Re:An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
by mlindner on Thursday May 21, 2020 @03:23PM
(#23263689)
As someone not from Seattle, the drama around that tax was quite ridiculous. The idea of a "head tax" is utterly nonsensical in that it's an incentive to NOT hire people, which is the entire point that companies are pulled into cities. Jobs. Jobs are one of the things cities care most about more than anything. A head tax actively disincentives hiring of new workers. A head tax can maybe make sense if you have permanently low unemployment and companies can't hire enough people, but that's not Seattle's problem.
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Given how many people are moving to Seattle every year, far faster than new housing can be built, I'd say that an effectively negative unemployment rate has, in fact, been one of Seattle's problems, and that slowing hiring down would, in fact, help things.
Re:An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
by MattGaiser on Thursday May 21, 2020 @03:34PM
(#23263829)
> The idea of a "head tax" is utterly nonsensical in that it's an incentive to NOT hire people
If your goal is to reduce rents by reducing the number of people living nearby, then it can meet the goal.
Re:An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
by majormajor on Thursday May 21, 2020 @03:54PM
(#23264151)
> Jobs are one of the things cities care most about more than anything.
And look where that got cities.
One school of thought is "just keep importing jobs AND add a ton of new housing" but there's a sort of capitalistic dystopian feeling to that, like that's the path to Blade Runner. Just need to start shipping out the people without high-enough paying jobs (again, actually - Europeans moving to the Americas doesn't seem that dissimilar) and we're there!