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Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

nytimes.com

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Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#741

Post by gmanley »

JCharante wrote: post #720
J5892 wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Animal cruelty isn't a great analogy. It's not a vocal minority, it's a vocal subset of the majority. A vocal minority is when the opponents of a popular viewpoint are louder than its proponents.

Animal cruelty is a great analogy because the people who oppose it, which are the minority, are more vocal than those who are proponents of it, which make up the majority.

Do you really think only a minority oppose animal cruelty? How many people are proponents of animal cruelty? Neither of us have data to back it up but if you polled people I think the majority would be against animal cruelty, they just wouldn't spend their time opposing it, that's the difference.

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#742

Post by [deleted] »

sotojuan wrote: post #451
ianstallings wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truth. I took a lower paying job in the midwest, and I can now save a lot more money, while also living a less stressful life. NYC is a really cool city and I enjoyed living there. But I "did my time". I think more and more tech workers are going to wake up to the fact that while mega-city life can be cool, it's not the only way to live.

I’m not sure why tech workers think they’re special. Almost everyone that moves to NYC for a good office job goes through this. Moving to a suburb or another city after age 35 is a stereotype. So is staying here and enjoying a DINK or single life (unless you have a lot of money!). Job-wise, the NYC tech market is as good as ever.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#743

Post by ilovetux »

jngreenlee wrote: post #649
J5892 wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Animal cruelty isn't a great analogy. It's not a vocal minority, it's a vocal subset of the majority. A vocal minority is when the opponents of a popular viewpoint are louder than its proponents.

Always relevant: The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

Previous discussion on HN [0].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16454645

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#744

Post by ianleeclark »

philwelch wrote: post #633
jpatokal wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people are quite happy to keeping buying cheap factory-farmed meat and dairy, despite vague awareness of the generally horrific conditions of the animals (and humans) producing it.

Oh, so “animal cruelty” is Newspeak for not being vegan.

I mean, Veganism is the easiest way of avoiding animal cruelty.

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#745

Post by sailingparrot »

JDiculous wrote: post #740

As someone who lived in NYC for 5 years, I can't understand how anyone can not consider this a loss to NYC. Don't get me wrong I hate corporate welfare as much as anyone else and I have no desire to work for Amazon because it seems like a corporate sweatshop, but 25k jobs at an average $100k+ salary would've been a boon to the city, even despite the $3 billion in tax subsidies. The additional revenue for workers and…

> "maybe the city isn't capable of managing itself and stemming the pitfalls of gentrification"

You seem to understand pretty well why some are not seeing this as a loss after all.

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#746

Post by dopamean »

dandersh wrote: post #587
siruncledrew wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon's spectacle reminds me of Lebron's "The Decision". It's one thing to work out the details and make an announcement, but to purposefully turn it into a show about "What can you do for me?" instead of "Here's what I can do for you" made it not sit well with people. Also, the pull-out letter also basically dumps the blame on state/local officials for not wanting Amazon, despite not all stakeholders being present…

This is a poor analogy for multiple reasons: 1. Basketball is entertainment, and 'The Decision' was the result of years of speculation by the fans and the media. Furthermore you see similar spectacles for such things as National Signing Day, where top recruits hold press conferences to announce what college they are attending. 2. There is animosity and jealousy towards 'entitled millionaire athletes' that was made wo…

It's a fine analogy used in the way they used it. Drawing attention to yourself for a decision you know is going to be controversial only makes it more controversial and draws out even louder criticism.

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#747

Post by ilovetux »

JCharante wrote: post #720
J5892 wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Animal cruelty isn't a great analogy. It's not a vocal minority, it's a vocal subset of the majority. A vocal minority is when the opponents of a popular viewpoint are louder than its proponents.

Animal cruelty is a great analogy because the people who oppose it, which are the minority, are more vocal than those who are proponents of it, which make up the majority.

Who are proponents of animal cruelty besides dog/cock fighting fans/operators? I doubt that these groups form a majority.

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#748

Post by hannasanarion »

QML wrote: post #692
all_blue_chucks wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25,000 x $150,000 = $3.75 Billion dollars of new taxable income, regardless of how it is distributed.

Those billions aren’t uniformly taxed: that’s what they were pointing out.

Actually, those billions wouldn't have been taxed at all. That was part of the deal: Amazon gets all of the income taxes that are paid by their employees in the first ten years.

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#749

Post by TulliusCicero »

frontloadpro wrote: post #362
rsj_hn wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think NYC (or SF or any high cost of living area) is a crazy place to put HQ2. In terms of subsidies, while it's easy to dunk on Amazon, and no business should be getting subsidies IMO, there is a real issue here: Cost of Living in NY is higher and Amazon will have to pay higher wages if it puts jobs there rather than a place like Nashville. That's higher wages for the same job. Pretty much every company has a cost…

Less pay sounds good until you see the talent that comes with less pay. Junior devs and low performing seniors. Amazon claimed my city didn't have enough talent. What they meant is that 6 figures is too much to pay per programmer.

...Amazon pays substantially more than 100k per programmer in the US.

Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus

#750

Post by hannasanarion »

linuxftw wrote: post #104
cbdumas wrote: post #30

If Amazon hadn't turned this whole "HQ2" thing into a national drama they could have built a huge presence there without riling up so much backlash. Hopefully this ridiculous stunt is a lesson to them.

Was it amazon, or the national media?

Definitely Amazon. They ran ads about it and made a very public campaign that lasted years. Nobody forced them to run a secret auction for who was willing to give them the most taxpayer dollars. Apple, Google, and Facebook are all setting up big new offices in New York right now, they didn't need billions of dollars in subsidies to do it.
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