Jeff Bezo's Amazon shows the True nature of the Rich Liberal

[1prophet]

Amazon puts Seattle expansion on pause over tax proposal

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/03...m_recirculation&spotim_referrer=recirculation

Amazon is extremely unhappy over a Seattle tax proposal that would set it back between $20 to $30 million a year that it halted its major expansion plans in its home city. According to The New York Times, the e-commerce giant has put the construction planning of a building it was going to build downtown later this year on pause. It's also reconsidering its plans to occupy a building that's already being built -- both of those decisions jeopardize 7,000 jobs in Seattle.

The city's tax proposal would charge employers in Seattle that make $20 million or more annually in taxable gross receipts -- and we all know Amazon makes a lot more than that -- $500 per employee. Seattle's goal is to raise $75 million from taxes, three-fourths of which will be used to build 1,800 affordable housing units in the city. Authorities will then use the rest to fund services for the homeless. Spokesperson Drew Herdener said Amazon has halted all construction planning "pending the outcome of the head tax vote by City Council."

According to city council member Mike O'Brien, Amazon didn't leave room for discussion when it informed the local government that it's putting all its construction plans on hold. It simply told them what it was going to do. The tech titan has been lobbying behind the scenes against the proposal for quite some time, likely because the $500-per-head tax would transform into a payroll tax by 2021 and could cost the company significantly more than $20 to $30 million. Besides, various locations across the US had already offered it tax breaks to become the site of its second headquarters.

If it decides to back the proposal and pay those taxes, though, we doubt $20 to $30 million would hurt the company deeply. It reported $51 billion in sales for the first quarter of 2018, 43 percent more than the same period last year. Amazon chief Jeff Bezos himself is worth $131 billion and spends $1 billion a year on his private space endeavor Blue Origin.

Council member O'Brien pointed out that while Amazon isn't solely to blame for the increasing homelessness in the city, the company and Seattle's booming tech industry as a whole are driving up costs of living and driving people out of their homes. Based on an annual report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2017, Seattle now has the third largest homeless population in the country after New York and Los Angeles. City officials are struggling to find a balance, and they believe this tax proposal is the answer. "I need to run a city that has room for prosperous businesses," O'Brien said, "but doesn't do it at the expense of people getting pushed into poverty."

They are anti-Trump, support the latest Social Justice Issue while pointing the finger at those evil conservatives, just don't touch their money because if you try they will get all Koch on you,

and people, especially our naive liberals, believe that the real rich including many of the pretend liberal types they love so much are going to let you tax their income for the benefit of society whether it's for taking care of the homeless today or that future fantasy called basic income they love to harp about,

you will have better luck riding the unicorn over the rainbow to that magical pot of gold.

 

[Phokus]

Jeff Bezos is more of an Ayn Randian than a 'liberal'.

 

[TheVrolok]

Jeff Bezos is more of an Ayn Randian than a 'liberal'.

Anything other than batshit is apparently librul these days

 

[Zorba]

Amazon puts Seattle expansion on pause over tax proposal

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/03...m_recirculation&spotim_referrer=recirculation



They are anti-Trump, support the latest Social Justice Issue while pointing the finger at those evil conservatives, just don't touch their money because if you try they will get all Koch on you,

and people, especially our naive liberals, believe that the real rich including many of the pretend liberal types they love so much are going to let you tax their income for the benefit of society whether it's for taking care of the homeless today or that future fantasy called basic income they love to harp about,

you will have better luck riding the unicorn over the rainbow to that magical pot of gold.

Bezo's is a libertarian. Like all libertarians, he is also a massive hypocrite. But he is definitely not a liberal.

 

[UberNeuman]

Is it? Could it be? A Thread Backfire!?!

/stay tuned, same Batshit time, same Batshit channel.

lol.

 

[Jaskalas]

If you want to help the poor and the homeless you enact Basic Income, and buy up / construct affordable housing that is rented out at $333/mo.

As for Amazon, I couldn't really care where they choose to build. Of course they'll try to skirt taxes. As a public company it is their legal fiduciary duty to do this for their share holders. Can't blame them for what they are bound by law to do. It's up to the public to come up with a better revenue solution that is business friendly.

 

[ivwshane]

If you want to help the poor and the homeless you enact Basic Income, and buy up / construct affordable housing that is rented out at $333/mo.

As for Amazon, I couldn't really care where they choose to build. Of course they'll try to skirt taxes. As a public company it is their legal fiduciary duty to do this for their share holders. Can't blame them for what they are bound by law to do. It's up to the public to come up with a better revenue solution that is business friendly.

Please stop with that bullshit. Every few years people bring up that it's a companies fiduciary duty to "skirt taxes" or "maximize profit", this is simply not true. The only duty a company has to its share holders is to do what's best for the company, period. Sometimes that means maximizing profit and other times it doesn't.

 

[Indus]

Lmao if bezos is a liberal, I'm a trumper!

 

[nickqt]

Amazon puts Seattle expansion on pause over tax proposal

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/03...m_recirculation&spotim_referrer=recirculation



They are anti-Trump, support the latest Social Justice Issue while pointing the finger at those evil conservatives, just don't touch their money because if you try they will get all Koch on you,

and people, especially our naive liberals, believe that the real rich including many of the pretend liberal types they love so much are going to let you tax their income for the benefit of society whether it's for taking care of the homeless today or that future fantasy called basic income they love to harp about,

you will have better luck riding the unicorn over the rainbow to that magical pot of gold.

In conservative reality, if you aren't an outright right-wing authoritarian, you're a libruul.

 

[Jaskalas]

Please stop with that bullshit. Every few years people bring up that it's a companies fiduciary duty to "skirt taxes" or "maximize profit", this is simply not true. The only duty a company has to its share holders is to do what's best for the company, period. Sometimes that means maximizing profit and other times it doesn't.

Why would it be in the shareholder's interests for Amazon to pay those specific taxes if they have an option not to?

 

[Paladin3]

Someone explain this to my like I'm stupid, because I am. How does providing jobs push people into poverty or homelessness? Would it be better if everyone was poor and needed section 8 housing? Is keeping people poor so they can't afford homes a valid plan for driving home prices down?

 

[rommelrommel]

Someone explain this to my like I'm stupid, because I am. How does providing jobs push people into poverty or homelessness? Would it be better if everyone was poor and needed section 8 housing? Is keeping people poor so they can't afford homes a valid plan for driving home prices down?

It’s not an argument against providing good jobs, but when you move people into a city and pay them well above average, that drives up housing and other expenses resulting in some people at the bottom losing their access to housing and such.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Is it? Could it be? A Thread Backfire!?!

/stay tuned, same Batshit time, same Batshit channel.

lol.

I was trying to read that when I slipped and fell on some bat guano. Really though this rift between the haves and have nots has been around since the beginning only now there is an enabler at the top that is trying to give the haves more than ever.

 

[brycejones]

and people, especially our naive liberals, believe that the real rich including many of the pretend liberal types they love so much are going to let you tax their income for the benefit of society .

This is kind of bull shit. Are you waiting for it to trickle down?

 

[fskimospy]

Someone explain this to my like I'm stupid, because I am. How does providing jobs push people into poverty or homelessness? Would it be better if everyone was poor and needed section 8 housing? Is keeping people poor so they can't afford homes a valid plan for driving home prices down?

It’s a truly insane argument that has eaten a lot of people’s brains in recent years. Basically the idea is that good jobs mean a bunch of new high wage people in town who will bid up rents. This is true, but very dumb, because if you have a housing shortage you can always just build more houses. Those high wage people also pay a lot of taxes which you can use to upgrade your infrastructure, build more affordable housing, etc.

It all stems from a refusal to undertake common sense housing policy.

 

[pmv]

This is just about semantics, and in particular the fact that the word 'liberal' is almost meaningless.

The guy may be a libertarian, but libertarians are a sub-type of liberal. Liberal is such a wide category that it's almost a useless concept.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Please stop with that bullshit. Every few years people bring up that it's a companies fiduciary duty to "skirt taxes" or "maximize profit", this is simply not true. The only duty a company has to its share holders is to do what's best for the company, period. Sometimes that means maximizing profit and other times it doesn't.

Lol wut? No shareholder of Amazon is going to look at the income state,Mets and with Amazon paid more on the liability side.

 

[Phokus]

This is just about semantics, and in particular the fact that the word 'liberal' is almost meaningless.

The guy may be a libertarian, but libertarians are a sub-type of liberal. Liberal is such a wide category that it's almost a useless concept.

Libertarians are under the umbrella of the Republican party for the most part. See Ron and Rand Paul.

 

[ivwshane]

Lol wut? No shareholder of Amazon is going to look at the income state,Mets and with Amazon paid more on the liability side.

I have no idea what you are saying.

 

[KB]

Although its nothing to Amazon, its Not surprising. They can pay the 30 million in seattle or they can build that building in another state and get 30 million in tax credits. Its a no brainer.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Bezo's is a libertarian. Like all libertarians, he is also a massive hypocrite. But he is definitely not a liberal.

WAPO coined the term liberaltarian to describe Bezos...a socially progressive libertarian.

It all stems from a refusal to undertake common sense housing policy.

Yes it does. We are moving towards a world of insanely low cost prefabricated and autonomously assembled housing that are net zero in terms of environmental impact, and yet who will be the ones putting up obstacles to prevent high density low income housing in their neighborhoods? I suppose we could just build them on superfund sites like they do in San Francisco.

 

[UglyCasanova]

I have no idea what you are saying.

Damn autocorrect killed me there.

No shareholder of Amazon is going to look at the income statements and wish Amazon paid more on the liability side.

 

[Phokus]

WAPO coined the term liberaltarian to describe Bezos...a socially progressive libertarian.

Yes it does. We are moving towards a world of insanely low cost prefabricated and autonomously assembled housing that are net zero in terms of environmental impact, and yet who will be the ones putting up obstacles to prevent high density low income housing in their neighborhoods? I suppose we could just build them on superfund sites like they do in San Francisco.

They can coin any term they want for him, he treats his workers like absolute shit, like a standard capitalist, republican, or libertarian

 

[UglyCasanova]

WAPO coined the term liberaltarian to describe Bezos...a socially progressive libertarian..

Weird stance to have.

 

[ivwshane]

Damn autocorrect killed me there.

No shareholder of Amazon is going to look at the income statements and wish Amazon paid more on the liability side.

Of course! But that doesn't change the fact that a company isn't legally required to maximize profit for the shareholders benefit.