Amazon cancels plans to build corporate campus in New York City

[sammy the sage]

Originally Posted by highnote

I've been reading Bob Lefsetz' free newsletter a lot lately. He is an attorney, a music industry analyst, and also comments on technology and society. I don't always agree with him, but he does have his pulse on social media and technology.

He wrote about Amazon moving out of NYC and AOC in this week's blog. It's worth a read. Here are some excerpts:

https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2019/02/15/amazon/

Terrific find and thanks for posting..

.might open a few eyes around here as well...

[highnote]

Originally Posted by sammy the sage

Terrific find and thanks for posting..

.might open a few eyes around here as well...

He's a terrific writer. I've been reading all his blogs from his archives. So much good stuff! Especially the one about why Todd Rundgren deserves to be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2019/02/15/amazon/

[Clydepuckett]

As for tax rates… Why do corporations end up paying less than the top rate, if they pay anything at all?

Among other dumbass in that citation, this is the chandelier......so eloquent...and so stupid.

[highnote]

Originally Posted by Clydepuckett

Among other dumbass in that citation, this is the chandelier......so eloquent...and so stupid.

What is stupid about it?

[Mulerider]

Originally Posted by highnote

What is stupid about it?

Most economists agree that in a "closed" economy, or closed sectors of an "open" economy, the corporate income tax is built into the price of a company's products or services; any increase in the rate will be passed on to its customers via higher prices.

Those same economists also believe that in an open economy, in which corporations lose pricing power by having to compete with foreign companies that have a lower corporate rate, the bulk of the tax is borne by labor. That was demonstrated after the latest corporate rate cut, when hundreds of U.S. companies announced wage increases, bonuses, or other forms of compensation increases for their employees.

Short version: Artificial legal entities don't pay taxes. Only people pay taxes.

[highnote]

Originally Posted by Mulerider

Most economists agree that in a "closed" economy, or closed sectors of an "open" economy, the corporate income tax is built into the price of a company's products or services; any increase in the rate will be passed on to its customers via higher prices.

Those same economists also believe that in an open economy, in which corporations lose pricing power by having to compete with foreign companies that have a lower corporate rate, the bulk of the tax is borne by labor. That was demonstrated after the latest corporate rate cut, when hundreds of U.S. companies announced wage increases, bonuses, or other forms of compensation increases for their employees.

Short version: Artificial legal entities don't pay taxes. Only people pay taxes.

That doesn't answer "what is stupid about it".

Leftsetz writes:

As for tax rates… Why do corporations end up paying less than the top rate, if they pay anything at all? Sure, the rank and file is unsophisticated, thinking a 70% income tax rate would be from dollar one and apply to them, just like the “Death Tax,” but the truth is there are smart youngsters...

All he is saying is that many people are unsophisticated and think a 70% tax rate on corporations applies from dollar one. In fact, that is an argument frequently used to try to convince the unsophisticated that 70% tax is a bad idea. Lefsetz is also saying that young people may not be rich, but they are smarter than old people give them credit for.

I guess I'm missing Clyde's point about what specifically is stupid in the blog piece because there is a lot of content in the piece. I don't agree or disagree with everything lefsetz writes, but he's pretty good at articulating his position.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but it's good if people can defend their opinion. If I think Trump is stupid, for example, (which I don't), I would tell you why I think he is stupid or what he did or said that is stupid. I would not just he's stupid. Well, I might, but I try not to.

[Mulerider]

Originally Posted by highnote

That doesn't answer "what is stupid about it".

Leftsetz writes:



All he is saying is that many people are unsophisticated and think a 70% tax rate on corporations applies from dollar one. In fact, that is an argument frequently used to try to convince the unsophisticated that 70% tax is a bad idea. Lefsetz is also saying that young people may not be rich, but they are smarter than old people give them credit for.

Perhaps Lefsetz could be a little clearer as to his point. In the same paragraph you reference, regarding corporate taxes, he writes, "but the truth is there are smart youngsters, who do know they’re being scammed, and they’re informing their constituents, and the whole world is changing as the old guard is clueless."

What's the scam? That young people have been convinced that corporations are paying too high a rate? I know exactly zero young people who believe that.

[highnote]

Originally Posted by Mulerider

Short version: Artificial legal entities don't pay taxes. Only people pay taxes.

Thanks for answering for clyde.

Mitt Romney famously said, "Corporations are people".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.705c1e0a4698

[highnote]

Originally Posted by Mulerider

What's the scam? That young people have been convinced that corporations are paying too high a rate?

Dunno. Ask Lefsetz.

[HalvOnHorseracing]

Originally Posted by delayjf

I thought Dems / liberals liked high taxes.

Yeah, if somebody else pays them.

[HalvOnHorseracing]

People like Zuckerberg who still have some youth left and net worth around $20 billion, keep working because that's all they know. Certainly the semi-bio film, The Social Network, portrays Zuckerberg as someone who doesn't have a true love other than the computer. Not to mention he ran out of friends to screw over. The hope is that he turns into Bill Gates, a man who travels the world distributing dollar bills like a drunk in a strip-joint, while his company gulps down money the way a humpback whale decimates a school of a thousand smelt in about 12 seconds.

I'd sure like to see if I could blow Zuckerberg's bankroll at the track. Of course I'd hire me a couple of specialists to pick up the slack when I was off golfing or riding my prize Dutch Friesland.

People like Bezos think they can write their own tickets, while cities provide tax breaks, land deals, and transportation improvements. If you don't think all that buys long term loyalty from the oligarchs you're right. Ask St. Louis. They wouldn't capitulate to the demands from Bill Bidwell to build a new sports cathedral or face the loss that comes with having your own football team. You know, things like drunken, hyper-sports people trying to drive home after their team got its butt kicked.

Of course, they are no better than us when it comes to aging."Shorter of breath and one day closer to death" every 24-hours.

I won't change my mind until somebody goes all Oprah and tapes a million dollar check signed by one of the billionaires under my couch.

[delayjf]

tapes a million dollar check signed by one of the billionaires under my couch.

Just got a visual

[Suff]

Who played whom now?

When Amazon announced its retreat from Queens amid a backlash from local activists, Long Island City seemed to have lost 25,000 new jobs and billions of dollars in investment.

Instead, two months later, the neighborhood is experiencing a boom: Other companies have grabbed much of the 1.5-million-square-foot, all-glass building that was to be the beachhead of Amazon's Queens expansion, and interest has surged in nearby commercial real estate.

"It’s an Amazon effect," says Jonathan Wasserstrum, CEO of SquareFoot, a commercial real estate company. “A lot of people now get to piggyback on the work that they did.”

[FantasticDan]

Twitter

[summersquall]

Clinical Professor of Marketing, NYU Scott Galloway posits on retail, 28 minute mark of the video refers to events of early this year.

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