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by chrisseaton 2777 days ago
It's not just money is it? It's also things like infrastructure they'll provide?

Could that possibly make Amazon more efficient, and so employ more people who spend their salaries and so on, creating a net gain for the whole US?
2 comments
munk-a 2777 days ago
This is a pretty weak point, essentially "Lets give that guy money, he might do good things with it, he's done good things with it in the past." except instead of being a personal investment this concerns tax payer money being funneled to a private corporation.

They'd be much better spending that money on their neglected public transit or their neglected public housing...

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chrisseaton 2777 days ago
> They'd be much better spending that money on their neglected public transit or their neglected public housing...

But some cities were suggesting that! They were going to invest in infrastructure, knowing that the extra income from Amazon in the area would pay for it. It was not a zero-sum game.

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boomka 2777 days ago
All of that would be true in any other location. One could argue other locations actually need such infrastructure more. Amazon was not hiding the fact that they would build HQ2 anyways, and in USA. There was absolutely no need to donate them taxpayer money for it. And if you do, then taxpayer should own the infrastructure, with Amazon paying for use.
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chrisseaton 2777 days ago
No I mean that the competition may have motivated cities to create better offers of infrastructure to compete. If they all sat back and said 'well Amazon will have to go somewhere we won't bother making any effort' that may not have happened, and Amazon would be less efficient and the whole country would earn less.

For example some cities were proposing building things like extra train stations, which benefit everyone, and aren't something Amazon could have done privately.

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jopsen 2777 days ago
There is a difference between building public infrastructure and giving tax-exemptions..

Public infrastructure is available to all.. why can't the public finance it without Amazon?

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chrisseaton 2777 days ago
> why can't the public finance it without Amazon?

Cities may have been hoping that with Amazon moving into a region they would have extra tax receipts which would enable spending they would not have been able to afford before.

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