[gist]

> often to no benefit of the local population

Not true. My first thought when hearing that a town not far from where I am made the 20 list was 'where can I buy property so that I can rent it to others that come as a result of the economic development and new desirability of the area'. Property values will increase and property tax will go up vacancies will be reduced.

This would not happen for a smaller company that nobody cares about either.

This is perhaps similar (not for sure but could be) to when Disney decided to locate in Orlando Florida and bought up land in secret but also cut many deals to allow them benefits that others do not get.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reedy_Creek_Improvement_Distri...

[wyattk]

No net benefit of the local population. I forgot to include that one word, net. I admit it does make a difference, but perhaps not to the point where people will fixate on that and ignore everything else.

I understand what you are saying, but these things can be quantified and accounted for in economic models. We can wave hands all day about "I think the economy would do this" but that is often the enemy of applied economics (heavily mathematical) and progress. There is a point when the incentives for the company can turn negative for the community. There is also the consideration in the community that those taxpayers (and voters) do not want to subsidize a massive corporation's shareholders.

Politicians can be aware of this point, but with a massive corporation trying to pit them all against each other for its own gain, competition will erode those profits to or even past the point of neutral cost-benefit to the community. As Peter Thiel likes to point out "Competition is for losers."

[gist]

I am aware of what you are saying. However living in a place that is 'moving and grooving' because there is economic activity has benefits that simply can't be measured. For example you can live in a nowhere ghost town with little restaurants and nobody around and think you have it great. But just the same people with any ambition will move out of that area and leave it even more isolated. Empty main street.

If you try to quantify you will often come up short. And w/o knowing the exact numbers who knows. But much of it is for tax (credits) which they wouldn't get anyway. The places in many areas that are being offered have been vacant for years. So we are not talking about Manhattan when you look at Navy Yard in Philly. It has land because nobody wants that land. And it could take forever to get it occupied.

Economic activity where there is little currently and no prospects is all around good. In the case of where I live (within 20 miles of one of the sites) I am thinking 'wow if they locate there people will end up buying used houses where I am and property values will increase and then people will spend money and they will build more restaurants and things will all around be good. So maybe I will stay in this area and not move in that case'.

By the way Amazon has not invented this process. It's currently being done where counties compete against other counties for lesser known prizes. Very common you just never hear about it. In many cases the company moving has no intention of moving either. Welcome to the world of business and how it works.