4 ms·

This entire competition was an obvious sham to try to equivocate really desperate cities willing to give basically anything to have a major tech company headqua

by throwaway2048 8y ago

This entire competition was an obvious sham to try to equivocate really desperate cities willing to give basically anything to have a major tech company headquarters, to the inevitable choice amazon was going to make of california or the coastal northeast, so they could extract maximum concessions. Its disgusting this worked as well as it did, $48k/job in tax concessions from NYC and $22k/job from VA, expect to see a lot more of this in the future. Hopefully governments wake up and realize its a race to the bottom that advantages megacorps to such a point that having them is barely worth it, while at the same time hurting local businesses. EDIT: the tax deductions are one time, not per year, i mixed that up.

differentView 8y ago
What do you mean by "hurting local businesses"? Wouldn't more highly paid workers in the area be good for local businesses?
- dannyr 8y ago
  Tell that to San Francisco where it gave Twitter tax break to be located in mid-Market. It didn't revitalize that neighborhood like the city was hoping for.
- TuringNYC 8y ago
  I was similarly confused by this...its not like its a Walmart superstore undurcutting the local mom-n-pop shop. That said, perhaps the fear is "over-cutting" -- that HQ2 slurps up top talent from local tech businesses and overbids salaries. I can totally see that happening, especially with the only-handful of truly high-tech businesses in the Northern Virginia community. This is a bad thing short term and a good thing long term.
  - slededit 8y ago
    They are quite literally the WalMart of the web. Although that sort of damage has already been done.
- throwaway2048 8y ago
  Small and medium businesses don't have the political clout to demand sweetheart deals like this, so they are at a disadvantage for both talent, and industry competition if applicable. If you give so much away, the tax benefits cease existing.
cthalupa 8y ago
>$48k/job/y in tax concessions from NYC and $22k/job/y One of us is misunderstanding this - I am understanding it as 48k/job and 22k/job, not per year. 48,000*25,000 = 1.2 bil, if it was every year for 10 years, it would be 12 bil.

differentView 8y ago

What do you mean by "hurting local businesses"? Wouldn't more highly paid workers in the area be good for local businesses?

dannyr 8y ago
Tell that to San Francisco where it gave Twitter tax break to be located in mid-Market. It didn't revitalize that neighborhood like the city was hoping for.
TuringNYC 8y ago
I was similarly confused by this...its not like its a Walmart superstore undurcutting the local mom-n-pop shop. That said, perhaps the fear is "over-cutting" -- that HQ2 slurps up top talent from local tech businesses and overbids salaries. I can totally see that happening, especially with the only-handful of truly high-tech businesses in the Northern Virginia community. This is a bad thing short term and a good thing long term.
- slededit 8y ago
  They are quite literally the WalMart of the web. Although that sort of damage has already been done.
throwaway2048 8y ago
Small and medium businesses don't have the political clout to demand sweetheart deals like this, so they are at a disadvantage for both talent, and industry competition if applicable. If you give so much away, the tax benefits cease existing.

cthalupa 8y ago

>$48k/job/y in tax concessions from NYC and $22k/job/y One of us is misunderstanding this - I am understanding it as 48k/job and 22k/job, not per year. 48,000*25,000 = 1.2 bil, if it was every year for 10 years, it would be 12 bil.