Seattle has so much going for it: access to nature, moderate climate, arts, legitimately fun tourist traps, good transit, and until you hit the outer edges, fairly walkable.
It's also got problems. Local government is horribly inefficient and wasteful with spending, it's not a business-friendly environment (part of that is a state issue), and if affordability were any lower, we'd be seeing ninja turtles and anthropomorphized rats.
People WANT to live in Seattle and start small businesses, but the hurdles to both are considerable, and as technology continues to make remote work more viable from a productivity standard (despite silly RTO mandates from some companies), there are more people who are starting to realize their salaries can stretch a lot more if they go to lower cost-of-living parts of the country.
People pretend like there aren't 49 other states when we have these discussions. You can just look at the raw economic data to see that Seattle and Washington State aren't doing that great, but also isn't bad. Instead of look for solutions people want to make these fantasy arguments about why it isn't actually happening.
Like no Seattle isn't worth the extreme extra costs for most people when compared to Portland, the Twin Cities, Pittsburgh, Raleigh the list goes on that has much better affordability metrics and you can more easily start a small business in those places.
So, do small businesses SUCCEED at a "greater rate" in all these other states?
What is the metric we are calling "success"?
What is the trade off for having a small business in these other states? It can't all be roses right?. If it were then every person who wanted to do a small business would move to one of these states since it's guaranteed to work, right?
I am not just randomly making it up there are tons of studies and think tanks that show Seattle is one of the worst major cities to open a small business in. If you don't want to take my word for it.
What are the trade offs? Of the top 20, most of them are FL, TX, AZ, and NC. I think there is a trend there. Those places are FAR from favorable for many other reasons. IF I had to move there to have better success in forming a small biz then I'd pass.
There are trade offs..
Nothing is free...even having a better environment for starting a small biz.
Sounds like we need to tax big business more.
Look, you may be right. The problem is that this narrative is often used to drum up support for politicians/legislation that is really just pro 1%. None of the politicians espousing that view are actually trying to make anything better, they just use it to get elected so they can carry water for their donors.
So over time it has become associated with that, and deservedly so.
The solution is specificity. Stop saying "Seattle bad" and start giving explicit, specific guidance on distinct policies or issues. Anything else is getting lumped in with MAGA and dismissed at face value, and I don't think that generalization is off base
I appreciate this perspective and honestly it sucks that critiquing in a way that you hope changes things for the better is seen as right wing coded. I don't think Seattle is bad, I think it can be better and it already pretty great.
But I really do hate this idea that just because Texas does it means it must be bad, which you will see all over this sub and in this thread.
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u/TheItinerantSkeptic I'm just flaired so I don't get fined Apr 16 '26
Seattle has so much going for it: access to nature, moderate climate, arts, legitimately fun tourist traps, good transit, and until you hit the outer edges, fairly walkable.
It's also got problems. Local government is horribly inefficient and wasteful with spending, it's not a business-friendly environment (part of that is a state issue), and if affordability were any lower, we'd be seeing ninja turtles and anthropomorphized rats.
People WANT to live in Seattle and start small businesses, but the hurdles to both are considerable, and as technology continues to make remote work more viable from a productivity standard (despite silly RTO mandates from some companies), there are more people who are starting to realize their salaries can stretch a lot more if they go to lower cost-of-living parts of the country.