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itsgreater9000 t1_jdwoy55 wrote

Reply to comment by BatExisting325 in Is there any way to find out what kind of subsidies/considerations Amazon received for the warehouses and half built Amazon Freshes that are sitting empty all over the state? by Happy_rich_mane

i don't think this is shady necessarily, just really, really miscalculated. i feel like the MO of tech companies is to dump a bunch of cash on some moonshot thing, find out a year or two in it probably wasn't worth it, and then just cut it/leave it in disrepair. thats the feeling im getting from this situation.

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Happy_rich_mane OP t1_jdwrvwf wrote

I agree from a purely business perspective it’s not so much shady as it is ill advised and gluttonous. I look at it more from a public good perspective in that this happens and has happened everywhere all the time forever. Companies promise jobs and investment but local governments fail to negotiate firm commitments and these benefits don’t materialize, leaving the communities with less resources, less competition, and the lost opportunity of these locations being used productively.

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itsgreater9000 t1_jdye8y2 wrote

oh, i absolutely agree. i just think in this case it's not explicitly malice, although i could be convinced otherwise. i DO think that the way tech companies are run are somewhere between stupid and malicious, still not sure on which side of the line they're on yet. but i doubt there's any corruption happening at a large scale.

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Happy_rich_mane OP t1_jdyhf7n wrote

You mean other than the systemic corruption of the monied interests backing these companies who control our political system.

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itsgreater9000 t1_jdyiggn wrote

right. i'm talking, some low level government official that handles building permits getting handed a bag of money with a big $ symbol on it while a corporate exec twirls his mustache type of corruption

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Happy_rich_mane OP t1_jdym4vd wrote

For sure. We’re definitely in the second Gilded Age but the robber barons don’t wear monocles anymore. I think a lot of it comes down to the misalignment of power where a business like Amazon is able to lobby and dictate the terms of contracts while providing very little in concrete guarantees to these local governments.

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