de Blasio tweeted this after Amazon cancelled: https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1096110674613358593 "working with the community" is code for "bribe" among the community organizer types.
Sounds like he's projecting a bit. Pot and kettle...
The Path Amazon Rejected
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Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#12> Just days before, I had counseled a senior Amazon executive...
Can pretty much stop there. I think Amazon saw a mayor and governor who thought they traded tax breaks for a say in how Amazon runs its business.
This was a huge loss for the city. LIC will be toxic to big business for years. And now the mayor is passing the blame to the very corporations who would come in and create jobs.
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#13Basically, a plea for everybody else to make it more difficult to do business in their local community, so NYC can be more competitive. I'm sure there is a tragedy of the commons somewhere in the "pitting cities against one another" as he mentioned. But perhaps it isn't ideal to think that a large corporation needs to come to your city and fix your problems either, and that it's not fair that they don't want to.
With a corporation the size of Amazon, US cities aren't just competing against each other. The US is a whole is competing against other countries. And these companies are competing against other global companies. Of course they are going to want the lowest hassle, highest efficiency, and largest margins possible.
Surely helping the poor and encouraging business don't need to be diametrically opposed. One might think the two go hand in hand.
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#14Mayor of New York: You gotta be tough to make it in New York.
Businesses with lots of money: Let's go where it's easier
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#15I don't buy de Blasio's outrage. If he was truly worried about Amazon being a "bad neighbor," why did he have a carte blanche policy until the very moment they backed off? In fact, it took regular citizens asking the hard questions for Amazon to back off in the first place. Aren't we electing mayors to fight these fights for us ?
It's not outrage, it's spin. He represents one of the two parties that was prepared to engage in a deal that ordinary people get very angry about. (i.e. massive corporate tax breaks) So if the media plays along with the spin, he will succeed in shifting a lot of the outrage away from his administration and on to Amazon.
Well, in fairness, the outrage wouldn't be on his administration in any case.
One thing he's conveniently not mentioning is that he was opposed to giving Amazon any tax breaks or other concessions from the start. The state politicians overruled him.
Although his position, I suppose, is that Amazon should move to NYC, without any concessions. Which is not altogether off the wall. That's how it should work for ALL companies and all places. Corporate welfare is out of hand in this country. It's just a little idealistic on his part, that's just not how things work in reality. He's gonna get overruled by the higher ups every time on that one.
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#16I don't understand the outrage towards Amazon.
1. No one forced any of these states/cities to join this bidding contest. They willingly participated. "How dare Amazon put cities against one another in a bidding war?!" Yeah, I put five dealers against one another in a bidding war to get my business the last time I shopped for a car. Amazon can do the same thing.
2. "Jeff Bezos doesn't need our tax breaks!" I bet he doesn't. I don't think Jeff Bezos personally helped elect all the leaders who offered all these tax breaks. At the end of the day, Amazon will create jobs. Will it gentrify these cities? Yes, absolutely. So would Google, Apple, or Facebook moving into a new area. "But those other companies didn't ask for tax breaks." They literally hold hundreds of billions in wealth overseas. I'm not arguing in favor of tax breaks for Amazon. I am saying, however, Amazon didn't stage a coup against these mayors and governors and threaten to hurt them if Amazon didn't get tax breaks. NYC officials (at least some) openly invited Amazon. Good on Amazon for walking out. Private companies don't owe you anything.
The system is broken. Neither party has done anything to fix it. You have a company taking advantage of the perfectly legal rules that the system set up. OH GAWD better grab pitchforks. Yet, all the same lying Congressional leaders get re-elected election after re-election.
This de Blasio character openly invited Amazon. Now that they've backed out, he's angry that Amazon had cities bid against each other and that it was so wrong? Are you kidding me? de Blasio is a prime example of what's wrong with American politics.
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#17Basically, a plea for everybody else to make it more difficult to do business in their local community, so NYC can be more competitive. I'm sure there is a tragedy of the commons somewhere in the "pitting cities against one another" as he mentioned. But perhaps it isn't ideal to think that a large corporation needs to come to your city and fix your problems either, and that it's not fair that they don't want to. With…
One way to get Amazon to contribute to fixing a cities problem would be to tax them but they aren't paying any taxes.
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#18I don't understand the outrage towards Amazon. 1. No one forced any of these states/cities to join this bidding contest. They willingly participated. "How dare Amazon put cities against one another in a bidding war?!" Yeah, I put five dealers against one another in a bidding war to get my business the last time I shopped for a car. Amazon can do the same thing. 2. "Jeff Bezos doesn't need our tax breaks!" I bet he do…
>Private companies don't owe you anything...
Money quote.
These are businesses, not charities. So they have to make business decisions. Amazon was right to walk away. (And yes, I realize that the same business reality will oblige Amazon to put several more thousand jobs in NYC in any case. But guess what? I'd bet any money they won't put as many as they would have. They will put several more thousand in DC instead.)
Before anyone gets mad at Amazon for behaving in this manner, yell at your political leaders for making these offers in the first place.
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#19This is just a face-saving op-ed by a guy who wants to run for President. The fact that they only gave him an hour's notice shows just how gullible he was and how little respect Amazon had for him in the first place. All of those things he counseled them to do - hire people from the public housing projects, meet with labor organizers, etc - should have been concessions extracted before he signed onto the deal.
> All of those things he counseled them to do - hire people from the public housing projects, meet with labor organizers, etc - should have been concessions extracted before he signed onto the deal. Exactly my thoughts. Though Amazon should have done this in the first place instead of doing that awful HQ2 search spectacle. Another thing that jumps out when reading this editorial from the mayor is how strange it is to…
What really blows my mind about this is that we are talking about New York City.
NYC is absolutely stuffed with America's best talent. Amazon needs NYC so much more than NYC needs Amazon.
The entire HQ2 shakedown was always just Amazon seeing how much they could fleece NYC. It's ludicrous New Yorkers are having to do the bargaining they elected a mayor to do for them.
Re: The Path Amazon Rejected
#20Mayor of New York: You gotta be tough to make it in New York. Businesses with lots of money: Let's go where it's easier
Let them go. New York doesn’t need their business. New York needs to heal its social fabric and see to the needs of the communities. This is often at odds with economic growth and corporate interest.