Hacker News Reader

A more general question: shouldn't such tax breaks simply be illegal?

And another question: aren't such tax breaks already illegal, if you view them as selective (anti-competitive) government subsidies?

View on HN

I wouldn't argue that tax breaks should be "illegal", but rather be proportional to the marginal utility that the company brings to the city (job market, investment, spending, etc) and inversely proportional to the marginal cost that the company brings to the city (infrastructure spending, housing, over-burdening of existing city resources).

They should be.

It would be absurd for a city to give an income tax break to a billionaire for moving in (but I will boost the economy by buying lots of stuff and hiring staff to serve me!).

So why is it different for big business?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com