Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
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Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
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Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#2The irony. The bride of capitalism basks in welfare benefits. All the while paying minimal taxes and working tirelessly to turn workers basically into machines ;)
A smarter move by politicians would be use these same dollars to support worker owned co-ops in a greater way. They have proven to be more efficient as a businesses model and better at shifting money to more hands. Plus, good jobs for the workers :)
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#3We do this kind of weird dance in which we create subsidies to incentivize desirable behavior and then when it works and we get more of the desirable behavior we complain about the handouts.
I understand that democracy implies multiple constituencies, not all of which agree on the need for any particular policy (and so arguments about the necessity of specific subsidies are reasonable and inevitable), but it's always worth remembering that we offer these subsidies because we want to encourage the behavior that's tied to the them. It's not an accident or a secret handout.
It's quid pro quo.
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#4I wonder how much of these "subsidies" are actually tax abatements as opposed to a handout? I am familiar with the Kansas City area: the chart shows Amazon getting $20M for their distribution center in WYCO/KCK whereas they only got $1.8M for their distribution center in Edgerton. Property taxes alone could explain such a massive difference (WYCO property tax rates are ridiculous) and the distribution center is in a commercial/freight zone whereas the one in Edgerton used to be open farmland (though close to an intermodal hub).
And yes, in an ideal world, businesses would pay for things themselves without handouts or tax breaks but pretty much every state and many localities pour millions and billions into public sector financing of private businesses in the name of bringing good jobs to the area. Can't really blame the politicians: if they didn't give these handouts on the Kansas side of the state line I'm sure Missouri would have been willing to lure Amazon over to that side. Amazon is just taking what they can get, same as every other company. The only way to reform this is to ban the practice nationwide -- buy getting politicians who pull down millions in lobbyist and corporate donations to bite the hands that are feeding them.
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#5I wonder how much of these "subsidies" are actually tax abatements as opposed to a handout? I am familiar with the Kansas City area: the chart shows Amazon getting $20M for their distribution center in WYCO/KCK whereas they only got $1.8M for their distribution center in Edgerton. Property taxes alone could explain such a massive difference (WYCO property tax rates are ridiculous) and the distribution center is in a…
Virtually every item on the list is categorized as a "tax abatement", "tax deferral", or "tax exemption". I think it's misleading to call those 'subsidies'.
As always, the existence of such taxes gives politicians a tool to amplify their corruption and incompetence. The right answer is to take such tools out of politician's hands by ending the taxes in the first place.
It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's much more practical, efficient, and transparent to keep taxes at the personal and consumer level.
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#6I wonder how much of these "subsidies" are actually tax abatements as opposed to a handout? I am familiar with the Kansas City area: the chart shows Amazon getting $20M for their distribution center in WYCO/KCK whereas they only got $1.8M for their distribution center in Edgerton. Property taxes alone could explain such a massive difference (WYCO property tax rates are ridiculous) and the distribution center is in a…
Virtually every item on the list is categorized as a "tax abatement", "tax deferral", or "tax exemption". I think it's misleading to call those 'subsidies'. As always, the existence of such taxes gives politicians a tool to amplify their corruption and incompetence. The right answer is to take such tools out of politician's hands by ending the taxes in the first place. It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's muc…
> It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's much more practical, efficient, and transparent to keep taxes at the personal and consumer level.
It's also worth pointing out that a business is subject to a number of taxes: property tax, income tax, various fees for operating a business, infrastructure upgrades (to support the tonnage of Amazon trucks), and more. I would like to think that the complete re-build of a highway interchange and re-placement of a normal asphalt street to a heavy-duty concrete road meant for hauling tons of freight, the installation of water and power connections, and everything else a company would need for a large installation would be paid for by them. But we all know these are seen as infrastructure investments that will (hopefully) lure more companies to the area (companies that WON'T be given all of the breaks) now that an anchor tenant is there and justifying a long-term investment.
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#7I wonder how much of these "subsidies" are actually tax abatements as opposed to a handout? I am familiar with the Kansas City area: the chart shows Amazon getting $20M for their distribution center in WYCO/KCK whereas they only got $1.8M for their distribution center in Edgerton. Property taxes alone could explain such a massive difference (WYCO property tax rates are ridiculous) and the distribution center is in a…
Virtually every item on the list is categorized as a "tax abatement", "tax deferral", or "tax exemption". I think it's misleading to call those 'subsidies'. As always, the existence of such taxes gives politicians a tool to amplify their corruption and incompetence. The right answer is to take such tools out of politician's hands by ending the taxes in the first place. It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's muc…
>It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's much more practical, efficient, and transparent to keep taxes at the personal and consumer level.
That is a very, very bold claim. Please provide bold evidence or reasoning.
>The right answer is to take such tools out of politician's hands by ending the taxes in the first place.
So there is a corrupt system, and the only solution is to just destroy it? I don't get it.
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#8Amazon and FAMGAN in general's take is far, far more than is recognized.
Example: datacenters that cost more than $xxx million to build received special tax breaks, which means that only the largest, big tech companies received them.
https://www.crn.com/news/data-center/sweeping-data-center-ta...
No sales taxes.... but you must spend a minimum of 50 million a year for 5 years.
Company that wants to build a mid size, 30 million dollar datacenter? No tax breaks. This is a barrier to entry for smaller would-be competitors and those that would prefer to have their own machines.
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#9I wonder how much of these "subsidies" are actually tax abatements as opposed to a handout? I am familiar with the Kansas City area: the chart shows Amazon getting $20M for their distribution center in WYCO/KCK whereas they only got $1.8M for their distribution center in Edgerton. Property taxes alone could explain such a massive difference (WYCO property tax rates are ridiculous) and the distribution center is in a…
Virtually every item on the list is categorized as a "tax abatement", "tax deferral", or "tax exemption". I think it's misleading to call those 'subsidies'. As always, the existence of such taxes gives politicians a tool to amplify their corruption and incompetence. The right answer is to take such tools out of politician's hands by ending the taxes in the first place. It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's muc…
This is exactly right. Corporate taxation is not a good thing in general, and makes everyone poorer.
Re: Subsidies Awarded to Amazon: at least $4.04B and Counting
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Virtually every item on the list is categorized as a "tax abatement", "tax deferral", or "tax exemption". I think it's misleading to call those 'subsidies'. As always, the existence of such taxes gives politicians a tool to amplify their corruption and incompetence. The right answer is to take such tools out of politician's hands by ending the taxes in the first place. It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's muc…
>It feels good to tax a corporation, but it's much more practical, efficient, and transparent to keep taxes at the personal and consumer level. That is a very, very bold claim. Please provide bold evidence or reasoning. >The right answer is to take such tools out of politician's hands by ending the taxes in the first place. So there is a corrupt system, and the only solution is to just destroy it? I don't get it.
[Eliminating or severely reducing corporate taxation is a fairly mainstream idea in economics](https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/CorporateTaxation.html)