but, proclaims in a March 14 headline, “Seattle restaurants going dark as $15 an hour minimum wage goes into effect.”

The libertarian site, Reason, proclaims, “Seattle’s Looming $15 Minimum Wage Seems to Be Costing Restaurant Lives.”

Of course, the always full of it, Hot Air, weighs in, saying, “Seattle eateries closing as $15 minimum wage approaches.”

As usual, the truth is more complicated, and not quite what those sites would have you believe.

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

Well, we are working our way to 1,000 post and 100 pages and we are still waiting for the link that shows an actual restaurant closing in Seattle due specifically to a law that is going to increase the minimum wage. Did I miss that post and link?

Right. It's just a big coincidence.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

As usual, the truth is more complicated, and not quite what those sites would have you believe.

nothing complicated. We'd all eat out all the time were it not for the expense. The expense just went up so we'll all eat out less or cut back in other areas creating unemployment there.

Do you understand now??

 

[TyroneSlothrop]

Senate Democrats Consider Raising Their Minimum Wage Proposal To $12

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

Corporations are not the bogeyman the confused Left makes them out to be. They provide goods and services, employ tens of millions of people, pay a ton in taxes at all levels and are usually community supporters.

Union workers provide goods and services and you have an intense hatred of labor...you think Union workers are greedy but their bosses you think are the greatest...this is why you are pathetic in a word...a "little man" pretending to be a "big man"

Right, anyone who hates unions hates labor. Because labor never existed before unions.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Senate Democrats Consider Raising Their Minimum Wage Proposal To $12

why not just give everyone a 500% raise so everyone can be well off instantly??

 

[Contumacious]

It’s evident that those Demoncrats don’t have a clue about economics. They never think of the consequences of their “feel good policies.” Neither do they have a clue how a business is run and operated. Seems to me this should be a litmus test for elected officials



Seattle eateries closing as 15 minimum wage approaches Hot Air

We Are Seeing The Effects Of Seattle's $15 An Hour Minimum Wage


Restaurants are closing at higher than normal rates. And Seattle is already a fairly high wage place:

Regarding amount of labor, at 14 employees, a Washington restaurant already averages three fewer workers than the national restaurant average (17 employees).

As Don Boudreaux likes to point out one of the reasons we don’t see large job losses (as opposed to small ones) from rises in the minimum wage is because we’ve had a minimum wage for a long time and have already lost a lot of jobs as a result."

.

 

[TyroneSlothrop]

As usual, the truth is more complicated, and not quite what those sites would have you believe.

nothing complicated. We'd all eat out all the time were it not for the expense. The expense just went up so we'll all eat out less or cut back in other areas creating unemployment there.

Do you understand now??

You are a simpleton ....explain this from the article you did not even bother to scan much less read

Sorry Righties Seattle Restaurant Closures Are NOT Due To 15 Minimum Wage If You Only News

Seattle Met highlights some of the closings, and the reasons for them. Renee Erickson is closing her Boat Street Cafe so that she can concentrate on two other restaurants, both of which she is opening this summer. Wait. She’s closing one, and opening two, and we’re supposed to believe that the one that is closing is due to a higher minimum wage?

Little Uncle is closing their restaurant because they have decided that bigger is not necessarily better. The owners say that the larger location doesn’t fit their personal and professional goals. After closing the larger venue, Little Uncle continues to do business out of their original, smaller, take-out location.

 

[TyroneSlothrop]

Senate Democrats Consider Raising Their Minimum Wage Proposal To $12

why not just give everyone a 500% raise so everyone can be well off instantly??

Then they would be CEO s on Wall Street and you would have no problem with that

 

[DrDoomNGloom]

The point too is, that most refuse to factor in, are the huge corporate business that can change employees like socks and pay them wages to maximize their profits.
When John Q. Public starts to realize patronizing local small business makes a community prosper , things will get better.
Corporate profits leave the community to pay shareholders.

But, businesses don't close on their own accord? Be it how they managed or operated their business and how trends change.
Really?

This article is less political and far more accurate. It may answer some of the questions you have mentioned. It explains how the restaurants closed for reasons that have nothing to do with wages. Some of them closed and reopened new ones. I think most of the posters are not interested in accuracy on this topic.

actually, it seems most are not interested in determining whether or not a forced increase in operating costs would have a negative affect on a business.....

I offered this scenario with no response. It is an accurate scenario, as most business owners make less than 75K a year....

A man owns a small restaurant...it was his lifelong dream. He wasn't overly ambitious...he just wanted to cook and serve for a living...so he has a small restaurant with 6 employees. He generates about 1000 a week profit. Not a lot, but he loves what he does, his wife is a nurse making another 70K a year, so they are doing just fine...making 120K a year with 3 kids.

Now he is told by his state government that he must pay an extra 5 an hour to each of his 6 employees.....or 30 an hour....an extra 1200 a week.

So now he is losing 200 a week with his lifelong dream restaurant.....so his family is now making 60K total....

His employees lose their job, he loses his restaurant...and another middle class family is in a struggle.

I live in a resort and one of the main, if not the main industry happens to be restaurants of every type you can imagine. They close and open every season. Mostly, the same core group of owners that buy and sell their restaurants and even trade with each other. Each year a number of rookies will show up to try and teach everyone how to run a restaurant. Most only last a season. Some close up before the season is over. The real restaurateurs know how to adjust and adapt and continue to make profits. None of the ones I know would ever consider paying employees minimum wage. Quality employees are a must for a successful restaurant. The potential for loss from bad publicity, theft and the lack of quality workmanship is far to great. Successful restaurants in my town use the best employees they can find and are willing to pay a decent wage to get them.

are you actually implying that an establishment with a built in consumer audience is an example of a typical small business in middle America?

You morons really don't get it do you???

In our scenario of real life as the Fed has lowered interest to 0% or somewhere there close, it limits the amount of Bonds bought as a safe haven. AS long as the stock market has the Fed held here the profits will continue, but notice the tone of the Fed chairrman has changed and as such so has inveastor poster.

There is a direct correlation between the Fed interest rate / bond rates and the stock market ..................

When you can reconcile that in your little head .........................

Holla

 

[DrDoomNGloom]

Business pay people what they are worth?

That's how it should work. You don't pay people what they think they are worth. That is very childish. Whatever happened to earning your money? Now we have people like you using the legal system or the legislative process to attempt to give people what they in reality don't deserve.

According to this logic, CEOs of big companies are worth their giant compensation packages, now averaging 300 times the pay of the typical American worker.

A corporation doesn't work without leadership. Just like the human body doesn't work without a brain. I'm sorry rich people scare you so much, but it is life. And avarice fuels your arguments.

Fifty years ago, when General Motors was the largest employer in America, the typical GM worker got paid $35 an hour in today's dollars.

And you want people to be paid in equivalent what people were paid 50 years ago? If that is the case, then everyone can kiss their jobs goodbye. How patently ludicrous of you to make such a suggestion. You would absolutely kill every small business in America, and would cause every corporation in the US to outsource almost all of their jobs overseas. Think before you speak.

Does this mean the typical GM employee a half-century ago was worth four times what today's typical Walmart employee is worth?

Why does that even matter? When I was growing up, I was taught that I had to earn my share, not demand it because I thought I deserved it. That isn't how life works. One person is no more valuable than another. People are supposed to prove their worth instead of dictate it to their employers. What is wrong with you?

That GM worker wasn't much better educated or productive.

Are you suggesting that people should be paid regardless of their productivity?

The "paid-what-you're-worth" argument is fundamentally flaunted because it ignores power, overlooks institutions, and disregards politics.

The "pay me what I want, when I want" argument is flawed, purely because it abolishes power, overlooks productivity, and injects politics into the workplace, not to mention the employer is dictated to the worth of their workers by society.

In reality, businesses do not pay people based on productivity. Businesses pay as little as possible in order to maximize profits.

But, businesses don't close on their own accord? Be it how they managed or operated their business and how trends change.
Really?

This article is less political and far more accurate. It may answer some of the questions you have mentioned. It explains how the restaurants closed for reasons that have nothing to do with wages. Some of them closed and reopened new ones. I think most of the posters are not interested in accuracy on this topic.

actually, it seems most are not interested in determining whether or not a forced increase in operating costs would have a negative affect on a business.....

I offered this scenario with no response. It is an accurate scenario, as most business owners make less than 75K a year....

A man owns a small restaurant...it was his lifelong dream. He wasn't overly ambitious...he just wanted to cook and serve for a living...so he has a small restaurant with 6 employees. He generates about 1000 a week profit. Not a lot, but he loves what he does, his wife is a nurse making another 70K a year, so they are doing just fine...making 120K a year with 3 kids.

Now he is told by his state government that he must pay an extra 5 an hour to each of his 6 employees.....or 30 an hour....an extra 1200 a week.

So now he is losing 200 a week with his lifelong dream restaurant.....so his family is now making 60K total....

His employees lose their job, he loses his restaurant...and another middle class family is in a struggle.

I live in a resort and one of the main, if not the main industry happens to be restaurants of every type you can imagine. They close and open every season. Mostly, the same core group of owners that buy and sell their restaurants and even trade with each other. Each year a number of rookies will show up to try and teach everyone how to run a restaurant. Most only last a season. Some close up before the season is over. The real restaurateurs know how to adjust and adapt and continue to make profits. None of the ones I know would ever consider paying employees minimum wage. Quality employees are a must for a successful restaurant. The potential for loss from bad publicity, theft and the lack of quality workmanship is far to great. Successful restaurants in my town use the best employees they can find and are willing to pay a decent wage to get them.

are you actually implying that an establishment with a built in consumer audience is an example of a typical small business in middle America?

The discussion is about restaurants. Some of you guys are lumping restaurants in with other small businesses. The restaurant business is different. I you don't have quality employees you probably will not produce a quality product.

Do U need a check up from the neck up??
Do you really think, McDonalds, burger king, Wendy's, or any of the scores of fast food dives that make a "fast food" , make a quality product that would be worth those exuberant prices.................

Deal with that concept first and then come sling some more shit at the forum.
I mean you are ranting on and on about quality ...........................

Tell us of this fucking QUALITY you speak of and how it references a $1.25 micky dee burger ..................................

 

[TyroneSlothrop]

Corporations are not the bogeyman the confused Left makes them out to be. They provide goods and services, employ tens of millions of people, pay a ton in taxes at all levels and are usually community supporters.

Union workers provide goods and services and you have an intense hatred of labor...you think Union workers are greedy but their bosses you think are the greatest...this is why you are pathetic in a word...a "little man" pretending to be a "big man"

Right, anyone who hates unions hates labor. Because labor never existed before unions.

Labor existed as serfs and peons before Unions

 

[TyroneSlothrop]

The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.Thomas Donohue, Former President AFL-CIO

When Unions Are Strong Americans Enjoy the Fruits of Their Labor Institute for Local Self-Reliance

 

[HenryBHough]

The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.Thomas Donohue, Former President AFL-CIO

And here's breaking news:

Ducks go "QUACK"!

 

[TyroneSlothrop]

The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.Thomas Donohue, Former President AFL-CIO

And here's breaking news:

Ducks go "QUACK"!

and wing nuts like you go Pffffffffffffffff

 

[danielpalos]

Would the private sector be worse off by funding unemployment compensation on an at-will basis through general forms of taxation over our current regime.

I believe the private sector could enjoy greater efficiency from more productive employees, by merely subsidizing the least efficient to not work, at the rock bottom cost of a form of minimum wage on an at-will basis, ostensibly to correct for a Natural Rate of Unemployment, by using socialism to bailout capitalism, like usual.

 

[suplex3000]

The czars in the Seattle City Council can just pass an ordinance requiring all eateries to remain open, pay the wage, and not raise the prices, or their assets will become property of the city govt.

That worked quite well in Venezuela, and since Seattle has modeled itself after Venezuela, I say go for it, and reap all those rewards.

 

[DrDoomNGloom]

That was it Daniel, you made the ignore list, congratulations.....................

You can call it broken English, I call it pure Bull Shit ......................................

 

[Camp]

Well, we are working our way to 1,000 post and 100 pages and we are still waiting for the link that shows an actual restaurant closing in Seattle due specifically to a law that is going to increase the minimum wage. Did I miss that post and link?

the article is irrelevant. The debate is what it has morphed into at this point. And I am finding that no one really wants to debate facts. Just offer opinion. Address the simple question....why does a pool service company need to hire adults to clean pools? Why is it a failed business model if it does not have to hire adults?

Sorry, but it is easy to find a negative response to all of your questions. The pool company may be able to compliment it's staff with teens, but they will need adult supervision. Sure, you can use teens as helpers, but you would be foolish and irresponsible to send them out unsupervised to private homes. Do you think a person paying for professional service is going to be happy when they come home and see a teen swimming in their pool or entertaining a friend.

The point too is, that most refuse to factor in, are the huge corporate business that can change employees like socks and pay them wages to maximize their profits.
When John Q. Public starts to realize patronizing local small business makes a community prosper , things will get better.
Corporate profits leave the community to pay shareholders.

But, businesses don't close on their own accord? Be it how they managed or operated their business and how trends change.
Really?

actually, it seems most are not interested in determining whether or not a forced increase in operating costs would have a negative affect on a business.....

I offered this scenario with no response. It is an accurate scenario, as most business owners make less than 75K a year....

A man owns a small restaurant...it was his lifelong dream. He wasn't overly ambitious...he just wanted to cook and serve for a living...so he has a small restaurant with 6 employees. He generates about 1000 a week profit. Not a lot, but he loves what he does, his wife is a nurse making another 70K a year, so they are doing just fine...making 120K a year with 3 kids.

Now he is told by his state government that he must pay an extra 5 an hour to each of his 6 employees.....or 30 an hour....an extra 1200 a week.

So now he is losing 200 a week with his lifelong dream restaurant.....so his family is now making 60K total....

His employees lose their job, he loses his restaurant...and another middle class family is in a struggle.

I live in a resort and one of the main, if not the main industry happens to be restaurants of every type you can imagine. They close and open every season. Mostly, the same core group of owners that buy and sell their restaurants and even trade with each other. Each year a number of rookies will show up to try and teach everyone how to run a restaurant. Most only last a season. Some close up before the season is over. The real restaurateurs know how to adjust and adapt and continue to make profits. None of the ones I know would ever consider paying employees minimum wage. Quality employees are a must for a successful restaurant. The potential for loss from bad publicity, theft and the lack of quality workmanship is far to great. Successful restaurants in my town use the best employees they can find and are willing to pay a decent wage to get them.

are you actually implying that an establishment with a built in consumer audience is an example of a typical small business in middle America?

You morons really don't get it do you???

In our scenario of real life as the Fed has lowered interest to 0% or somewhere there close, it limits the amount of Bonds bought as a safe haven. AS long as the stock market has the Fed held here the profits will continue, but notice the tone of the Fed chairrman has changed and as such so has inveastor poster.

There is a direct correlation between the Fed interest rate / bond rates and the stock market ..................

When you can reconcile that in your little head .........................

Holla

Well of course, why didn't everyone see the obvious relationship of the Fed, interest rates, bonds and the stock market and how those things determine whether my burger will cost $5.95 or $6.25. In the end, don't we just simply raise the price of the burger when the cost of producing the burger goes up?

 

[kiwiman127]

View attachment 38024

[


"Hate is not a Christian value"-Redfish
Actually the Bible states that hate is equivalent to murder. John 1 3:15.
Reading most of the threads/posts/signatures on USMB, indicates we have very, very few true Christians on board here. but we do have a ton of fake Christians.

I don't think Jesus was guaranteed a minimum wage when He worked as a carpenter. Minimum wage is an invention of confused stupid ass bureaucrats.

Remember that greed and thievery are also sins and anybody that elects Liberal politicians to use the government to steal money on their behalf would not meet the definition of Christian values.

I am not liberal nor am I liberal conservative, what I am is Middle Class.
Regarding the minimum wage, I think it's a good idea as it sets a floor for wages.
In this country, we obviously have a greed issue.
The US for decades had the most prosperous Middle Class in the world, but the US middle class has lost ground to other developed nations. Canada now has the world's most prosperous middle class in the world and other nations are set to also pass the US's middle class. For example, since 2000, Canada's middle class saw a 19.7% increase in the median income, so did Britain's, while Ireland's saw 16.2%, the Netherlands 13.9%, the US saw 6.3%. Why?
Regarding upward mobility, America has fallen behind Europe.
"Economic mobility is becoming a more prominent issue in the 2012 Republican presidential race, and will likely be widely discussed in the general election. The GOP’s remaining top-tier candidates — Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich — have all sounded the alarm about American decline, promising to restore the “American Dream” and make the pursuit of happiness seem like more of a worthwhile endeavor (as Romney as consistently hammered on about recently). But what’s shocking is that rather than focusing on the American Dream these days, politicians and academics seem to be talking more about the European Dream."
The Loss of Upward Mobility in the U.S. TIME.com
Now back to the minimum wage, do you realize that raising the minimum wage helps the middle class, more so than those below the poverty line?
Minimum Wage Hike Would Benefit 3X More Middle-Class Workers Than Poor
CNSNews.com) – Three times as many workers from middle-class families would benefit from President Obama's proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour as those living in households below the federal poverty line, according to a new study.
Minimum Wage Hike Would Benefit 3X More Middle-Class Workers Than Poor CNS News
If the conservative Cato Institute thinks this, why would any middle class conservative deny this?
Over three decades of flat wages (in Real Dollars/constant dollars), it's no wonder why the American Middle Class is in such trouble.
Having a steadily weakening middle class hurts the US economy. As the graph below shows, as the middle class has weakened, recession have taken longer to recover. Is it all just a coincidence? Now that's doubtful.View attachment 38017
Someone is making a killing keeping wages flat as profits have hit record highs, yet wages remain flat. Why don't folks take off their ideological hats and stop to think for themselves and their own future is beyond me.

What helps the middle class is a free market for labor and less government restrictions because then business can prosper and that will always drive wages up.

Because this country has been leaning more towards the Left the Middle Class has suffered. Since Obama has took over average family income has declined.

Profits have hit record levels and wages have been flat long before Obama. They have been flat under both Democratic and Republican leadership.
How about thinking without trying to play partisan politics. In this case, both the right and left are guilty as real facts show.
[/ATTACH] View attachment 38021

We get it, You are a corporate hater .................... instead of participating in the discussion you have an agenda.
Ignore is only one click away, to be banished with the rest ........................

I have worked in the corporate world most of my adult life and have done quite well. Both my daughters work in the corporate world and are also doing very well.
If you don't like what I posted, then you don't like most economists from all political stripes, because a majority echo my point of view or should I say, I echo their point of view. The know that facts are facts.
Putting someone on ignore is a definite move of the close-minded. There are several posters who I disagree with and we go at it at times. Every once in awhile they post something that is damn informative and I'm glad I never put them on ignore. It's called having an open mind.
Put me on ignore and see if I give a shit. I'd rather interact with people who have the adult ability to pay attention to all sides of the argument.
Besides, I'm here for entertainment and you appear to be not at all entertaining.