Amazon was proposing to build a corporate headquarters there, not a giant fulfillment center. There would have been thousands of people working there, and the average employee would have been paid in excess of $100,000/year.
I follow trends in industrial real estate development as part of my professional work, and I can assure AOC that she won’t have to worry about those Amazon workers on public assistance for very long. The latest trend in warehouse/distribution facility design is the development of massive, highly automated buildings that employee hardly anyone. Even semi-rural areas around me are seeing planning board applications for 100-foot tall warehouse buildings that are completely out of character with the most recent giant warehouses that have been built over the last 10-15 years.
Without a plan for those workers, we are moving towards a serious problem.
Which begs the point.
Since the middle class white collar industry was more than decimated (not the 10% definition) by Indian foreign labor, and
Since the mostly decent-paying middle-class service industry (sports, entertainment, media, events, hotels, restaurants, bars, travel, etc) was shut down and a good number of SMEs ceased to operate, and
Since incoming automation will render most labor-intensive jobs in fast-food and warehouse distribution centers redundant, and
Since many remaining service companies are going to an only pick-up/ delivery model, and
Since Mexicans and others dominate the lower-end labor intensive jobs
Where does that leave about 50 million of us?
This is definitely an inflection point. And it’s not good.
> Amazon was proposing to build a corporate headquarters there, not a giant
> fulfillment center. There would have been thousands of people working there,
> and the average employee would have been paid in excess of $100,000/year.
Correct. She opposed it primarily for the the tax incentives. In her world view,
not fully paying New York’s ridiculous taxes is “giveaway”.