After SPIN! Video: What Didn't You Get To Say?
Published November 12, 2018
After SPIN! "Question to Becki and Dennis – The New York Times and many other sources are reporting that Amazon will either locate their second headquarters just outside Washington, DC or will split the headquarters between that site and another just outside New York. Amazon hasn’t confirmed or denied these rumors. We’ve been dangling on a string since last year. Is it time for this elephant hunt to end? What happens if we don’t get it? Are we still in the running for Apple’s big project?"
November 12, 2018 at 2:20 pm
Norm Kelly says:
At the same time that Amazon COULD be good for the general economy of our state if they chose to expand here, we also have to look at the TRUE cost of attracting them. Just like the bogus argument about average teacher pay, if all aspects of the cost to entice Amazon to expand here is taken into consideration, is it really worth as much as they want us to believe?
Teacher pay is a bogus argument because it's a moving target. In addition, keeping states like California, New York, and Illinois in the calculation makes absolutely no sense. Which is why 'average' advocates continue to use such a bogus number! Taking all aspects into consideration means COST OF LIVING, cost of benefits, work environment, and many other items. Talking ONLY salary is pointless, and the advocates know this, which is why it's ALL they talk about. Teachers pay lib pols to pass teacher pay & benefit increases, and lib pols pass legislation to pay teachers back by enhancing pay and benefits. Then teachers turn around and pay lib pols to continue the gravy train. I'm not saying that some teachers don't deserve a pay raise, but basing the argument on useless data is itself useless.
Back to the incentives game. Just like teacher pay, consider everything else involved with paying Amazons to expand here. There's all the infrastructure improvements that Amazons are NOT paying for. There's the extra traffic congestion that impacts those who already live here and were FORCED to pay for the extra traffic. There's the housing price increases that negatively impact those already living here who could be priced out of the market, at the same time as paying for Amazons to expand here. Then there's the other negative impacts on the surrounding economy. What jobs will be lost because Amazons move here? What businesses will close because they can't compete with the Amazons that have expanded here? When companies like Amazon expand ANYWHERE, they disrupt the economy of the entire nation, but mostly so to the immediate area surrounding the new location. In the long run, then, does the expansion even pay for itself, let alone improve anything for anyone?
The massive, over-the-top, cost of paying companies like Amazon to move here has to stop at some point. I say let's have North Carolina be the first to STOP buying outside businesses and allow home-grown, already existing businesses continue to do business here. It costs every business and every tax payer to buy an Amazon expansion. If it's good for Amazon to expand here, they will. How about keeping taxes and regulations low for EVERY BUSINESS, not just a chosen few. If the business environment is good here, businesses will expand here. Good schools, low taxes, low regulation, good infrastructure is good for ALL businesses AND taxpayers. By purchasing Amazons to expand here, the rest of us, already established here, are penalized. Why does ANYONE believe it's right to penalize the existing in order to buy an unknown? If we stop buying business, will other states follow? If we stop buying business, concentrate on making things right for everyone, fairly, will that be enough to attract business? And by 'fairly', I mean real, true fair, not the way libs typically use 'fair'. (when libs say the rich don't pay their fair share, what they mean is that the rich are allowed to keep any of what they have or earn, and libs simply can't allow that. when lib judges say 'equal justice under the law for all', what she meant and they all mean is equal for those who are favored by libs but not for those who disagree with libs. illegal aliens are to be given a pass. white, male, christian are to be persecuted. those who destroy public property that libs despise are to be given a pass. anyone who thinks different than libs are to be persecuted. especially if those conservative types DARE to step out in public, then all hell can break loose and we could have 'collateral damage', and it's accepted.)
November 12, 2018 at 5:20 pm
bruce stanley says:
I'm with you Becki. Corporate incentives with taxpayer money is bribery. Save incentives, lower rates instead.
