The Many Poisonous Animals of the Amazon

[beatbandito]

I'm actually really disappointed about this, I was ready to see just how much damage teamsters would end up doing there.

[Mongrel]

I'm actually really disappointed about this, I was ready to see just how much damage teamsters would end up doing there.

From the article:

Some unions supported the deal, and even those who had been opposed appeared willing to work with Amazon if the company agreed to not actively work against the unionization of their employees in New York.

An Amazon representative, during one City Council hearing, pointedly said the company would not agree to such terms.

I suspect that your hopes were a big part of Amazon's fears. Possibly even more so than the seemingly-more-important local opposition.

Either way it seems like Amazon didn't want to deal with even the most trivial of opposition or make even the smallest of concessions. The tantrum fits Bezos perfectly, so I'm more than happy that NY told him he can take his helipad and shove it up his ass.

[Mothra]

Holy shit! Never dared hope Amazon wouldn't get to install themselves tax-free.

Genuinely delighted.

[Mongrel]

New York, we're proud of you.

[Thad]

The Atlantic: Amazon Got Exactly What It Deserved—And So Did New York

The larger truth is that corporate subsidies, including the $3 billion package offered to Amazon, are often pernicious and usually pointless. Studies show that these sorts of measures “have no discernible impact on firm expansion, measured by job creation.” Yet every year, local governments spend more than $90 billion to move headquarters and factories between states, a wasteful zero-sum exercise whose cost is more than the federal government spends on affordable housing, education, or infrastructure. In the most garish example of corporate-welfare absurdity, Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturing company, solicited up to $4 billion in subsidies from Wisconsin in exchange for a factory and tens of thousands of workers. Now it’s an open question whether that facility will ever get built.

But even the less garish examples are galling. New York City doesn’t have an employment problem; it has a housing-affordability problem. Yet the original language of the Amazon deal used tax breaks that might have gone to infrastructure or low-income housing investment in the Long Island City region. While it’s hard to draw a direct line between corporate handouts and foregone public spending, the fact that states and cities cannot run persistent deficits or print their own currency, like the federal government can, implies that tax dollars lavished on corporations limit the amount of money available to other public projects. Meanwhile, the New York City subway is a disaster, and tuition is rising at the City University of New York system.

[Rico]

Yet the original language of the Amazon deal used tax breaks that might have gone to infrastructure or low-income housing investment in the Long Island City region.

[Mongrel]

Apparently Amazon dumped 1.5 million in "independent" spending into Seattle's city council elections to "flip the council", only to galvanize the opposition into re-electing not just far-lefists, but a card carrying communist too (for her third term).

Suck it Bezos!

[Mazian]

It's been an interesting race. Amazon's last-minute buy definitely stuffed my mailbox full of campaign flyers, but the sheer magnitude of the money – instantly making it our most expensive city council race ever – itself became a major local news story, and suddenly several campaigns became all about Amazon.

Washington's entirely vote-by-mail, and since counts are announced every day following the election as ballots continue to arrive, we can see the difference between early and late voters. The late voters tend to be younger and further left, and this time around, they're also the ones that voted after the buy... and in the two districts where Amazon spent the most money, the Amazon-backed candidates were leading in early votes and then dropped sharply behind in the later returns. Those are also the two districts that had the highest turnout.

[Mongrel]

Yeah, from what I've read Sawant is that sort of too-far-left type who crosses over from left-wing to plain loony ideologue. The kind that (for example) picks fights with AOC for not being left-wing enough.

But she's honest about who she is and what she wants, stick up for constituents (more or less), and you certainly can't say she's in anyone's pocket.

[Brantly B.]

When Lex Luthor starts siphoning money directly out of your municipal taxes to pay for his alimony, a socialist revolucionary starts sounding pretty good.

Related to this thread: I got a paper holiday catalog, from Amazon. You know, like Sears used to do? But for an online marketplace whose entire catalog is online. Maybe I wouldn't be so concerned about what a waste of paper it is if they didn't print "Amazon" in big letters on it. But it's obvious who this is trying to appeal to so... ok Boomer.

[Mongrel]

Oh, she hates socialists. She's a full on capital-C Communist (okay, sure, I guess so), and affirmed Marxist (get out).

But yeah, your point still stands.

[Caithness]

too-far-left

No such thing

[Brantly B.]

If you get into actual Marxism then you've gone so far left that you've actually wrapped around to final-stage capitalism.

[Caithness]

For the amount of suffering and death that billionaires cause, violent revolution with guillotines would be justifiable self defense.

In reality I’m against capital punishment, but anything that moves the Overton window closer to my actually being inside it is fine by me.

[Mongrel]

Yeah, I might not be a full-on communist, but I certainly don't mind bringing back a handful of fringe-but-elected communist politicians as a bogeyman for the right, like we used to have.

[Mongrel]

[Friday]

the whole "it's fine, we'll do philanthropy, in fact what we need is MORE wealth for the billionaires" is like peak human insanity

[Mongrel]

There's a line commonly misattributed to Clement Attlee that's actually from his biographer:

"Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim."

[Thad]

“Chickenshit” whistleblower firings are “poison,” resigning Amazon VP says

[Mongrel]