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Comment by zaptheimpaler | Hacker News Reader

It is exploitative.

Any company founded in the US is going to use the resources US provides - roads, trade & economic power, the USPS, the talent pool etc for Amazon. When their success is built on that foundation, they owe it to the government (& taxpayers) to return the favor and show some goodwill.

Instead, taxpayers subsidize them when they're growing, then they want to cheat as much as legally possible on their taxes when they're grown up.

If you advocate letting Amazon get those tax breaks, yet yelling at the politicians who allow them, thats a basic mismatch between what you say and your revealed preferences. Don't blame politicians when they cater to those preferences.

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> exploitative

That isn't an appropriate word. Clearly, the City of NY, or whoever is negotiating with Amazon, is big enough not to be pushed around if they don't want to be. It is a negotiation.

It the political system is screwing over tax payers, that flat out isn't Amazon's problem. It is the voters' problem.

> When their success is built on that foundation, they owe it to the government (& taxpayers) to return the favor and show some goodwill.

The philosophical point of a corporation in a capitalist system is to create goods and services as cheaply as possible. In theory, it would be nice not to charge corporations any tax, to keep prices low, and only tax the income and capital gains of the owner as money flows out to them from the company.

I doubt that absolutist approach works in practice; the situation isn't simple enough and the capitalists would figure out some sort of creative accounting scheme to avoid the money ever making it to them (actually, pretty sure they already do that in America, since American corps usually don't pay dividends). But in theory corporate tax is just bad for everyone.

The City of New York and the executive of the City of New York are not one and the same.

The executive of the State in conjunction with the executive of the City tried to do an end-run around the City Council by using power in laws that people forgot existed. But this law required an approval from the State Legislature, which was not willing to grant it unconditionally. The political system is working as intended.

> then they want to cheat as much as legally possible on their taxes when they're grown up.

If it's legal, it isn't cheating...

Only if you believe there is no difference between whats legal and whats moral.

So why isn't your outrage with the government that adds tax incentives for businesses? It's like being pissed off at people who live in section 8 housing for not paying enough rent...

I do think the government giving preferential treatment to some businesses is anti competitive, didn't say otherwise.

That doesn't mean those who take advantage of unfair laws are completely absolved of blame either - they made a choice. You/grandparent seem to be saying businesses (and the real people who make these decisions) have zero responsibility to society besides what is legally forced upon them.

To put your logic back to you, if someone hacks your phone, steals all your data and blackmails you, you should be "outraged" only at the engineers who let the security vulnerability go through (i.e created the incentive), but not the hacker who is actually exploiting that vulnerability.

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