The obvious defect of democracy is it gives the stupid people the same respect, in regards to their opinions, as the sensible people. Organizing and manipulating the stupid is much easier than doing the same to the sensible. By definition the sensible have an understanding of how the world works, how their lives are effected by public policy and so forth. They are more difficult to fool

The sensible tend to distrust politicians so it is always a challenge to fool most of these people even some of the time. The stupid, on the other hand, can be fooled most of the time without too much difficulty. Giving them the franchise is just a way for the unscrupulous to get around the obstacle of the sensible. A great deal of time and energy is expended by the sensible to keep the stupid from pulling the whole thing down on our heads. Here’s an example.

This progressive and expensive city struck a blow against rising income inequality Monday when the City Council voted unanimously to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the highest municipal minimum of any metropolis in the country and the rallying cry of fast-food workers and union organizers nationwide.

With the council chambers standing room only and supporters waving signs declaring “Seattle needs a raise” and “$15 good work Seattle,” council members approved the new ordinance, which will go into effect on April 1, 2015, and be phased in over the next three to seven years depending on the size of the business.

In a controversial late addition to the original regulation, employers will be allowed to pay a lower training wage to teenagers.

I love the breathless coverage by the reporter. Yeah, raising the price of Starbucks coffee is really going to show the man who’s boss.

“Having a first city go to $15 is a big step,” said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. “It breaks open that discussion elsewhere. I think we’re likely to see other cities follow suit…. We’re seeing a breakthrough to minimum wages at a level that weren’t considered possible just a couple of years ago.”

San Francisco is discussing raising its minimum to $15, Jacobs said, and Los Angeles is looking at $15 for hotel workers. San Diego is mulling a $13-an-hour wage and Oakland is considering $12.25. Seattle’s current minimum is the state-mandated $9.32, the highest of any state. (The federal minimum is $7.25.)

The push for a $15 minimum transformed the November elections here and brought Seattle its first socialist elected official in nearly a century, City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant. During her grass-roots campaign, Sawant pushed for the purest form of the new wage — $15 an hour, implemented immediately and granted evenly to everyone.

This is the argument against immigration. Kshama Sawant, according to her bio, immigrated from India and is now a professional pest. Were were short of pests at the time she came here? I doubt it. She should be back in India looking under her desk for cobras. Instead, she is another barnacle on the hull of the nation.

On Monday, she introduced several amendments to change the ordinance, seeking to force big businesses to pay the higher wage sooner and to strip out the training wage. As each amendment failed, the angry audience shouted: “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

“Seattle is setting the stage for future movements,” Sawant said. “Seattle will be the place with the highest minimum wage in the country. But how will we expect workers in other cities to fight big business if we don’t set the right tone?