Thread by @paulbeard

BBC News - The boss who put everyone on 70K.

Has it really 4.5 years since @DanPriceSeattle put his money where his beliefs are?

I have been thinking of how Seattle's income/wealth inequality affects the business community as well as the workers. 1/

bbc.com/news/stories-5…

Think of the things that people like me won't buy as renters…

We're not remodeling kitchens or bathrooms so plumbers and contractors are missing out. We know landlords aren't doing that either… 2/

We're not landscaping or planting trees or gardening, if we are able to rent a house rather than an apartment. The landlord will cut the grass but no more than that. 3/

We're not buying furniture, other than the cheap IKEA stuff or things we might not care if we have to leave it when we have to find a cheaper/smaller place. So the downtown design district is missing out. 4/

But maybe Seattle's business community is fat and happy, doesn't need more income. And with the high rents it's hard for new entrants to get going… if you own the land your business sits on, you've done well, even if the rising values force you to relocate… 5/

Where I live, I see the remains of businesses that have moved on, vacant lots where nothing pencils out, pop-up car lots that fail and are re-started… All for the benefit of speculators who are waiting for that big payoff. 6/

And even the $70,000 salary that Dan Price offers pales in comparison to the $250k+ median wages of the new tech migrants. Maybe they are what's keeping Seattle's business community afloat. I know it isn't me or my workmates who commute from Renton or Snohomish… 7/

It's not just wages, of course. I really can't complain about mine…my buying power in a speculator's boomtown is the problem. The rents extracted by land owners, the unearned increment, is the problem. A land rent model would go a long way to leveling that inequality. 8/F #LVT