by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
New York City either took a big economic hit this past week, or it made a laudable stand for human rights and fairness - depending on one's perspective. Amazon.com, the internet's monster retailer, came out a couple of days ago and announced that its plans to put a new Amazon headquarters in the Queens borough were being cancelled, a decision that will cost the city about 25,000 potential jobs. Surprisingly, not everyone in Queens was sad to see Amazon change its plans.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the fiery young congresswoman who represents much of Queens, viewed Amazon's change of plans as a victory for the little people, the ones who would have likely been physically displaced and had their lives upended when Amazon arrived in their neighborhoods. She was also opposed to the $3.4 billion or so in government subsidies (over time) that the giant internet retailer was being offered by government entities to locate there, something that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, referred to as "bribes."
Governments call these bribes "incentives" and they play an integral part in luring large businesses to locate in their states, counties, or cities. And the expanding businesses shop through these incentives as a part of their selection process. The incentives are expected - sort of like silent demands.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is fighting mad about the loss of 25,000 potential jobs for his state. NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio, also a Democrat, isn't happy either, but he regards Amazon's change of plans as their loss, much more so than New York's. In DeBlasio's view, the giant corporation just blew a chance to be part of the greatest city on earth.
Amazon.com is headed by Jeff Bezos, the richest human on earth. It is a profoundly successful business enterprise and its accountants are undoubtedly world class because the huge corporation, which reported profits in the billions of dollars in 2017, paid no federal income tax for that year. And, with the Trump tax cuts for the rich in 2018 they actually made more money off of the real American taxpayers.
Sweet deal - and then the company wants New York to pay for privilege of hosting its new headquarters.
Elizabeth Warren is right. Those requested government incentives are bribes, plain and simple, pay-to-play demands by modern day robber barons and common thugs in tuxedos.
If capitalism is so great, why would a successful business feel entitled to government supports. Do Walmart and Amazon have socialist leanings? If they can't make it on their own, then perhaps the Walton and Bezos families should shovel some of their obscene profits back into the companies. Americans support these multi-national corporations by making purchases - and if Walmart and Amazon have successful business models, that should be enough.
Businesses that demand bribes in order to exist are seriously flawed - and so are government entities that willingly pays those bribes!
Citizen Journalist
New York City either took a big economic hit this past week, or it made a laudable stand for human rights and fairness - depending on one's perspective. Amazon.com, the internet's monster retailer, came out a couple of days ago and announced that its plans to put a new Amazon headquarters in the Queens borough were being cancelled, a decision that will cost the city about 25,000 potential jobs. Surprisingly, not everyone in Queens was sad to see Amazon change its plans.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the fiery young congresswoman who represents much of Queens, viewed Amazon's change of plans as a victory for the little people, the ones who would have likely been physically displaced and had their lives upended when Amazon arrived in their neighborhoods. She was also opposed to the $3.4 billion or so in government subsidies (over time) that the giant internet retailer was being offered by government entities to locate there, something that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, referred to as "bribes."
Governments call these bribes "incentives" and they play an integral part in luring large businesses to locate in their states, counties, or cities. And the expanding businesses shop through these incentives as a part of their selection process. The incentives are expected - sort of like silent demands.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is fighting mad about the loss of 25,000 potential jobs for his state. NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio, also a Democrat, isn't happy either, but he regards Amazon's change of plans as their loss, much more so than New York's. In DeBlasio's view, the giant corporation just blew a chance to be part of the greatest city on earth.
(A related aside: Several years ago the country's largest retailer at the time, Walmart, made a decision to open its first store in rural McDonald County, Missouri, the southwest corner county of Missouri which shares borders with Oklahoma and Arkansas. The long border with Arkansas, in fact, is with Benton County, the home of the Walmart, Inc.
But before Walmart would open a store in McDonald County, it demanded several concessions from the locals. The corporation insisted that the county build a special road to their new store, bring utilities to the site, and provide plenty of streetlights - and there was undoubtedly more to their non-negotiable demands. Walmart was going to bring a helluva lot of business to the remote county, and it was also going to swell the county's sales tax collections. Walmart was going to make money for McDonald County, and, in return, they wanted some of it back - in advance.
The arrival of Walmart, like a cancer diagnosis, also caused some once healthy local businesses to soon die off.)
Amazon.com is headed by Jeff Bezos, the richest human on earth. It is a profoundly successful business enterprise and its accountants are undoubtedly world class because the huge corporation, which reported profits in the billions of dollars in 2017, paid no federal income tax for that year. And, with the Trump tax cuts for the rich in 2018 they actually made more money off of the real American taxpayers.
Sweet deal - and then the company wants New York to pay for privilege of hosting its new headquarters.
Elizabeth Warren is right. Those requested government incentives are bribes, plain and simple, pay-to-play demands by modern day robber barons and common thugs in tuxedos.
If capitalism is so great, why would a successful business feel entitled to government supports. Do Walmart and Amazon have socialist leanings? If they can't make it on their own, then perhaps the Walton and Bezos families should shovel some of their obscene profits back into the companies. Americans support these multi-national corporations by making purchases - and if Walmart and Amazon have successful business models, that should be enough.
Businesses that demand bribes in order to exist are seriously flawed - and so are government entities that willingly pays those bribes!
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