Slog - Comments on Re: Twilight of the Good Times

Comment by mackro mackro

mackro mackro — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:40:08 -0800

Slog commenters probably don't overlap into the Forbes readership that much, I suspect. This is the same magazine that claimed greater Indianapolis as one of the best places to raise a family.

Comment by max solomon

max solomon — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:44:26 -0800

early bird parking has gone up from $9/day at peak summer rates last year to $12/day this year.

someone please explain that - garages don't burn gas.

Comment by Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:47:15 -0800

Raise your hand if you have had a raise AT ALL in the last 5 years.

Comment by John Bailo

John Bailo — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:57:11 -0800

Kent rules...Seattle drools.

Comment by tabby

tabby — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:57:36 -0800

So basically they're saying, since we don't have this problem, we should have this problem so that we don't have the problem now, and we just need to swap problems.

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:58:59 -0800

You're right, @1 - I subscribe to Fortune and the Wall Street Journal, not Forbes.

As to explanations - land values. You're paying for the future developed land cost over 40-60 years when you park in a garage, and with the deferral of construction due to the worldwide mortgage (CBO) failures which has impacte

Comment by Ben

Ben — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:01:58 -0800

I just got a job paying roughly double my previous job (and just got my first paycheck today!), my wife's gotten 5 raises in the nine or ten months she's been at her job, and rent is going up for everyone in our building but us, because our landlady totally loves us.

I'm having a hard time getting real worried.

Comment by Bellevue Ave

Bellevue Ave — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:10:39 -0800

max solomon; opportunity cost and increased living expense for the owner.

Comment by roland

roland — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:19:39 -0800

"Ben" @7, you are in an unusual economic situation, you are a prick, and you are a walking advertisement for why an income tax is needed in this state.

Comment by Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:26:13 -0800

This could end up being a fairly big story in the legislative session. The COLA for teachers is tied to the inflation index in Seattle, and this year that COLA was kicking the financial ass of a ton of districts:

http://ithoughtathink.blogspot.com/2008/05/crisis-on-infinite-districts.html

With a $2.7 billion dollar hole in the budget already, that leads to two equally stinky options: dig the hole deeper to come up with any COLA money, or suspend the teacher COLA, like Dino Rossi and Gary Locke did in 2002-2003.

I'll be curious to see how it plays out.

Comment by adam

adam — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:27:32 -0800

I work for the UW. I actually just learned this morning that effective as of July 1, we were given a 3.0 across-the-board wage increase under something called COLA, or Cost of Living Adjustment.

Comment by adam

adam — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:29:49 -0800

that would be 3.0 percent.

Comment by infrequent

infrequent — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:52:39 -0800

that's just B average.

Comment by Ben

Ben — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:01:54 -0800

Roland @9: Sorry if I come off as a prick, but having come from a lower-class family in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest, working my way through five years of college accruing crippling debt, and spending two years bouncing from job to job at time-limited contracts and companies that got bought out four months after hiring me, I'm having a hard time not taking ten fucking minutes to enjoy the first time in my entire fucking life that things were looking up for me financially.

Comment by max solomon

max solomon — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:12:04 -0800

i've had a raise every year since 2001. a nice one, too.

but this summer the whole office is taking a 10% cut so we don't have to lay 20 people off.

Will, BA - this is the Pike Place Munincipal Garage!

Comment by COMTE

COMTE — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:30:37 -0800

@3:

Me!

That's the great thing about writing your own budget - I can factor in COLA's every Fiscal Year, so long as I meet the overall benchmark set by my national office.

Of course, one could argue that a COLA isn't exactly a raise, since, if you're just upping wages to match the inflation rate, you're really not increasing overall earnings, but simply holding the line, and I can certainly see that point.

But, still, it's better than slipping behind.

Comment by Gomez

Gomez — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:42:17 -0800

7. C- troll: Way too obvious. Be more subtle, advertise a more neutral tone before taking your cheap shot.

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:50:39 -0800

@11 - so there's a 3 percent raise and real inflation is triple that ... isn't that a PAY CUT?

Comment by Bellevue Ave

Bellevue Ave — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:55:32 -0800

in that case it's because the city mismanaged their money.

Comment by Doh

Doh — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:06:33 -0800

My girlfriend got a 13% raise last year. She totally deserves it and I love her for earning it.

So I was still OK with my 5.5% raise last year (at a non-profit) UNTIL I learned that the phony prick that sits next to me makes more! He does a different job, but reads celebrity news half the day and spends the other half talking to the overweight women in the office, complimenting them on their looks or dress. I can't believe the phony shit that falls out of his mouth... And then they just lap it up!

OK, rant over.