New York Mayor Bill de Blasio helped snag Amazon for his city. Yes, the long-awaited destination of Amazon’s HQ2 has been determined. Amazon is not putting all its eggs into the Queens borough, though: there’s another headquarters . . . to be placed near Washington, D.C.
The mayor seems quite proud of the deal.
I’ve not been de Blasio’s biggest fan; too often he sounds like a socialist. But this deal? It’s crony capitalism.
So it is with some satisfaction that I can make common cause with a self-professed socialist, newly-elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Claiming that her Bronx constituency is “outraged” by the Amazon announcement — I doubt that — she expressed her outrage at the “billion-dollar company” receiving “hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks.”
Exactly. No company, big or small, should get special treatment from a government.
Want to attract business? Make generally good business policy. Apply liberally, that is, equally.
Alas, the socialist-elect went on to complain that “our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less.”
Well, Amazon is investing in the community, providing jobs.
Then came the busybodyism, demanding to know, “What’s the quality of jobs + how many are promised? Are these jobs low-wage or high wage? Are there benefits? Can people collectively bargain?”
Uh, wages will be high enough to attract workers from their current employment or out of unemployment. And so on.
Socialists feel a need to meddle.
New Yorkers, anyway, can breathe easier knowing they sent Ocasio-Cortez far away, to D.C. — de Blasio as mayor being bad enough.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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