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The Path Amazon Rejected

nytimes.com

21–30 of 102 posts

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#21
post #4

I 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 ?

Not to mention the tax breaks that the city was giving Amazon are still available for pretty much any company.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#22
post #15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comp…

>Corporate welfare is out of hand in this country.

That's certainly one view. Another is that these are just breaks on excessive taxes by one government to compete with other governments that have sane corporate taxes in the first place.

I don't understand how tax reductions are considered welfare. It's not money the government has already being passed out to Amazon. The government would have still made money in this scenario, just less.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#23
post #3

Amazon screwed up when they made choosing a place into a reality contest. That came off as egotistical and people took notice. They brought the attention on to themselves. I think they finally realized that walking out of it and letting it die down is the best way going forward.

That seems to be the popular opinion (that this is Amazon's fault) but I disagree. Amazon coming to LIC would have been a net benefit for everyone. 25k jobs that pay a minimum wage of $15/hour...who would reject that? Sure they get a $3b tax break, but they would have paid far more than that in state taxes over the long term. The people on the city council did not represent the the best interest of the citizens, instead trying to spin this as a stand against corporate greed. It's too bad they couldn't work this out. I think this will hurt NYC in the long run.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#24
post #8
post #4

I 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.

Yeah I'm leaning on the same side as the author in terms of blame... but this article is really bias and heavily spun.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#25
post #6

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.

That's an incredibly uncharitable insinuation. Do you think community organizers do it for the money? There are a lot of reasons people choose to advocate but regardless of weather you think they're right they generally do it because they actually believe in something. It's unlikely fighting Amazon is a very profitable venture.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#26

I 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…

> 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.

Surely the reason most upset people are upset is that these deals with governments tend to involve tax breaks, and taxpayers have every right to concern themselves with tax policy. I doubt many of those people would also be upset with your car negotiations.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#27

Basically, 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.

That's a problem with the government. Amazon isn't evading taxes. It's using standard government legislated tax deductions and rebates: http://www.newser.com/story/271410/amazon-banked-11b-in-prof...

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#28

I 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…

"You have a company taking advantage of the perfectly legal rules that the system set up. OH GAWD better grab pitchforks."

People aren't allowed to be upset about something just because it's not illegal?

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#29
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comp…

>Corporate welfare is out of hand in this country. That's certainly one view. Another is that these are just breaks on excessive taxes by one government to compete with other governments that have sane corporate taxes in the first place. I don't understand how tax reductions are considered welfare. It's not money the government has already being passed out to Amazon. The government would have still made money in this…

But why does amazon get to pay less than existing businesses, unfair tax laws or not?

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#30

> 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.

NYC doesn’t need their jobs.
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