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One potential reason to prefer Amazon over Microsoft and Boeing here is that Amazon is majority in Seattle proper, while the vast majority of Microsoft and Boei
by y2bd 6y ago
One potential reason to prefer Amazon over Microsoft and Boeing here is that Amazon is majority in Seattle proper, while the vast majority of Microsoft and Boeing are outside of the city (e.g. Redmond, Bellevue).
- philwelch 6y agoAnd if the city tries to “soak” Amazon too much, they will move outside of the city, too.
- intopieces 6y agoWhen has a tech company ever left a city due to taxes? As far as I can tell, sky high taxes haven't impacted the Bay Area one bit.
- philwelch 6y agoI don’t think Amazon would leave the Seattle area entirely, just the city limits. And not even SF has imposed the level of taxation Seattle’s local socialist movement keeps trying to impose on Amazon. (NB: I’m not using “socialist” as a slur; Seattle has an actual socialist movement with one council member openly affiliating with the “Socialist Alternative Party”).
- ironmagma 6y agoSure, but Amazon can probably afford it seeing as how they pay $0 in federal income tax unlike a lot of other companies including those in the Bay Area.
- philwelch 6y agoAmazon pays $0 in federal income tax because they reinvest all of their profits into their own growth. Most of the tech industry does the same thing. They "can afford" a lot of things, sure. But at some point it won't be cost-effective for them anymore, and I suspect they will reach that point long before the demagogues of Seattle's extreme left reach the limit of how much they want to extract from Amazon's coffers.
- ironmagma 6y agoThe fact that the Amazon executives are extraordinarily well paid seems to contradict that claim. Besides, saying there is “some point” at which the tax is too much is the same as saying “they don’t have infinite money.” Of course; no company does. Amazon has a limit to what it can pay in taxes, but the point is it’s nowhere near $0.
- philwelch 6y ago> The fact that the Amazon executives are extraordinarily well paid seems to contradict that claim. Tell you what: you go and do a better job than Amazon of growing a large scale business year after year by paying executives less and maybe then your opinion will be worth something.
- ironmagma 6y agoThe funny thing about your comment is that it presumes we are talking about opinion, when really it’s just a logical progression. Unless you can see a valid counterargument besides one that employs a logical fallacy [1]. [1] https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-to-False-Authority https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-...