Amazon Should Stick to Capitalism and Avoid the Crony Game

[EasyAce]

Amazon should build its headquarters solely with its own money.
By Daniel J. Mitchell
https://fee.org/articles/amazon-should-stick-to-capitalism-and-avoid-the-crony-game/

I explained back in 2013 that there is a big difference between being pro-market and being pro-business.

Pro-market is a belief in genuine free enterprise, which means companies succeed or fail solely on the basis of whether they produce goods and services that consumers like.

Pro-business, by contrast, is a concept that opens the door to inefficient and corrupt cronyism, such as bailouts and subsidies.

It basically means big business and big government get in bed together. And that’s going to mean bad news for taxpayers and consumers . . .

. . . A report in the Washington Post reveals how states are engaged in a bidding war to attract Amazon’s big new facility, dubbed HQ2 . . .

. . . I’ve always wondered why courts haven’t rejected special deals for specific companies because of the equal-protection clause?

Then again, maybe I shouldn’t wonder. After all, the Supreme Court twisted itself into a pretzel to miraculously rationalize Obamacare.

But none of this changes the fact that it’s time to wean big business off corporate welfare.

[dfwgator]

Big Business doesn't like Free Enterprise.  They want to block out the competition any way they can,  and the best way is to get the ear of the powerful in DC to do their bidding.

[EasyAce]

Big Business doesn't like Free Enterprise.  They want to block out the competition any way they can,  and the best way is to get the ear of the powerful in DC to do their bidding.

@dfwgator
Just the way Whirlpool did.

[truth_seeker]

When a residential builder proposes a subdivision project to a municipal entity/jurisdiction the entity (town/city/county) usually requires dedications of land area, for roads, schools, parks etc. They also require permit fees, and perhaps others fees, too.

Jurisdictions may alter zoning, to make way for changing circumstances. Old inefficient/obsolete shopping strip malls, may get replaced by residential for example.

To lure businesses, jurisdictions have granted "tax holidays," on the assumption it will "work out for the better," in the longer run.

Jurisdictions have bid up total employee compensation in order to "protect" towns with the best employees. Pension schemes are locked in by law, beyond any realistic accounting of acual ability to pay, without huge general tax increases.

Other jurisdictions have likewise bid up their pay packages, too.

At the same time, these same jurisdictions have granted tax holidays.

Some day the piper will be arriving, for his due.

At present many cities/counties/districts are unable to pay the pensions, without some outside help or tax increases.

Government, lawyers and accountants will be hard at work crafting schemes to make things appear other than they really are.

I believe this will occur, long before earth's polarity reverse.

Your political leaders will assure you, they have the answer. The answer will be fair for all. It will require no sacrifice. Trust him, for he attends church, bible in hand.

[EasyAce]

Your political leaders will assure you, they have the answer. The answer will be fair for all. It will require no sacrifice. Trust him, for he attends church, bible in hand.

And anyone who believes that, I have a ballpark overlooking Coogan's Bluff that you can buy cheap. ;)

[truth_seeker]

And anyone who believes that, I have a ballpark overlooking Coogan's Bluff that you can buy cheap. ;)

There are cities standing in line to hand over free land for that ballpark, in order to bring it to the town.

BTW highly paid professional folk, make big bucks writing contracts, arranging financing, for deals between government and private enterprise.

Lawyers, accountants, brokers (financing instruments, real estate, etc..), appraisers, just to cite a few.

And the city has cheerleaders, including virtually all government employees, the Chambers of Commerce, other area businesses.

It is effectively the "model" upon which much of America is built.

But way at the top, there are exclusive communities which keep development out, so their gazillionarre residents don't have to look at 7-eleven whilst riding around the area in their Mercedes Benz station wagons (one or more at each of the homes they own).

--Montecieto, Rancho Sante Fe, various in Florida, Jackson Hole, 

[EasyAce]

There are cities standing in line to hand over free land for that ballpark, in order to bring it to the town.

Just so long as nobody even thinks about building it with, God help us, his own money . . .

(From your ancient history: When Robert Moses was New York's planning/building czar, he pronounced that there was no way anyone, no matter whom, would
ever again build a privately-owned ballpark in city or state as long as he had anything to say about it. Thus providing the push that sent the Brooklyn Dodgers and
the New York Giants west---the Dodgers, because owner Walter O'Malley refused to think about moving the team into a planned new stadium in Queens [If we
play in Queens, we won't be the Brooklyn Dodgers anymore] and was thwarted directly by Moses from building his planned new park in Flatbush; the Giants,
because owner Horace Stoneham couldn't afford to build a new park on his own, refused to think about public financing, and was never once invited by Moses
to think about moving into the coming Queens facility even though the Giants lacked the specific borough identification the Dodgers had. You may have heard of
that Queens facility-to-be: it opened in 1964, known as Shea Stadium.)