Last month, Amazon announced that it has temporarily suspended construction planning for a new 17-story building expected to house 7,000 employees. The move came as Seattle is voting to institute a jobs tax, a 26-cent levy on every hour by an employee at companies making annually $20 million in revenue.
It is apparent that Amazon is gradually fleeing from the city. Why do you think Jeff Bezos is launching HQ2?
Well, this isn’t making the socialists happy at all.
The likes of Kshama Sawant are holding demonstrations, telling Amazon that the money they earn is really the people’s. Typical socialist rhetoric.
But it gets worse.
Sawant and others have launched a petition to prosecute Amazon:
“Amazon is intimidating a public servant by claiming they’ll pause construction depending on how and when the City Council votes on the proposed tax to fund homeless services. Read our letter below to Attorney General Bob Ferguson asking him to prosecute Amazon to the fullest extent of the law for this crime. Then add your name to the letter & share widely!”
She tweeted last week:
From @workingwa: @amazon‘s threat on the people of Seattle is like a subprime mob boss lording it over a company town. It’s also a crime. Sick of putting up with Amazon’s bullying? Send a letter to @BobFergusonAG to prosecute Amazon & join us City Hall 9AM https://t.co/9CVFW3u7PS
— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) May 9, 2018
It appears, however, that these bullying tactics aren’t even garnering the support of unions and LGBT businesses.
From Liberty Nation:
But these central planners may be more perturbed by the fact that businesses, unions, and even progressives are coalescing to fight the jobs tax. The leaders of the Downtown Association, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and the Greater Seattle Business Association recently penned that the tax won’t solve homelessness, while Iron Workers Local 86 shouted “no head tax” at a counter-protest
If there is one common cause that can bring together capital and labor, it’s the fatuous nature of leftism.
…
But what happens to Seattle when Amazon eventually transitions operations to another part of the country? Or, what if Amazon falls victim to the forces of the free market and sees its market share crater? Who will be left to fill the gaping budget holes? Who will cover the tab for the next big progressive plan? Who else will Sawant blame for red ink in the books?
Liberty Nation’s Tess Lynne opined last year that “Seattle has grown too big for its britches.” She may be right. A tax on jobs is only a symptom of Seattle’s greater disease: arrogance. As the old proverb states, “Arrogance is a kingdom without a crown.”
One can only imagine what would happen to Seattle if Amazon and Starbucks flee the socialist metropolis.
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