maybe the food bank has some pretty bomb shit

And this in the state with the highest (among the highest) minimum wages in the country.

"There's this hunger paradox: You would think the wealth would rise all boats,"
Yes, you would think that... and you might also think that wealth would somehow "trickle down" from all the rich people/corporations to all the little people.

But neither are happening.
Sooo... time to revise one's dogma--*cough!* ...economic models perhaps?

First thing that comes to mind: Those who determine that we have a "thriving economy" are blindly ignoring some very, very critical details. But then an unquestioning, religious-like adherence to laissez-faire capitalist ideology will do that.

We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. -- Albert Einstein

What actually happens is economic trickle-up... where small money trickles-up to large money investments, and then stays there, getting ever larger thanks to the magic of compound interest. Or it is hoarded in secret bank accounts, going stale, not circulating, and creating an artificial "scarcity" of money that the rest of us can use.

Money is a tool of society as a whole. And some people are keeping those tools locked away from use.

@2 - Also among the highest housing & rents in the country...

A real living wage in Seattle is $20-25/hr. Not $15.
I'm not even sure $15 counts as "minimum", unless "one paycheck from starving on the street" is now the socially minimal acceptable level of existence these days.

@4, when socialism fails the solution is always more socialism!

@5 - I actually think that what we need to do is change the ruleset of the money we use. Or rather, create additional currencies alongside our fiat-$, but with different rules.

"Positive-interest" is a core rule of all national currencies, and it leads directly to the constant "economic growth" requirement, maintains the "trickle-up economy" of the rich getting richer (which Piketty confirms with the r > g observation{*)), and it even encourages greediness (Scrooge being the archtype).

"Socialism" is still playing in the same ballpark, playing with the same money-rules, that Capitalism created. I think a Universal Basic Income is one possible solution, but I think that new complementary currencies are really a critical element which might perhaps preclude #UBI, because again, UBI is still playing with the same fiat-$ ball.
--
( * ) r > g -- "the net rate of return to capital (r) exceeds the growth rate of output (g)."
ie. Investment growth > wage growth, fundamentally because of compounded interest.

We need more pot! That will fix the hunger problem in Seattle...oh wait. Well I guess we can include more taxes on drinks for public’s transportation. That will fix the hunger problem in Seattle...oh wait. We need 50 million for the arts. That will fix the hunger problem in Seattle...oh wait. We need 650 million for a Key Arena upgrade so we can get more over-priced sports in the city..oh wait. Its all Trumps fault even though he's only been in office a year...oh wait. CLIMATE CHANGE!

@9- my family well remembers moving from the Oklahoma dust bowl. They just made smart decisions to move where their particular skill-sets were needed and subsequently prospered.