In the news

Bloke can't overtake legally on a single track road. Overtakes anyway, kills a man, pleads not guilty:

https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2018/11/13/man-who-denies-causing-cyclists-death-by-dangerous-driving-gives-evidence/

Man shoots gun at somone and kills them.

Pleads not guilty with the defense "I thought I'd miss him. It was a miscalculation."

It's not dangerous to attempt an illegal overtake, jury decides:

https://www.itv.com/news/border/update/2018-11-13/man-who-killed-elderly-cyclist-found-guilty-of-careless-driving/

Standard, depressing stuff.

absolutely appalling. the nra is merely an extension of white nationalism.

the irony being the only people with a legitimate reason to carry a firearm in the USA right now are young black males.

https://www.salon.com/2018/11/13/the-nra-doesnt-care-about-black-heroes-jemel-roberson-was-the-good-guy-with-a-gun/

Bloody hell that was a depressing read.

Arm everyone. Yeah, that'll work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/nyregion/amazon-long-island-city.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

amazon get $1.7bn in tax breaks grants and incentives to move hq

anyone using amazon for their xmas shopping should be ashamed of themselves, or for that matter using amazon at all

Or maybe the governments letting corporations peg them in the ass all day long should be ashamed of themselves? Fucking corporatocracy out there.

Or driving a Toyota or Mazda https://www.bna.com/new-alabama-tax-n57982088434/ , or using an Apple device https://qz.com/1280963/apples-new-campus-might-be-in-raleigh-north-carolina/ etc.

If places are offering these tax breaks companies are going to take them

What am I missing?

A major city bids to secure a business that will generate tax revenue and act as an economic stimulus.

Would anyone care if it a car manufacturer?

maybe you're missing the "$ 1.7bn handout " to the world second largest retailer bit

a company reknowned for underpaying its workers while paying its ceo billions each year

yup nothing to see here

Exactly. This approach means that you get different cities doing a race to the bottom, and the corporation being the only actual winner. If this whole 'tax break' shit wasn't possible that way in the first place, the HQ would still need to be somewhere, but the company wouldn't be saving $1.7bn.

and new york is a bit short of multinationals isn't it , they might have gone to a less wealthy city and spread the shit wages / love around a bit in an area that needs it more whilst paying an extra $1.7bn for the privilege

It's the US, the cities tend to be individual corporations. There's almost no guidance at the state or federal level to spread things out.

Which is exactly why you get this race to the bottom.

"$ 1.7bn handout "

Right, but when you read what that is compromised of the total figure is a clickbate headline.

A lot of that is effectively regeneration which will also act as an economic stimulus.

Also see Greenbank's point. They're in competition with all the other US cities from Austin to SF.

Look up Prof Galloway on youtube, basically he explains in an hour why Amazon/Apple/Google/Facebook kill competition.

Aside from all the other shit like not paying full tax and therefore not filling the pot their employees who DO pay full tax need (roads/schools don't fund themselves). It is of course legal, but it is also piss boiling.

Where's the threshold? Is $700m to the world's largest motor manufacturer (with profits ten times higher than Amazon's) OK?

Long Island is pretty grim still. I was there earlier this year and this is the area that Amazon is moving in to.

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Perhaps it could be related to worker conditions, you get $xM to setup here while providing living wage jobs and declaring sales/profits in territory?

You seem to be going down the 'everyone's at it' route, doesn't stop it being a problematic area.

Did you manage to get out of the financial sector or was it early retirement?

while small local shops are being squeezed out of existence with government demanding ever more in rates, council tax, rent etc and people demanding ever cheaper prices amazon are getting grants and handouts

and although they are gentrifying an area, a company worth nigh on a trillion dollars should be able to stand on it's own two feet, the economics may well work out for long island aswell but it's hugely wrong in my eyes, amazon probably would have made this expansion with or without the grants aid and subsidies

they city was a terrible place
wore me down, made me the bitter human husk that i am today, that and liverpool not winning the title obvs

retired 5 years ago and enjoying life, trying to bring it down from the outside via angry posts on numerous social media sites

Totally agree with the failure of monopoly-based-capitalism-on-steroids that Silicon Valley inevitably produces.

But as pointed out much of NYC is unbelievably shit and more akin to the developing world. Anything that invests in improving those shit bits is good - which from my reading is what the bulk of the money is going towards.

How much tax would they and their employees pay if they set up in Austin?

No, my view is that you're not going to stop it by complaining about the companies that are taking the rebates offered (arguably they have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders to take such deals).

If you want to stop it then the ire should be directed at the countries, states, cities, etc that are offering the rebates, not the companies accepting the deals.

do u evn east northport, brohamptons?