Amazon.com forced more than 200 cities to bid against each other in a twisted race to the bottom in order to score a deal for cheap taxes and labor for its forthcoming second headquarters. Sure, your city might get 50,000 new jobs. But it can’t be good for labor to have city officials selling out their residents and taxpayers to score the deal.
Why Are Cities Playing Amazon’s Sick Race to the Bottom Game?
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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What ever happened to “e pluribus unum” ? “Divide and Conquer” is much more profitable, and the sheeple will bend over backwards to help. (Or maybe they’re bending over forwards.)
Amazon is merely taking a page out of the book of another Seattle native: Boeing. Boeing threatened to move out of state, and so Washington gave them tax cuts and other incentives, then they moved anyway. They moved manufacturing jobs to Alabama – the ‘Bamans voted against the union ‘cuz … underemployed? …brainwashed? … stupid? So now the same job pays less and is done by someone who isn’t a third-generation aircraft machinist. Meanwhile, the WA working class shoulders the burdens of the tax Boeing isn’t paying.
Where do the savings go? The CEO’s salary is over twenty million.
Should the ‘Bamans organize, the Lazy Bee will simply move to another impoverished state where the worker bees are willing to take even less money while paying even higher taxes.
See? The system works!
This Costco store said it would leave its Niles, IL location if Niles wouldn’t rebate its purchase price of land to build a Costco gas station from Niles sales tax collected. Every time someone shops there they are paying sales tax on their food that pays extortion money to Costco to prevent the store’s relocation to a different community willing to support them (give corporate welfare) with municipal tax revenue.
These corporations have the balls to preach personal responsibility.
“If Costco cannot find a buyer for the extra land by the time they’ve received the total $3 million rebate promised to them, the tax incentive will continue until one of three things happen: a purchaser is found, $5.5 million in rebate funds is paid to the company or the 20-year long deal runs out, Klicker said.”
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-12-13/news/ct-niles-costco-agreement-tl-nnw-20131213_1_costco-tax-agreement-rebate
“Though she said she fully supported Costco remaining in Niles, Palicki said she was concerned that the village would be giving up sales tax dollars in a time when pensions are underfunded and village infrastructure is aging.”
The slogan seems to be «Socialism for the rich ; capitalism for the poor !» – as a certain philosopher, echoed by a certain novelist, the best of all possible worlds….
Henri