... to pay government workers.
“Why the hell are U.S. cities spending tens of billions of dollars to steal jobs from each other, in the first place?”
A very good question.
He wanted to turn VA even “bluer”. We have seen this before. Anyone remember “Gateway Computers”? We still have a huge white elephant of commercial real estate left over from that.
...did the retailer miss an opportunity to revitalize a mid-western city by choosing to enrich the already-rich east coast?”
The “retailer” - Amazon - is just doing what some business types do, cut the best deal at any cost. Shame on local government for allowing this. Let them live and commute in the heart of “Amazonia”.
Locating Amazon in the Arlington County area of Northern Virginia simply creates another “blivet” in an already overpopulated area. And politely put, a blivet is 10-pounds of dirt in a 5-pound bag.
If Oak Ridge, Tennessee could be built from scratch and be up ‘n running in 18-months to two years, I’m confident an “Amazonia” could be completed in near time anywhere in the US.
Whenever someone says, “There should be a law”, they should be flogged. I am pretty sure we’ve covered most of the laws by now.
Selling Amazon web services to the Pentagon and Wall St. They will gradually assert control over the data by “helping” to curate.
Atlantic magazine isn’t just shameful, it ought to be bound, gassed and set afire.
People who don’t believe in property rights think lots of things should be illegal. And people who think government rather than businesses create jobs say a business is stealing jobs when it moves.
Capitalists believe governments provide services such as incorporation, courts, roads, educated workers, and police, then make bids where the payment is taxes. Just like any other service provider it can cost a lot to respond to an RFP and the lowest $$ option isn’t always the winner.
We're selling our soul for $$ in the US.
I knew from the initial announcement that they would end up in DC.
Every city that threw money after chasing an Amazon HQ that was never going to arrive should feel immensely foolish.
I hope they sue, too. The discovery on this case should be pretty awesome.
New York and D.C. are lobbying outposts for the press and the government.
They make no other sense.
bookmark
If Amazon were more interested in saving money than bribing DC and Wall Street, they would have picked a central US location with a favorable tax structure, reasonable weather, and space to build or expand a major airport to serve as a distribution hub - as FedEx did in Memphis. But companies which grow this large rapidly take on non-capitalist characteristics, and their quarterly profits are derived from lobbying as much or more than their operations.
capital/capitol
Soliciting prospective bribes from dozens of other localities. It should be illegal.
Leftists really hate competition, don’t they?