excalibur
Diamond Member
- Mar 19, 2015
- 24,550
- 48,769
- 2,290
Looking at her, and knowing she's from Oakland, no surprise. Dumb always finds its level.
...
Barbara Lee, who retired from Congress as a very powerful Congresswoman, ran and lost in the race to replace Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, so she has settled herself in as the Mayor-elect of Oakland, California.
It's appropriate enough. Oakland is what Donald Trump would call a "s**thole," and deserves yet another Mayor who is full of it.
...
Poor people have to live somewhere, and Oakland is where poor people live in the Bay Area. But their poverty will not be relieved by magic bullets like an increase in the minimum wage. If the wage goes to $50/hour, those people will become unemployed tomorrow, and businesses will bail immediately.
Now they will be even poorer with no place to shop. I suppose they could take the BART--an aging, decrepit, and ever-less-reliable subway that is failing--to somewhere else less insane, but they will have little money in a region where a LOT of money is necessary to get by. I'm not sure that Whole Foods or some Co-Op will be thrilled to see them either.
What Oakland needs is much better governance, schools, and a lot more fathers in the families. Increasing wages without vastly increasing the value that minimum wage workers bring to the table is a recipe for disaster.
Unfortunately, the fact that Barbara Lee succeeds another truly awful mayor shows that Oakland is toast.
Which is, I suppose, as it ever was.
Barbara Lee, who retired from Congress as a very powerful Congresswoman, ran and lost in the race to replace Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, so she has settled herself in as the Mayor-elect of Oakland, California.
It's appropriate enough. Oakland is what Donald Trump would call a "s**thole," and deserves yet another Mayor who is full of it.
...
Poor people have to live somewhere, and Oakland is where poor people live in the Bay Area. But their poverty will not be relieved by magic bullets like an increase in the minimum wage. If the wage goes to $50/hour, those people will become unemployed tomorrow, and businesses will bail immediately.
Now they will be even poorer with no place to shop. I suppose they could take the BART--an aging, decrepit, and ever-less-reliable subway that is failing--to somewhere else less insane, but they will have little money in a region where a LOT of money is necessary to get by. I'm not sure that Whole Foods or some Co-Op will be thrilled to see them either.
What Oakland needs is much better governance, schools, and a lot more fathers in the families. Increasing wages without vastly increasing the value that minimum wage workers bring to the table is a recipe for disaster.
Unfortunately, the fact that Barbara Lee succeeds another truly awful mayor shows that Oakland is toast.
Which is, I suppose, as it ever was.
