<story><title>Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/nyregion/amazon-hq2-queens.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sokoloff</author><text>If that’s the case, why would the NY politicians put that money on the table? They did so voluntarily.</text></item><item><author>lkrubner</author><text>This is incorrect:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;that otherwise wouldn&amp;#x27;t be paid at all&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The opposite is true, 100% of those taxes will be paid by some other business. Maybe you could make your argument about the New York City of the 1970s, but you sure as heck can not make that argument about the New York City of 2019. New York City is not starving for investment, rather, its biggest challenge nowadays is managing its fast growth. Other businesses will move into those buildings, and hire those workers, and they will pay normal taxes, which is a lot more than what Amazon offered.</text></item><item><author>koheripbal</author><text>A &amp;quot;tax break&amp;quot; is just a reduction in taxes that otherwise wouldn&amp;#x27;t be paid &lt;i&gt;at all&lt;/i&gt;.  It still means a profit for the city.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not like NYC is &lt;i&gt;paying&lt;/i&gt; Amazon to come to NYC.  NYC would still make huge tax revenues from additional sales, real estate, income taxes, and corporate taxes.&lt;p&gt;Now they&amp;#x27;re turning that all away.  It&amp;#x27;s such an irrational decision that if I were Amazon, it would raise a big red flag for me as well.&lt;p&gt;No need to open in a community that doesn&amp;#x27;t want your money.</text></item><item><author>tytso</author><text>The opposition is not because some high tech firm, whether it is Google or Amazon, is expanding in NYC.&lt;p&gt;The opposition is because of the Massive tax breaks and other $$$ giveaways New York was going to hand over to Amazon.  I don&amp;#x27;t recall Google extorting NYC for $$$ before they decided to expand....</text></item><item><author>zelias</author><text>If Amazon had just quietly announced plans to expand to LIC without the &amp;quot;HQ2 Search&amp;quot; dog and pony show they almost certainly would still be here.&lt;p&gt;Google buys entire city blocks and nobody bats an eye. Turns out that publicly shaking down cities across the US tends to draw out the opposition.&lt;p&gt;More publicity = more scrutiny = more angry opponents of your business decision</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lkrubner</author><text>The obvious answer is what is commonly called the inertia of dead ideas. Leaders grow up in one era but take power in the next era and they often bring along with them ideas that are 20 years out of date. Military historians joke “generals are always ready to fight the last war” and political leaders make mistakes of the same category. Offering billions in tax breaks to lure businesses is the kind of thing New York might have sensibly done in the 1980s when they were desperate to replace the loss of the textile industry. Such a strategy makes no sense in 2019, when an abundance of investment has clearly replaced the lost industries.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/nyregion/amazon-hq2-queens.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sokoloff</author><text>If that’s the case, why would the NY politicians put that money on the table? They did so voluntarily.</text></item><item><author>lkrubner</author><text>This is incorrect:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;that otherwise wouldn&amp;#x27;t be paid at all&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The opposite is true, 100% of those taxes will be paid by some other business. Maybe you could make your argument about the New York City of the 1970s, but you sure as heck can not make that argument about the New York City of 2019. New York City is not starving for investment, rather, its biggest challenge nowadays is managing its fast growth. Other businesses will move into those buildings, and hire those workers, and they will pay normal taxes, which is a lot more than what Amazon offered.</text></item><item><author>koheripbal</author><text>A &amp;quot;tax break&amp;quot; is just a reduction in taxes that otherwise wouldn&amp;#x27;t be paid &lt;i&gt;at all&lt;/i&gt;.  It still means a profit for the city.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not like NYC is &lt;i&gt;paying&lt;/i&gt; Amazon to come to NYC.  NYC would still make huge tax revenues from additional sales, real estate, income taxes, and corporate taxes.&lt;p&gt;Now they&amp;#x27;re turning that all away.  It&amp;#x27;s such an irrational decision that if I were Amazon, it would raise a big red flag for me as well.&lt;p&gt;No need to open in a community that doesn&amp;#x27;t want your money.</text></item><item><author>tytso</author><text>The opposition is not because some high tech firm, whether it is Google or Amazon, is expanding in NYC.&lt;p&gt;The opposition is because of the Massive tax breaks and other $$$ giveaways New York was going to hand over to Amazon.  I don&amp;#x27;t recall Google extorting NYC for $$$ before they decided to expand....</text></item><item><author>zelias</author><text>If Amazon had just quietly announced plans to expand to LIC without the &amp;quot;HQ2 Search&amp;quot; dog and pony show they almost certainly would still be here.&lt;p&gt;Google buys entire city blocks and nobody bats an eye. Turns out that publicly shaking down cities across the US tends to draw out the opposition.&lt;p&gt;More publicity = more scrutiny = more angry opponents of your business decision</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>leroy_masochist</author><text>Because it made them look like they were doing their jobs by making a big, important deal? These are politicians we&amp;#x27;re talking about</text></comment>