Minimum Wage Hike Will Slam Seattle

The city fathers aren’t just asleep in Seattle. They’re clearly clueless.

Nothing that happens in the liberal bastion of Seattle surprises me.

Seattle is a sanctuary city, essentially meaning it turns a blind eye towards illegal immigrants; you know, like a crack house for cracker smokers to escape the law. While Seattle is far from being the only sanctuary city in America, being a sanctuary city, it’s a bellwether that dopey liberals are in charge.

It was the Seattle Office for Civil Rights a year or so ago who suggested banning the words “brown bag” and replacing it with “sack lunch,” because they purported “brown bag” is offensive to some people. They also requested city employees refer to the public as “residents,” not citizens.

How's that for a political correctness, flying over the cuckoos nest, planet of the apes, clockwork dayglow orange, sequel?

If that’s not fuzzy-headed insanity enough for you, the Seattle city fathers just arbitrarily raised the minimum wage from 9 bucks an hour to 15 smackers an hour, making Seattle home to the highest minimum wage in the nation.

Even though the minimum wage hike is being phased in, the impact of this economically suicidal decision will be felt sooner rather than later. The real world, free market will adjust, and when it does it will be painful.

While the city fathers and economically illiterate, liberal dopes may feel good about the decision, what these hapless and clueless big government stooges haven’t taken into consideration is that the free market gets the ultimate vote.

Economics 101 teaches that the free market ultimately sets prices for goods and services, not clueless, feelgood Fedzillacrats, forced price controls, or hand-wringing do-gooders.

And vote it will. Prices will undoubtedly rise and punish those who can least afford it — the very people who will be making 15 bucks an hour.

Businesses will lose money. Some will permanently lock their doors, while others will cut costs to the bone including scaling back on the number of employees. Again, those on the bottom end of the financial ladder will be hurt first. Watch and learn. Even goofy guitar players can figure this stuff out.

Once the number of entry-level jobs begin to dry up, Seattle progressives will surely claim that more social services are required to help the downtrodden. The economic funeral drum hammers on.

Then there will be those loony liberals with zero financial acumen, like their fearless/clueless leader Barack Obama, who claim the minimum wage should be raised to 20 dollars an hour or more. Liberals always make the wrong and painful choices that hurt the very people they claim they want to help.

The definition of insanity . . .

There will always be liberal dopes who blame rich people. That’s standard operating procedure for dirty, Karl Marx socialists and economic dingbats.

All the while Seattle tax revenues will be drying up. When that happens the clueless socialist Seattle stooges will vote to raise taxes and punish the producers. Raising taxes is always the No. 1 choice of socialists who economically destroy cities.

Raising property taxes, sales taxes and other anti-growth taxes causes people with means to move away from cities and into zones with fewer taxes. At least that’s what smart people do.

When people with means move away, not only are there fewer taxes to be collected, but jobs for the unskilled dry up and blow away too. Seattle will ultimately learn this painful financial maxim as will America if we keep electing big government bandits.

Burn this into your financial cranium: it’s impossible to tax, borrow, and spend your way to prosperity. Following that course of action ultimately leads to economic hari-kari.

My money says the Seattle market won’t support 15 dollars an hour. It may take a while to be felt but the free market will push back. When it does, prices will rise and the 15 dollar an hour jobs that dopey liberals in Seattle are celebrating today will be lost tomorrow.

The free market always gets to vote. When it does it's often painful for those on the bottom rung of the financial ladder.

Feel good while you can, but brace for the sucker punch of reality.

Ted Nugent is a musician and award-winning writer and author of The New York Times best-selling “Ted White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto” and “God, Guns and Rock 'n' Roll,” along with “Kill It and Grill It,” “BloodTrails,” and “BloodTrails II.” He also is a member of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association. Read more reports from Ted Nugent — Click Here Now.