SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Sawant’s Amazon head tax 2.0 about creating captive voters

Jan 8, 2020, 8:40 AM

Amazon, Sawant, Amazon head tax...

Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant speaking out against Amazon in April 2018. (Facebook Live)

(Facebook Live)

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has announced that she is bringing back the Amazon head tax from 2018.

They have to tax that Jeff Bezos. What has he done? All he has done is create jobs, generate tax revenue, and provide a good income to most of his workers in Seattle. I know, I’ve heard about the stories in the warehouses, but if you look just at Seattle, there are a lot of six-figure jobs.

But it’s not enough — in Sawant’s words, he is “the enemy.”

Of course, a couple of years ago, the city council tried doing this, with disastrous consequences.

Dori: Head tax drama shows lunatics are running Seattle

Sawant says that she wants to tax big business and use the money to build … public housing. She wants to allow people to live in this public housing without rules. You can drink alcohol, you can use drugs, and you will still be provided with an apartment — an apartment that Amazon and other big businesses will pay for.

As we know, Sawant is not about solving any problems. But she apparently has seen that Chicago, after decades of disastrous public housing, had to raze the public housing they built in the 1960s. The more that government gets involved to end poverty, the worse poverty gets in cities dominated by big government. Look at New York City’s public housing — it has been a disaster.

What is the motivation behind this Amazon head tax and public housing push? The politicians want to take drug vagrants and make them captive voters. It is not about helping these individuals to turn their lives around. It is about generating a whole new voting base, conveniently all concentrated in the same place. That way, when Sawant’s supporters hand out leaflets asking for votes for a new tax, these people will support it.

Seattle’s tax revenue, on a per capita basis, is among the highest in the country. The city has plenty of money. The council just does not know how to spend it.

This Amazon head tax is not about helping anyone’s life. It is about having captive voters in one place who can be easily manipulated and controlled.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Dori: Sawant’s Amazon head tax 2.0 about creating captive voters