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Comment by trikonasana | Hacker News Reader

That seems to be the popular opinion (that this is Amazon's fault) but I disagree. Amazon coming to LIC would have been a net benefit for everyone. 25k jobs that pay a minimum wage of $15/hour...who would reject that? Sure they get a $3b tax break, but they would have paid far more than that in state taxes over the long term. The people on the city council did not represent the the best interest of the citizens, instead trying to spin this as a stand against corporate greed. It's too bad they couldn't work this out. I think this will hurt NYC in the long run.

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>"The people on the city council did not represent the the best interest of the citizens, instead trying to spin this as a stand against corporate greed."

It sounds as that you haven't spent any amount of time in Long Island City then. LIC is is home to the NYCHA housing project called The Queensbridge Houses. It has the distinction of being the country’s largest public housing project[1]. It comprises 26 buildings in various states of decay and 60% of 7K residents live on food stamps. I would say Corey Johnson et al were very much looking out for them. This is the same NYCHA that was sued by the federal government last year and ordered to invest $1 billion in repairs to the dilapidated housing stock and submit to a federal monitor.[2]. LIC's Queensbridge Houses have been very much a poster child for authority's dereliction.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensbridge_Houses [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/nyregion/nycha-federal-mo...

How much did amazon pay in federal and state taxes in 2017 or 2018?

Even if Amazon paid no corporate income tax at all, their 25,000 employees would still be paying many millions of dollars a year in state and local income taxes, real estate taxes and sales taxes. And both Amazon and its employees would be buying lots of goods and services from local businesses, generating even more taxable economic activity.

Some of these employees might even eventually leave Amazon and found new startups in NYC.

Massive amounts. Whoops, I think you forgot to qualify your statement with "corporate income tax".

> Amazon coming to LIC would have been a net benefit for everyone.

Only in NYC, if you average over the whole country, far more poeple benefit if amazon don't get massive unfair tax breaks.

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