The real issues behind the Amazon - New York City deal, and why this is a threat to everyone, including you
di Memo Salazar
While New Yorkers were busy voting out Republicans at the polls, their fearless incumbent Governor, confident of a third term, quietly released a bombshell he clearly hoped would be drowned out by the election day hype: Amazon is Coming To Town in the form of a second headquarters in Long Island City. There are plenty of articles briefly giving you the basics of that deal, from the pro-business side to the critical side, so let’s cut right to the chase: allowing Amazon to establish a Headquarters in Queens is a stupid, foolhearted, irresponsible, destructive and moronic move no matter how you look at it, unless you happen to be a greedy, short-sighted real estate developer working in New York City who’s looking to make a lot of easy money at the expense of everyone else.
The Amazon deal is a first-rate Trojan Horse; while it will affect Queens residents most of all, it actually damages everyone living in this country in some very fundamental ways. If you’re not convinced of that seemingly hyperbolic statement, allow me to present the evidence:
1. Amazon, the Company.
Most Americans these days are so beaten down by corporate America, they accept behavior that 50 years ago was considered inconceivable by even the greediest of companies. News of Amazon coming into their neighborhood is met with the fatalistic acceptance of aw, shucks- but change is part of life. If it’s not them, someone else will come in and do the same thing. Well… no, actually. Yes, corporate conglomerates in general are pretty bad, and we shouldn’t let any company enter a neighborhood unless it is truly beneficial to the community, but Amazon is an especially despicable- and dangerous- case.
For starters, they don’t just give little back to a community. They give nothingback… to anyone. In 2017, they made $178 billion dollars in profit, yet paid zero dollars in Federal taxes that same year. Let me repeat that: ZERO DOLLARS. That’s the kind of news that should send Americans revolting and the IRS rethinking its tax code, but it barely made a dent in our beaten-down-by-rampant-capitalism society. Liberals and Libertarians both agree that this type of crony capitalism is not what anyone intended when they signed our constitution into being, so why have we accepted this? Tax dollars is how our government pays for… um… everything. The basic premise behind taxing our income is that as clever and brilliant as you might be as a businessman, you don’t exist in a vacuum. You depend on society to function, and your taxes are how you ensure society’s survival as a whole while you work on your survival as an individual. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
When you exploit the loopholes of a tax system to such an extreme, that relationship is gone and the system breaks down. Those billions of dollars are essential funds not going to schools, infrastructure, social services, health services, the arts, and pretty much everything else that makes up a civilization; even if you don’t care one iota about other humans, you still depend on them to work your company and buy your products. Capitalism can actually function more or less okay as long as no single entity grows large enough to exploit its flaws, but in today’s world of behemoth corporations and government handouts, that’s exactly what’s happening.
I understand why Jeff Bezos wants to avoid paying taxes. The question is, why do any of us want to help him? In October, Senator Bernie Sander’s public shaming campaign against Amazon’s low wages seemed to have succeeded as Bezos announced a $15 / hour minimum wage for their factory workers. Everyone praised the move, but few people read the fine print: to offset the increase, Amazon cut several bonuses and removed employee stock options. For many veteran workers, the new setup actually leaves them earning less. It was a brilliant move: fool the public into thinking you’re doing the right thing while you actually get to do even more of the wrong thing. Given Amazon’s track record, how much of a blind eye must one turn to convince themselves that Amazon’s presence will truly enrich New York City? Can you name one example where this has actually happened?
While New Yorkers were busy voting out Republicans at the polls, their fearless incumbent Governor, confident of a third term, quietly released a bombshell he clearly hoped would be drowned out by the election day hype: Amazon is Coming To Town in the form of a second headquarters in Long Island City. There are plenty of articles briefly giving you the basics of that deal, from the pro-business side to the critical side, so let’s cut right to the chase: allowing Amazon to establish a Headquarters in Queens is a stupid, foolhearted, irresponsible, destructive and moronic move no matter how you look at it, unless you happen to be a greedy, short-sighted real estate developer working in New York City who’s looking to make a lot of easy money at the expense of everyone else.
The Amazon deal is a first-rate Trojan Horse; while it will affect Queens residents most of all, it actually damages everyone living in this country in some very fundamental ways. If you’re not convinced of that seemingly hyperbolic statement, allow me to present the evidence:
1. Amazon, the Company.
Most Americans these days are so beaten down by corporate America, they accept behavior that 50 years ago was considered inconceivable by even the greediest of companies. News of Amazon coming into their neighborhood is met with the fatalistic acceptance of aw, shucks- but change is part of life. If it’s not them, someone else will come in and do the same thing. Well… no, actually. Yes, corporate conglomerates in general are pretty bad, and we shouldn’t let any company enter a neighborhood unless it is truly beneficial to the community, but Amazon is an especially despicable- and dangerous- case.
For starters, they don’t just give little back to a community. They give nothingback… to anyone. In 2017, they made $178 billion dollars in profit, yet paid zero dollars in Federal taxes that same year. Let me repeat that: ZERO DOLLARS. That’s the kind of news that should send Americans revolting and the IRS rethinking its tax code, but it barely made a dent in our beaten-down-by-rampant-capitalism society. Liberals and Libertarians both agree that this type of crony capitalism is not what anyone intended when they signed our constitution into being, so why have we accepted this? Tax dollars is how our government pays for… um… everything. The basic premise behind taxing our income is that as clever and brilliant as you might be as a businessman, you don’t exist in a vacuum. You depend on society to function, and your taxes are how you ensure society’s survival as a whole while you work on your survival as an individual. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
When you exploit the loopholes of a tax system to such an extreme, that relationship is gone and the system breaks down. Those billions of dollars are essential funds not going to schools, infrastructure, social services, health services, the arts, and pretty much everything else that makes up a civilization; even if you don’t care one iota about other humans, you still depend on them to work your company and buy your products. Capitalism can actually function more or less okay as long as no single entity grows large enough to exploit its flaws, but in today’s world of behemoth corporations and government handouts, that’s exactly what’s happening.
I understand why Jeff Bezos wants to avoid paying taxes. The question is, why do any of us want to help him? In October, Senator Bernie Sander’s public shaming campaign against Amazon’s low wages seemed to have succeeded as Bezos announced a $15 / hour minimum wage for their factory workers. Everyone praised the move, but few people read the fine print: to offset the increase, Amazon cut several bonuses and removed employee stock options. For many veteran workers, the new setup actually leaves them earning less. It was a brilliant move: fool the public into thinking you’re doing the right thing while you actually get to do even more of the wrong thing. Given Amazon’s track record, how much of a blind eye must one turn to convince themselves that Amazon’s presence will truly enrich New York City? Can you name one example where this has actually happened?
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