I think bringing up contractors bid out is a terrible comparison (or admittedly the best one). Cities are filled with crony abuses when it comes to that too. it's another good example why people who are elected to manage city budgets shouldnt be allowed to make these kinds of deals. like i said, it's a mockery of representative govt.

cities aren't a market nor are artificially fudged with tax pools from those cities. this is pure cronyism, even if the net result is mutually beneficial. businesses getting so large they can literally demand changes to the tax code is a bad thing, imo. whether it's capitalism is arguable, i suppose, but it seems to be a related conversation to me, rather than a direct example of capitalism. there's too much more tied in

This post was edited by thesnipa on Oct 18 2018 11:21am

Business getting the best tax rate they can is their priority.

Sounds like your issue isnt with amazon then but with the states participating

It's both. On the one hand, government doing this kind of shit is at the root of the problem. On the other hand, like Snipa said, businesses getting so big that they can demand changes to the tax code is another problem. Although I'd give greater weight to the government side of the problem.

This situation is very similar to cities throwing hundreds of millions at sports franchise owners to build stadiums.

Hell, this deal is expected to be a $5 billion investment for Amazon, yet municipalities like Montgomery MD are throwing $8.5 Billion at Amazon to draw that $5 billion in. That's $3.5 billion that can't be put to other use (not counting the other $5 billion).

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hq2-cities-developers-economic-tax-incentives-2017-10

this, so so so so so much this. perfect example.

I just don't see how you blame Amazon at all under a Libertarian ideology. Isn't it expected that businesses would consolidate power to gain an advantage over other businesses? Isn't it their obligation to use their rights to increase profit?

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Oct 18 2018 11:48am

I'm not blaming Amazon under libertarian ideology. I'm blaming government for that.

I blame Amazon for perpetuating this cycle (which isn't necessarily under libertarian ideology, but I don't adhere to a perfect version of that to begin with).

This type of conversation is what PaRD should be most of the time (we do need some mockery mixed in).





I agree with a lot of what you're saying. The root of the problem is ability of a business to directly alter tax code for their business. Gov't shouldn't do this IMO. I don't blame Amazon for pursuing it, because they are a for profit business. A well crafted deal on HQ2 would be worth its weight in gold. The tax code shouldn't be so malleable to be bent at the whim's of fortune 100 companies.

This post was edited by djman72 on Oct 18 2018 12:32pm

No one even understands the tax code anymore in my country at least, it should be blanked out and rewritten with a much smaller scope and minimal deductions.

this has nothing to do with your country’s tax code

reported, btw

What is legal and what is moral are two different things.