Seattle is not the Future of New York City. New York City existed and excelled as a city before Seattle ever did and will long after Seattle has destroyed itself. NYC is going to regret giving Bezos BILLIONS in dollars in tax breaks, but it won't break because of Amazon.

Ya, but when will amazon move to Havana?

This isn’t post-crash economy.

We’ve been doing this for decades (Microsoft).

"Ya, but when will amazon move to Havana?"

And ruin all that affordable housing?

Charles, I'd argue that the problem is that we're running out of useful work relative to our population.

We've become quite good at replacing physical labor with robots and other machinery, and we're making big strides in replacing white collar workers now, too.

Bidding to locate some the dwindling number of jobs likely to last another couple of decades in your area is probably as good of a plan as anyone will be able to implement.

This all reminds me of a friend who runs a screenprinting business. Occasionally someone calls inquiring about pricing, trying to get him to lower what he already quoted because "it's a really big order" with the promise of future orders. Reducing profit margins means increasing scale, and increasing scale requires a guaranteed long-term windfall. Thankfully, screenprinting is a niche market and if you want it done locally, you won't find shops—unlike municipalities—undercutting each other too deeply.

I hope these cities got the deal they think they did. Growing a city is massively expensive, expecting newcomers to pay the same taxes as everyone else should be a given. I wonder what could have been accomplished if a few of these mayors, in good faith, had gotten on the phone with each other.

@8 Google's been in NYC since 2011 (might actually be 2010). Expanding their presence in NYC is different than starting up there like Amazon is doing it.

~delete the last word of my prior post~

@8 oops, it was way earlier than that: "Google has cemented its status in New York since 2000, when a one-person ad-sales team began working out of a Starbucks on West 86th Street. Two years later, it had moved to an office in Times Square with around 70 employees before moving to its Chelsea offices at 111 Eighth Ave. in 2006."

Though I really can't believe NYC agreed to allowing Bezos to fly around NYC in a helicopter.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amazon-jeff-bezos-new-york-helipad_us_5beb2569e4b0caeec2bec952

@12 You really have a hard on for me. Do you come every time you write a comment about me? You and the NHL guy sure do have it bad. Must be so lonely you have to stalk a stranger that made ONE comment that got under your skin so badly. The fact that you create a new profile every time you want to harass me in a comment shows what a sad and pathetic life you must lead. i lived in NYC for 5 years. i also lived in Seattle for 5 years. I live in neither city now. I sure know what I'd do to you if I saw you face to face in my state, though. You would love it.

Well you do realize, don't you, it's also possible Seattle's future has just been lost to New York, Virginia, and Tennessee?

Bezos might try to stage an armed robbery of Seattle, King County, and Washington taxpayers for enormous tax concessions we won't be able to afford to give him. Since he has no personal stake in Seattle (look at the history of his non-presence in community issues) and now has other options, it's still possible Amazon could walk away when we can't meet excessive financial demands made in order for it to stay.

@14 Xina: do you really think "bring NHL to Seattle" and different-username-for-each-post troll @4/@12 are different people?

14

Wrong xina, it was multiple posts spread over a few months....not just one post.

16
Hate to spoil your conspiracy theory, but this is the only name I post under.

@17 I don't think you and the other guy are the same person. I do think you both have a disturbing fixation with me and other people posting here. Who has the time? Your constantly posting about me and others commenting on this forum is inexplicable. But it's your life (literally), right? LOL

You attack people on this forum constantly and you pretend that the rest of us have a problem. Look in the mirror dude. Your commenting history says way more about you than my comment history says about me (despite your insistence that I'm a mentally ill wanna be mass murderer). I mean, if you really believed I am a mentally ill wanna be mass murderer, why would you taunt me? Pretty sure the first people a mentally ill wanna be mass murderer would go after would be people like you.

You think you know me and who I am? You don't. You do not know anything about me. Nor do you know anything about people in my life or who they are. I am a a complete stranger to you. Yet you feel completely comfortable saying really nasty things to and about me and other people when you have no idea who they are. Are you brave (hint: NO). You are incredibly stupid, however.

I expect you'll have a lot to say as always, but I am done now. Rail on and on and on about me. Every post you write is really about you and how pathetic and fixated you are.

Bye Felicia.

So is that a yes or no to killing all whites?

Maybe Charles needs to notice his source is contradicting herself?

“...housing advocates worry that the tech giant’s arrival will exacerbate existing inequalities in the region...”

“...Crystal City has never been known as a real estate buying opportunity.”

They’re running out of something nobody wants!!

Please continue to lecture us on your deep understanding of economics, Charles.

First of all, stupid headline. New York and Washington D. C. are huge. They can swallow and spit out Amazon without noticing.

Second of all, you are absolutely right. It is ridiculous that cities, or any government agency, is allowed to entice companies to locate there. It is, essentially, what is made illegal with trade agreements. You can't have a tariff on foreign goods, or subsidize your own goods. Yet tax subsidies are perfectly legal. It is the type of shit that should be made illegal under an FDR type Democrat, who knows her way around such shenanigans (someone like Warren would end that shit, toot-sweet).

Finally, you need to differentiate between federal governments (who can run a deficit and print their own money) and state or city governments (who can do neither). It is crazy to run a deficit right now, but it is not crazy to spend more money. You simply tax more. Likewise, Seattle should probably be spending more and taxing more right now. But once the recession hits, neither the federal nor local governments should be taxing more. The federal government though, should spend like crazy. We didn't spend like crazy during the Great Recession because Republicans convinced stupid ass Americans that deficits were important at precisely the wrong time. I still remember listening to NPR (supposedly the media of choice for smart people). A Japanese economist explained to the veteran journalist why the U. S. should spend way more money. The NPR interviewer was shocked, and explained that conventional wisdom (meaning all those Republicans in Washington) said that would be a bad thing, while the Japanese economist explained (in his second language) that conventional wisdom is that we should spend shitloads more. That means trillions of dollars. On stuff. It doesn't really matter what, but it would likely be better in the long run if spent it on things that have lasting impact (roads, subways, sewer systems, schools, a healthy populous). Deficits are good -- at the right time. Eight years ago was a great time for deficits. Now, not so much.

Outrage articles like these always leave me scratching my head. Claims like "Do the math. New Yorkers are paying $65k per job created. We’re effectively paying their future workers for them." are completely backwards.

Tax breaks/incentives is the thief stealing less money from its victim. These governments aren't giving amazon money, they are simply stealing less from Amazon.