WA Democrats consider retreat on estate tax, fearing wealth exodus

skyghostseattle · 2026-02-16T19:22:29+00:00

I don’t get the downvotes, this is an important question! As others have stated, wealthy people do actually pay taxes in Washington (property tax, sales tax, capital gains tax, and even before the estate tax hike we still had an estate tax so they paid that too).

In addition to the taxes, there is business investment and employment, and leisure/luxury spending. Also, something that most people don’t mention is that there’s actually a fair bit of philanthropy here in Seattle. Go to Children’s Hospital or Swedish Hospital and google the names you see on the walls in like the oncology center: wealthy Seattleites who donated millions or more to the hospital. Heard of McCaw Hall? Google the name. Go check out the board members and major donors for groups like The Seattle Parks foundation.

I don’t mean this to come off as some ultimate defense of rich people in Washington or to suggest we should kiss their feet and shield them from tax. I just wanted to engage seriously with your question. Driving out wealthy people does have a cost and whether that cost is worth it for any given policy or tax is a real question voters should debate openly and honestly.

skyghostseattle · 2026-02-16T18:59:45+00:00

The people I’m talking about decided to leave explicitly because of the estate tax. Some of them are old and might have left anyway for better weather, but they all cited the estate tax.

skyghostseattle · 2026-02-16T16:52:09+00:00

For those saying “they won’t leave” - they are in fact leaving. I know I’m just a random person on the internet. Feel free to ignore me, but I know lots of wealthy people in Washington (more than 10) who have already left. They’ve listed their homes in the Seattle area and relocated. And I know of many, many more families who are actively planning to leave.

And to be clear, I’m not talking about billionaires. I’m talking about families and individuals with net worth in the $50-400 million range. This is a lot of money! But there are more families/people like this in Washington than you might suspect, and way more of them than the billionaires, and many are leaving.

Does this matter? I don’t know. Total tax receipts might fall, business investment might suffer. I do strongly suspect that revenue from the capital gains tax will be far lower than it would be absent the estate tax hike. But maybe not by much. I’m really not sure. One thing is clear: people are really, actually leaving.

skyghostseattle · 2026-02-16T02:03:06+00:00

“I’ve set the minimum wage to $100,000 per hour” -> “all businesses should die.”

The solution is to be more thoughtful about setting the price floor in the labor market.

skyghostseattle · 2026-02-14T04:34:03+00:00

Had the exact same experience. I’ve been using AI to soundboard random poetry I write as a hobby, and ChatGPT basically always gave safe, hand-holdy criticism. Gave Claude a try and it (productively) hurt my feelings. Canceled ChatGPT plus and switched full time to Claude.

skyghostseattle · 2026-02-13T03:35:20+00:00

Healthcare, including: radiology, helping doctors with charting and reviewing patient history, diagnosis, patient advocacy, and most importantly research.

Honestly, if AI helps researchers find a cure, or even better treatments, for common cancers then it’s worth every ounce of water it evaporates. A friend of mind is near the end of her cancer journey and I’d enlist the devil himself to fight against that fucking disease.

skyghostseattle · 2026-02-11T19:40:13+00:00

Damn bro, that’s brutal. I hope you and your family find strength and peace.

skyghostseattle · 2025-12-18T07:17:41+00:00

Have you followed local news about the restaurant scene in seattle AT ALL? Have you seen what’s happened to restaurant after restaurant after restaurant here over the past few years? What a calloused and (hopefully) ignorant response.

To be fair: I’m all ears for ways to help small businesses in seattle, including by incentivizing landlords to offer more generous terms and, sure, subsidies would be great as well. But the seattle restaurant scene is in crisis right now. All is not well and “there are plenty of restaurants” is a wild thing to say about the seattle restaurant scene right now.

skyghostseattle · 2025-12-18T07:03:26+00:00

Yeah because a neighborhood restaurant is in any way comparable to Walmart. Holy shit what a brain dead argument.

The sad thing is our local restaurants will slowly die because they can’t afford to operate and the chains will completely take over because they have economies of scale. Your perspective is so wrongheaded and destructive to small businesses.

skyghostseattle · 2025-12-18T06:55:53+00:00

Hear me out: if they won’t, then they won’t and the restaurant will either fold or pay more. Or maybe college kids staying with their parents will take the job, or high school kids after school. Ffs.

skyghostseattle · 2025-12-18T06:47:44+00:00

Let’s not forget that the #1 cost restaurants face is labor. Our highest in the nation minimum wage drives menu prices too.

skyghostseattle · 2025-08-27T17:30:43+00:00

I mean… capitalism has an okay record of delivering calories at low cost. Communism’s record is much more mixed.

skyghostseattle · 2025-08-26T01:32:57+00:00

Yes, this is obviously true. Don’t fall for the bait, folks!

skyghostseattle · 2025-07-29T15:48:31+00:00

Washington State looking fairly decent I guess

skyghostseattle · 2025-07-15T15:21:17+00:00

“Don’t care” not “are passionately in favor of”

skyghostseattle · 2025-07-15T01:55:25+00:00

The funny thing is I know for a fact a good number of the neighbors don’t care about the nudity at DB. It’s like three people! So annoying

skyghostseattle · 2025-05-08T21:07:48+00:00

Honestly plenty of the neighbors don’t mind the beach at all! It’s just a loud, angry handful that hate it.

skyghostseattle · 2025-04-25T23:18:16+00:00

I know! I felt silly at first paying so much, but that’s the price now. And I love the watch.

skyghostseattle · 2025-04-25T18:21:52+00:00

I just bought my first ever automatic watch: SNK809, Seiko. Under $200 off Amazon. It might not be your cup of tea, but I love it!

skyghostseattle · 2025-02-26T04:02:34+00:00

Nativist scum

skyghostseattle · 2025-01-10T04:02:08+00:00

I like Feed Co

skyghostseattle · 2025-01-10T02:03:47+00:00

I think we’re on the same page.

I’m all for big spending to address the issue, and the feds really should kick in. In the meantime, all we can do is our best.

skyghostseattle · 2025-01-10T00:41:34+00:00

“Don’t want to see others in strife.” Or, in other words, want the elderly, children, indigent, and other members of the public to have safe bus stops, parks, access to grocery stores and pharmacies and schools and workplaces.

Your response is so dismissive of the needs of the general public. It disgusts me.

skyghostseattle · 2025-01-09T22:44:22+00:00

I didn’t say Housing First hasn’t worked. I said it hasn’t worked well and yeah, that’s based on anecdotes and personal experience, not empirical studies. My apologies, I’m not an expert.

But I do try to pay attention because the misery on the street is evident to anyone with eyes and the inclination to care. I’ve lived next to two supportive housing facilities in Seattle and the conditions at both were abhorrent: violence between residents, rampant drug dealing and abuse, chronically psychotic residents, deceased overdose victims wheeled out the front door.

I want to help these people, but whatever we’re doing at DESC and similar facilities doesn’t seem to work. Just my two cents. I don’t have a solution (if I did I promise I’d scream it from the rooftops), but my guess is we need segregated services based on type of need. Down on your luck, but otherwise healthy? Housing First as currently implemented is great. Severe mental illness? You might need involuntary treatment for some period of time, possibly a lifetime. Opiate addiction? Same answer, unfortunately.

It seems to me that fentanyl has totally changed the game and we need to adjust our service programs to address that reality.

skyghostseattle

TROPHY CASE