the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Dec 10, 2018
After running a year-long competition, pitting one city or state against the other, Amazon announced in mid-November that they chose New York’s Long Island City and Virginia’s Arlington as Amazon’s second headquarters. So, Amazon now has three headquarters: one in Seattle, one in New York, and one in Virginia.
If you are wondering why Amazon has three headquarters instead of one, the simple answer is that these headquarters come for free to Amazon since they are built by taxpayer money. That is, the workers are funding the Amazon’s headquarters, not Santa Claus!
Amazon says that New York and Virginia locations each will receive a $2.5 billion investment from Amazon. But, in reality, Amazon will profit by getting kick-backs or so-called “incentives” from the states and cities.
For example, New York State will give Amazon 1.5 billion dollars in employment tax credits, plus another 325-million-dollar tax credit for the size of the land that will be occupied by Amazon offices. New York City will provide a job creation tax credit of 897 million dollars over 12 years, plus a partial property tax abatement of 386 million dollars over 25 years. Thus, New York City and State will give Amazon over three billion dollars.
So, Amazon will gain over half a billion dollars just by building a so-called headquarters in New York!