This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday.
The initial reactions to Amazon’s abandonment of New York tended to involve fairly narrow questions, like how it would affect New York or affect Amazon. And I understand why. Those are important issues.
But they’re not the only issues that matter here. They’re not even the biggest issues.
In my column this morning, I argue that the rest of the country owes New York a big thank you. The handouts that cities and states have been strong-armed into giving to corporations over the past few decades are a terrible bit of economic policy. They do nothing to raise the nation’s economic growth rate. They mostly redistribute income upward, from taxpayers to big shareholders.
[Listen to “The Argument” podcast every Thursday morning, with Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt.]
I agree with the critics (including my colleagues on The Times Editorial Board) who say that New York would probably have benefited from Amazon’s presence in Queens. But I keep thinking about the larger principle here. If every city agrees to give billion-dollar handouts to companies, in the name of that city’s short-term interests, those handouts will never end.
Other perspectives
Joe Nocera, in Bloomberg Opinion, faults Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not doing a better job of selling the deal: “Assuming they didn’t need to do anything further after cutting the deal itself, Cuomo and de Blasio made no effort to organize Amazon’s local supporters, who were actually in the majority.”
In The New York Daily News, Hector Figueroa — a union leader — writes that New York had to offer overly generous tax subsidies to attract Amazon. But the company’s arrival, he says, would have signaled that New York’s mix of “strong unions, smart regulation and progressive taxation are not an impediment to growth.”
In The Times, Amy Liu of Brookings writes that Northern Virginia’s Amazon deal shows how public officials can be better stewards of the public interest: “As in New York, residents in Northern Virginia have expressed concerns around housing affordability and how local residents will benefit. Yet Virginia’s approach has muted the criticism.”
Zachary Karabell, in Wired, predicts that Amazon will one day regret its decision. “As rising populism places both billionaires and mega-tech companies in an unfriendly spotlight, Amazon’s refusal to engage its opponents and address legitimate concerns head on suggests that it, like most tech behemoths, remains unprepared for a storm of regulation, antitrust questions, and public distrust built of animus to everything from privacy issues to wealth concentration.”
Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, argues that the impact of the deal’s cancellation will be negligible to both parties: “It is more likely that neither the city’s nor the company’s economic trajectory will be materially altered.” To me, that’s another reason to take some comfort in the deal’s collapse.
For more, see the recent Times Op-Eds by Mayor De Blasio, Kara Swisher and Bryce Covert.
If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe here. You can also join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and Facebook.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
David Leonhardt is a former Washington bureau chief for the Times, and was the founding editor of The Upshot and head of The 2020 Project, on the future of the Times newsroom. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, for columns on the financial crisis. @DLeonhardt • Facebook
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | Thank You, New York
Opinion | Thank You, New York
This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday.
The initial reactions to Amazon’s abandonment of New York tended to involve fairly narrow questions, like how it would affect New York or affect Amazon. And I understand why. Those are important issues.
But they’re not the only issues that matter here. They’re not even the biggest issues.
In my column this morning, I argue that the rest of the country owes New York a big thank you. The handouts that cities and states have been strong-armed into giving to corporations over the past few decades are a terrible bit of economic policy. They do nothing to raise the nation’s economic growth rate. They mostly redistribute income upward, from taxpayers to big shareholders.
[Listen to “The Argument” podcast every Thursday morning, with Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt.]
I agree with the critics (including my colleagues on The Times Editorial Board) who say that New York would probably have benefited from Amazon’s presence in Queens. But I keep thinking about the larger principle here. If every city agrees to give billion-dollar handouts to companies, in the name of that city’s short-term interests, those handouts will never end.
Other perspectives
Joe Nocera, in Bloomberg Opinion, faults Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not doing a better job of selling the deal: “Assuming they didn’t need to do anything further after cutting the deal itself, Cuomo and de Blasio made no effort to organize Amazon’s local supporters, who were actually in the majority.”
In The New York Daily News, Hector Figueroa — a union leader — writes that New York had to offer overly generous tax subsidies to attract Amazon. But the company’s arrival, he says, would have signaled that New York’s mix of “strong unions, smart regulation and progressive taxation are not an impediment to growth.”
In The Times, Amy Liu of Brookings writes that Northern Virginia’s Amazon deal shows how public officials can be better stewards of the public interest: “As in New York, residents in Northern Virginia have expressed concerns around housing affordability and how local residents will benefit. Yet Virginia’s approach has muted the criticism.”
Zachary Karabell, in Wired, predicts that Amazon will one day regret its decision. “As rising populism places both billionaires and mega-tech companies in an unfriendly spotlight, Amazon’s refusal to engage its opponents and address legitimate concerns head on suggests that it, like most tech behemoths, remains unprepared for a storm of regulation, antitrust questions, and public distrust built of animus to everything from privacy issues to wealth concentration.”
Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, argues that the impact of the deal’s cancellation will be negligible to both parties: “It is more likely that neither the city’s nor the company’s economic trajectory will be materially altered.” To me, that’s another reason to take some comfort in the deal’s collapse.
For more, see the recent Times Op-Eds by Mayor De Blasio, Kara Swisher and Bryce Covert.
If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe here. You can also join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and Facebook.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
David Leonhardt is a former Washington bureau chief for the Times, and was the founding editor of The Upshot and head of The 2020 Project, on the future of the Times newsroom. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, for columns on the financial crisis. @DLeonhardt • Facebook
Source: Read Full Article