A new poll conducted by EMC Research on behalf of labor organizations finds 74 percent of Seattle voters support a $15 minimum wage, up from 68 percent support in January (PDF). Also, voters find socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant more credible than the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle Times, and the Washington Restaurant Association.
More thorough analysis in the morning, but for the moment I’m busy drinking this:
Looks like the people have had enough of the 1-percenters’ bullshit. Are the greedheads afraid of the 99 percent? They should be. There’s 99 times as many of us as there are of them.
The Atlantic has picked up the story about Karl Rove’s sleazy attempt to smear Hillary as “brain damaged.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/pol.....rk/370811/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: What if she is? So what? If GOPers can elect a guy with nothing above the brain stem, why can’t we elect a woman with brain damage? Even a Democrat in a coma is better than any Republican.
Yawn.
Now is a good time to vote for 15 Now.
Don’t trust the city council.
Don’t trust OneSeattle.
Put 15 Now on the ballot.
Meanwhile, over at (u)SP, Jim Miller compares Seattle’s proposed $15 minimum wage to “medical experiments.” (He’s careful to avoid the implication of the N word* by phrasing it, “like the prisoners who volunteer to be test subjects for medical experiments.”)
For once, a Jim Miller spiel is worth reading, if only to admire his verbal somersaults: “I can only repeat that I do oppose the $15 minimum, and would only accept an experiment if the voters in Seattle approve it. I advise them not to volunteer for this experiment, but would not stop them, even if I had the power.”
* No, not that N word; the other N word.
It’s easy to avoid the wage differential problem Jim Miller talks about. Just raise the minimum wage to $15 everywhere in the USA.
Ha! Fast food workers are more credible than those hacks at The Stranger or the Seattle Times.
Mayor Ed Murray, labor unions and fast food workers are seen as more credible on the minimum wage issue than either the Seattle Chamber or the Washington State Restaurant Association. The Socialist Alternative Party is seen as the least credible on the issue. (The Seattle Times is more credible than the SA party).
Well Seattleites not being the brightest bulbs in the box…I cannot say I am shocked that they are fans of Comrade Sawant
Random thoughts:
1. Sawant was seen as less credible than The Stranger. Goldy probably missed that or he would have been sure to mention it.
2. Nobody received a credibility score of at least 50%. Nobody.
3. Thinking back to that national poll that showed a majority favoring the minimum wage increase (wasn’t that in the 70s as well?), but seeing that majority evaporate (57% opposed) when the question was asked in a way that made sure people understood there could be serious job losses if it were passed, I can’t but help wondering what the poll numbers would be if people were given some of the downsides to a substantial minimum wage increase.
Ah, but what do I know. More free money for everybody, barkeep!
@8 That must be why we have the best economy in the state and most of the nation. Personally, I’m getting tired of supporting a state that constantly complains about the economic powerhouse of the state, when they are constantly begging for our cash to support them.
Credit to Railfan for pointing this out on another thread:
But the Swiss are not expected to say yes.
According to the latest poll published last week, a full 64 percent of Swiss voters oppose the initiative, with only 30 percent supporting it.
That marks a 12-point drop in support since April, indicating that opponents, who include the government and basically the entire business community, have gotten their message across.
They have warned a minimum wage, and especially such a high one, would be a death blow to many businesses and would weaken Switzerland’s healthy economy.
…
The cantons of Neuchâtel and Jura have previously voted in favour of regional minimum wages, but on Sunday the nationwide initiative is likely to go the way of a related text voted on last November.
Two-thirds of Swiss voters rejected that initiative, dubbed 1:12, which would have made it illegal for the top wage-earner in a company to make more in a month than the lowest-paid employee made in a year.
http://www.thelocal.ch/2014051.....ghter-deal
So maybe the national poll is totally irrelevant when Seattle issues are concerned. I dunno.
Think exploitation of child workers ended in America a century ago with the passage of child labor laws? Guess again.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ch.....port-says/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Of course, Republicans see nothing wrong with it.