Here in the State of Washington, Seattle is the tail that ‘wags the dog’. It’s where we have a concentration of younger people who have not yet learned cause and effect. Remember when you were twenty something and knew everything? Well, Seattle is full of them, and our elected officials chase their vote. We have the highest Minimum wage in the country, and the people of Seattle take great pride in supporting high wages. They seem unable to note or care about the disastrous effect it has on small towns through out the rest of the State. Small business must close, and a lot of business will no longer be viable here. High school kids, and Moms working partime, kids workign summer hire jobs. In some families it might make the difference between paying the house payment or foreclosure. The people in Seattle who generally support the high minimum wage are angry with Evil Corporations that ‘outsource’, they are angry with all who flee our state, and never do they stop and think that the ever increasing burden of taxes and high wages are what motivates corporations and even small companies to leave. An example that people in Seattle will ignore is the fact that Airlines can no longer afford to have their scheduled maintenance done in the State of Washington. Any airlines that cares to remain viable can save a ton of money flying their planes empty to other states and have the same work done at far less cost. Yes, this means they often burn tons of fuel, and pay a three man crew to take the empty aircraft to Kansas, and then they pay that same crew to ‘ferry’ and empty plane back to Seattle. Think of all the fuel burned, and still they save a HUGE amount of money with this effort. Much of this has to do with business overhead in this State, Seattle just can’t help themselves, they create burdens for the entire State, and never do they think of the consequences. Recently they voted in legislation to force all Washingtonians to pay a higher rate on energy to fund AE projects that may or may not provide long term dividends, they do it for clean air, and I give only one example of the tons of fuel burned to avoid the high cost of business they created for our state. That old sayin “You’re not in Kansas anymore”, sounds like a great place to find a job to me. It matters not what you think, it’s all about the consumer and whether they find value shopping in our state or outside of it. But there are solutions to these problems “according to Liberal Seattle”, we just make it illegal for business to cross the state line, and besides, private enterprise is evil, why not Nationalize everything just like Cuba did? Of course there’s a big safety net under the entire Washington State Budget…(According to Seattle), so not to worry! The FED will be there to bail us out if we can’t pay our debts, …why worry, be happy! What Seattle does know for a fact is that all too many Americans expect the FED to bail out >anyone< in trouble, so why should a State concern themselves with maintaining a budget?
OK.. of course you ask…”Where will the FED get the money? Michael Mann and his friends might answer…”that’s what ‘carbon credits’ and AGW is all about, we expected to use it to fund every need…. and you dummies stand in our way!”
Clearly… we have way too many voters who think we can tax our way to prosperity. Seattle is the example, a lot of folks in Seattle are sure that milk comes from the dairy, and not the cow, but still… they carry the vote.. even on issues that concern Agriculture on the othe side of the Cascades. If you travel 30 miles or more in any direction from Seattle, you find people who know what it takes to maintain small business. There you will find people that understand, you must make more than you spend to survive.
These are all reasons to Grow a Garden.
If you are in Kansas City, the very least you can do is thank Seattle for the incredible opportunity to grow your aviation business, it’s far more than Boeing, it’s that wonderful service industry you have grown. And now I hear you may have planes coming up from Mexico and further south to have the work done right, and at a good value. Congratulations Kansas City! Kansas City.. there’s lots more to learn from Seattle, as they’ll not quit blaming evil corporations until we have none at all.
George B.
another measure of a states solvency, at least to me is its unemployment rate, notice the rate in places like kansas, nebraska, the dokota’s and a few other right to work states? some are half the rate we have here in washington.
really makes one wonder who has it right? a state such as washington with it high minimum wage, or a state such as kansas with it lower minimum wage? what good is a higher minimum wage when it is twice or more harder to find “any” job?
then there is the union thing of tieing union pay grades based on a mulitiple of the minimum wage, once you have that in place, hell yes you now have union support for the highest minimum wage possible.
we should be thankful the airlines haven’t outsourced their plane service work to india or china!
I would like to respond to planes going out of state/country. 15 years ago I took a trip to Tiajuana and I noticed a huge amount of large aircraft flying around. I was told back then it was because it was cheaper for the airlines to fly down there for service. I suppose this has only gotten worse.
I was raised in Wichita and witnessed first hand strikes from friends who had parents that worked for the aircraft industry. 40 years ago it seemed they made a good wage and I can’t even imagine what it is now. I had a chance to see picket lines and it made no sense to me then and it has shown what the long term affects has caused.
I agree people need to be paid a fair wage to live. I think there is a point where a company can only afford to stay in business if they look elsewhere. I believe that the american worker is some of the most talented people in the world.
Look at the auto industry. I wonder what the total number of workers were employed 30 years ago. Now do you think there is even half that many? Allot of it is due to automation but I would guess most of it is due to other countries.
Sometime we as americans are going to have to realize other countries want to live also. So we are going to have to bring the jobs back to this country and work for a wage that business can afford to pay.
I have never been pro union because I feel that they served their purpose 50 to 75 years ago. This is just one persons idea who lives in Kansas. DD
This topic is all about planning ahead, keep your eye on the ball, and consider living where there are jobs to be had. It is the ratio between wages and cost of living that is important, not how much you make.
Mike, it’s Interesting you bring up the aircraft flying south across the border for maintenance. People in the industry have told me that didn’t work out very well, the quality of the work was low. Kansas offers a savings and top quality work. I truly believe Americans on average have high work ethics, and it’s very difficult for the majority of them to sleep at night knowing the work they did that day was less than ‘right’.
So many Americans I know are angry with evil corporations. We need understand that some of these companies do this to stay in business. Americans that hate evil corporations have no trouble supporting unions that eventually sell the employee’s future. WE must allow a corporation to compete and remain in business.
A progressive will likely tell you that America is outsourcing overseas, some did, and now return to our shores, there are so many outside our shores who work only for the day, and have no loyalty to their employer. Our ‘right to work states’ are a good compromise, they will be the target of the extreme left. As Detroit crumbles, business down south grows. A young progressive tells me these people down south are too stupid to do the job, it’s a trait I’ve come to recognize, they ‘know’ anyone outside the progressive movement is stupid. Since their agenda is well supported by the idea of carbon taxes, they will certainly tell you that ‘skeptics’ are stupid too 🙂 Recognize this for what it is, an effort to end the American dream and truncate freedom by offering the impossible dream..
Our jobs are going to the ‘right to work states’, and they’ll continue to go there, we can expect the far left to try and alter this trend with the progressive’s demented dream of the world Citizen.
If you are young and have a family, pay attention to where the jobs are going and consider investing there. Seattle may need to look like Detroit before they get the message, it’s too bad the rest of the State has to pay the price. Red state blue state, washington is like so many others, it’s a solid color all save for a spot on the map called Seattle, “the tail that wags the dog”.