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Comment by eksemplar | Hacker News Reader

Companies are important to cities, and that means they get privileges. Maybe that’s not fair, but a company with a few thousand employees will pay for quite a few things through income taxes.

All those employees will also bolster the community with purchases and what not.

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What about existing companies? What about the plethora of small businesses in them? Do they get incentives? After all, they are the majority of the workforce. It’s absurd that large businesses get to use our resources and pay less than small companies, as though our markets weren’t distorted enough.

Totally agree. Existing businesses get screwed over to get some shiny big company in. I think part of the problem is media coverage: You don't hear much about 1000 companies with 10 people each but there is a lot of news in a facility with 10000 people and a famous company name. Although I'd argue that the 1000 small companies are much better for for the area.

Small companies also aren't shipping 25,000 people in from all around the country or world to displace your family and friends by raising rent and living costs hundreds of percent. The incentives are given so that already rich individuals get even more rich; so already rich property owners get to drown in profits while the poor and lower middle classes struggle and are segregated out of their cities.

Incentives for small local community buisnesses that care about your community should be a higher priority for all Americans.

If there is one aspect of populism I agree with, it's this. Existing small businesses get nowhere near the level of policy protection and corporate welfare multinationals do.

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