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They could pay taxes and we could, as a nation, decide how best to coordinate efforts to fight climate change.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago
> They could pay taxes It's false to claim that Amazon doesn't pay their taxes. Amazon pays taxes on profits according to the tax law, just like every other company. Amazon employees pay taxes on their paychecks, just like every other company's employees. Amazon's customers pay taxes on their purchases, just like customers of every other company's customers. Amazon generates a lot of tax revenue. > and we could, as a nation, decide how best to coordinate efforts to fight climate change Like I said: Amazon's climate change actions are not mutually exclusive with government initiatives to combat climate change. It's a false dichotomy, not to mention specious argument, to suggest that Amazon's $2B investment in climate change is somehow preventing the government from also investing in climate change intitiatives.
Grimm1 6y ago
I don't trust the nation to coordinate tying shoes much less fighting climate change. Our federal system is broken and our populace is generally ignorant on scientific matters relying on it to bring sweeping changes at this point in time would be a critical misstep. I think the best think individuals can do at the moment is vote to bring in new blood on both sides of the aisle, subsequently vote reform on local levels and for education reform then wait a decade or two and then vote to reform our federal systems. In the meantime backing long term thinking companies and boycotting bad acting companies because the private sector is going to have to shoulder the fight until we fix the government. In the meantime
dave5104 6y ago
Are you implying that Amazon is not paying the taxes they're legally required to? If not, then I don't think the problem is solved by saying they "could pay taxes" since they already are, but rather that the government could be levying more taxes on businesses like Amazon.
thinkharderdev 6y ago
This is an odd position to take given that, as a nation, we have failed spectacularly to address climate change in any way whatsoever. Will Amazon paying more in taxes substantially change the political economy of climate legislation somehow?

> They could pay taxes It's false to claim that Amazon doesn't pay their taxes. Amazon pays taxes on profits according to the tax law, just like every other company. Amazon employees pay taxes on their paychecks, just like every other company's employees. Amazon's customers pay taxes on their purchases, just like customers of every other company's customers. Amazon generates a lot of tax revenue. > and we could, as a nation, decide how best to coordinate efforts to fight climate change Like I said: Amazon's climate change actions are not mutually exclusive with government initiatives to combat climate change. It's a false dichotomy, not to mention specious argument, to suggest that Amazon's $2B investment in climate change is somehow preventing the government from also investing in climate change intitiatives.

Grimm1 6y ago

I don't trust the nation to coordinate tying shoes much less fighting climate change. Our federal system is broken and our populace is generally ignorant on scientific matters relying on it to bring sweeping changes at this point in time would be a critical misstep. I think the best think individuals can do at the moment is vote to bring in new blood on both sides of the aisle, subsequently vote reform on local levels and for education reform then wait a decade or two and then vote to reform our federal systems. In the meantime backing long term thinking companies and boycotting bad acting companies because the private sector is going to have to shoulder the fight until we fix the government. In the meantime

dave5104 6y ago

Are you implying that Amazon is not paying the taxes they're legally required to? If not, then I don't think the problem is solved by saying they "could pay taxes" since they already are, but rather that the government could be levying more taxes on businesses like Amazon.

thinkharderdev 6y ago

This is an odd position to take given that, as a nation, we have failed spectacularly to address climate change in any way whatsoever. Will Amazon paying more in taxes substantially change the political economy of climate legislation somehow?