There’s a pattern in progressive American cities so predictable you could set a clock to it. The politicians hike taxes. The productive class raises the alarm. The politicians scoff. Then the moving trucks show up. We’ve watched this tired cycle devour Detroit, hollow out San Francisco, and drag Chicago to its knees — each city governed by people who never built a thing in their lives yet somehow feel entitled to dictate terms to those who did.
And just when you think the audacity has peaked, someone new steps up to prove you wrong. This time, the show is playing in Seattle — and the leading lady just delivered a performance for the ages.
From The Post Millennial:
Seattle Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson came under fire on Wednesday for laughing when pressed about the mass exodus of wealthy residents and businesses leaving the state over new progressive taxes, waving them “bye!”
Wilson’s comments were in reaction to the state’s new “millionaires tax,” a 9.9 percent tax hike on incomes over $1 million, which was signed into law on March 30 and has already caused well-known business executives and Seattle-based companies, like Starbucks, to leave the state.
The Mayor of Seattle is 43 years old.
Never had a real job until just before being elected mayor.
Her mom and dad still pay for her childcare (her husband chooses not to work either).
And now she mocks the business community and those who want to keep what they earned.
https://t.co/GgUyECMIJ7 pic.twitter.com/jVxvxgVfd3
— PNW Conservative (@PNWConservative) April 29, 2026
Let that marinate for a moment. The mayor of one of America’s largest cities, confronted with hard evidence that her tax base is heading for the exits, responded by giggling about it on stage. “I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are, like, super overblown,” Wilson said during an April 14 appearance at Seattle University. “And if… the ones that leave… like, bye.” She delivered it with a beaming grin — as if the people funding her city’s entire budget were some minor inconvenience she’d just swatted away.
Local journalist Brandi Kruse captured the absurdity perfectly: “INSANE. Seattle’s Socialist Mayor responds to exodus of wealth from Washington state by saying ‘BYE’… then laughing. We’re doomed.” Hard to argue with that assessment.
The exodus is already underway
Wilson may find this all terribly amusing, but the data paints a decidedly unfunny picture. Starbucks — a company born in Seattle, practically stitched into the city’s DNA — recently announced a $100 million expansion into Nashville, Tennessee, carrying 2,000 jobs with it. That single relocation could drain an estimated $750 million in future tax revenue from Seattle, according to Fox 13. Meanwhile, Starbucks’ billionaire founder Howard Schultz didn’t even wait around to watch the fallout. He left Washington State entirely, just days after the millionaire’s tax became law.
And it’s not just coffee money walking out the door. Market data shows a 29 percent year-over-year spike in active housing listings across the Seattle area while sales sit flat — the telltale fingerprint of an exodus in progress. Surveys from the Association of Washington Businesses reveal the number of firms weighing relocation has nearly doubled. Seattle already shoulders the highest combined state and local sales tax rate in the country at 10.35 percent. Stack a 9.9 percent income tax on top of that, and the arithmetic gets brutally simple. Even for a socialist.
Here’s the part that would be comedic if it weren’t so destructive: Wilson herself concedes the city faces “a large structural budget deficit” heading into the next budget cycle. She’s waving goodbye to the very wallets she needs to keep the lights on. Remarkable.
Someone who’s never signed a paycheck
What elevates Wilson’s contempt from merely offensive to genuinely infuriating is the messenger herself. As one widely shared social media post observed, the mayor is 43 years old and never held a real private-sector job before winning office. Her parents still cover her childcare costs. Her husband, by choice, doesn’t work. Let me repeat that — the woman mocking business owners for wanting to keep what they’ve earned has literally never earned a living in the private economy. You cannot parody this.
Yet she’s not done. Wilson hinted that her office is actively exploring additional progressive tax options at the city level — more pain, stacked on top of an already punishing burden. She beat incumbent Democrat Mayor Bruce Harrell by running to his left, and her politics mirror those of New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Seattle didn’t just elect a progressive. They elected a true believer with zero understanding of the world she’s trying to reshape.
The only language socialists understand
Jason Mercier of the Mountain States Policy Center distilled the situation with surgical precision: Seattle says “Goodbye,” Idaho says “Hello.” That about covers it. Red states across the country are practically tripping over themselves to welcome the businesses and taxpayers that blue cities treat like piggy banks. A coalition of business owners has already filed suit against the new wealth tax — good for them. But the most devastating legal brief any entrepreneur can file comes loaded on a flatbed trailer.
Mayor Wilson told Seattle’s wealth creators to get lost. Every single one of them should grant her wish. When the revenue vanishes and that structural budget deficit yawns into an abyss, maybe — just maybe — reality will penetrate the ideology. Margaret Thatcher warned a generation ago that the trouble with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money. Katie Wilson just told other people’s money to leave. Seattle is about to find out what happens next.
Key Takeaways
- Seattle’s socialist mayor laughed at wealthy residents and businesses fleeing the city’s crushing tax burden.
- Starbucks is moving $100 million in investment to Nashville, potentially costing Seattle $750 million in revenue.
- Mayor Wilson has zero private-sector experience yet openly mocks the people who actually create jobs.
- Every remaining wealth creator should leave and let socialism collapse under its own weight.
Sources: The Post Millennial, Koranmanado.co.id
The post Seattle’s Socialist Mayor Laughs and Says ‘Bye’ to Millionaires Leaving Over New 9.9% State Income Tax appeared first on Patriot Journal.
