mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I just saw today on the News today, that Amazon has decided not to have a Headquarters in NYC. Because local politicians and businesses didn't like the Tax Breaks Amazon were going to get. 25,000 good paying jobs were promised in NYC. The debate was that New York City does not give Tax Breaks to the average business man or woman, as they do the rich. The mayor and governor arranged these tax breaks for Amazon, and are upset that Amazon is now leaving NYC. To go elsewhere.

alby Loc: very eastern pa.

AOC is thrilled.... bye bye!!

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

My daughter lives near Racine, Wisconsin, where FoxConn, amid much fanfare and taxbreaks, promised 13, 000 jobs, many of them factory jobs. Now theyve pulled out of that plan and decided they can't make money doing that and instead will hire R&D people. Meanwhile, real estate prices and rent rose, people and businesses had to move, and the community is left high and dry.

There are so many instances of businesses getting large tax breaks and then leaving within a few years. When will governments wise up and stop making these deals?

MSW

ok- -here's the real deal
!. we are i***ts, politically. most americans cannot name their congressman and their senators.
2. we are i***ts. most of my daughters' contemporaries cannot explain how a bill becomes law.
3. we are i***ts. the few of us who bother to get off our collective dead duff and v**e go into the booth, hold the nose, and pull the lever.
4. we are i***ts. we allow the power elite to promise us the sun and moon, and then make a bunch of lame-o excuses when they just use their power to fill their own coffers and trample what few right we have remaining.
we are i***ts. if you have a degree from Harvard (or, for that matter, any Ivy League or other elite university), it appears that you're smart enough to run things, even though you have no experience in running anything... other than your mouth.
5. we are i***ts. If I don't v**e for the black or the woman, i'm a misogynist bigot r****t from hell exploited of the masses... if I don't v**e from some 'protestant fundamentalist,' then i'm a bomb throwing pinko anarchist.
6. we are i***ts. and we elect i***ts, and we deserve what we get.




ok - the rant is over … it's safe to come out now, but next time you see a car with state senate plates on it, go ahead and wave - using all of your fingers is optional.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

You feel better now?

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Too much BS and red tape for Amazon to put up with. They are going to DC to build 2.5 billion dollar skyscrapers and employ 25,000 people there. If I were running Amazon I'd have done the same thing. Politicians are such a$$ hats that they just keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

What was it about remembering history? Forgetting history? Reading the fine print?
A lot of these places get huuge tax breaks. Ib return for some plush ghost positions. IIRC, for Foxconn $4.5 billion) it came out to $250,000 per position. The typical tax break lasts for 5 years, the Corps is packing up 6 months before then. In the meantime, all this tax break money came out of local resources, and yet another town think they can do this right, and seemingly "lures" them away.
Amazon- NYC- $3 billion in tax breaks divided by 25 thousand workers = 120,00 free money to Amazon, per worker, if/when full promised employment finally happens.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

New York City, Washington DC, San Francisco, and Honolulu, Hawaii, are four of the highest cost of living cities in the US. Amazon wasn't bringing minimum wage jobs to NYC. But, a living wage to NYC. And, that money made, would be spent into the local economy. Housing, goods, services, etc. Many would have benefited. I wonder do other big businesses, corporations, throughout the USA get tax breaks from the local or State governments?

pendennis

Unfortunately, corporations tend to play the states like a bunch of chumps when it comes to locating/relocating offices, factories, distribution centers, etc.

Amazon is such a behemoth, that it can dictate terms of where it wants to locate. When Amazon put out the word they wanted to build WHQII, states and cities went nuts trying to outbid each other for the location. I live outside of Detroit, and the promises made to them by Detroit and the state of Michigan were mind numbing. And since there are 50 states, and hundreds of large cities, they tend to compete for that last dollar of tax revenue.

There is a multiplier effect when a giant like Amazon does move in. In New York's case there were 25K jobs and a $3 billion tax rebate. Estimates were a ROI of $27.4 billion over ten years in increased tax revenue for the deal. That doesn't include all the ancillary and unrelated companies which may have located to be near Amazon. So, the total added tax revenue would probably be well beyond the $27.4 billion. There would be additional retail, medical, restaurants, etc., that would arise.

The problem lies with the coziness of big business with big government (all levels). Businesses like to brag about their love of independence, but it only lasts until they start losing money, then they go to government for protection, handouts, etc., to save their collective bacon.

There's been a lot of grousing about Amazon not paying Federal taxes for the last two years. Just who wrote and enacted the tax codes? I don't remember getting a meeting notice from anyone. Amazon is like every other company that has the dollars to fund K Street lobbyists.

However, this tactic has been used by business since the beginning of the Republic. Railroad, steel, oil, and many others have played the game.

Quinn 4

It was on the news, but was pass over. NYC is a very heavy union city. Amazon as going to use nonunion people. That did not set well with the powers to be in NYC.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

That's an interesting analysis you just provided. With some merit too. Yes, some big businesses do fold up, and leave the city high and dry with losses. However, Amazon is not an ordinary big business. Amazon, like Microsoft and Apple, is a business that has longevity. If Amazon has not paid federal income taxes in two years, as you indicated. They should be paid.

pendennis

Amazon has an army of lawyers and tax experts, who get big bucks to scour the tax code for openings in which to save money. And they do it legally. They don't have to c***t. Tax c***ts are more likely to occur in smaller single-person, or private corporations, where the activities are lesser known, and financial controls are almost non-existent.

I worked for a Fortune Top 4 company, and everything we did in finance was to avoid or mitigate tax burden.

All business get old, and they eventually die. Business lasting more than 50 years are rare animals in business history. In the auto industry, the history is littered with the dead - Hudson Motors, AMC, Duesenberg, Auburn, Stanley, among others. They all failed to adapt, or never saw the future, were undercapitalized, wh**ever.

In other arenas, companies such as AT&T, IBM, General Electric, U.S. Steel, etc., are hardly have the same image they did even thirty years ago. Adapt, or die.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Somebody on UHH was looking for placed to visit in NYC. I suggested that he go to the proposed site of the Amazon headquarters and take a picture of the place where 25,000 people would have worked and made good money. Call it the Ocasio-Cortez field of weeds. Your government representatives working for you!!!

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I've been told that NYC is a heavy Union City. Perhaps that is unique to NYC, because in other large cities in the USA, Union membership is down. Many Union members were upset, that Union money was being used for political campaign fundings. I believe a Supreme Court Ruling, not long ago, eliminated forced membership in a Union?. I'm guessing there is less than 18% of the total USA workforce, that are members of a Union today. Many industrial and blue collar workers are declining Union membership. They don't want Unions. You can get a good paying job, with benefits, and paid vacations, without belonging to a Union today. Teachers Unions may be the exception?

Fotoserj Loc: St calixte Qc Ca

Amazone is in for the money and absolutely nothing else, when the free money run out so will they