dagblog - Comments for "Amazon’s Big Swingin’ Di—"

Here's what I think is a

artappraiser — Sat, 23 Feb 2019 19:58:00 +0000

In reply to Except it's not socialism at

Here's what I think is a healthy attitude towards all that, ocean-kat. And I should mention that I saw the Tweet because urban planning guy Richard Florida "liked" it:

This is the right take on Amazon. Other cities need the jobs more than NYC. The incentive plan was a bad precedent. Everything worked out for the best, and there is no need for complaints or recriminations. https://t.co/2Mp9dI5Q4P
— Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) February 23, 2019

Except it's not socialism at

ocean-kat — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 00:35:29 +0000

In reply to P.S. On the leaving NYC story

Except it's not socialism at all. It's tough to talk about it because the definitions are slippery and there's too much conflation of political systems and economic systems. Also there's a matter of degree. Extreme socialism would have nationalized Amazon. Pure capitalism would have gotten out of the way, no tax breaks to help, no regulations to hinder. I've seen the economic system of fascism defined as public private partnerships. That's what happened here and what happens far too often. Local governments give massive tax breaks and other help to bribe corporations to build in their area. I've seen numerous articles that make the case that the economic benefits after the tax breaks etc. don't equal the costs.

There's a growing pushback against this. It started with pushback against major league sports teams demanding new stadiums to stay or move their teams. Amazon was so outspoken and blatant in it's demand for bribes as it pitted cities against each other to offer the biggest bribes that it looked unseemly and generated more pushback. In the end it was the public anger over the size of the bribes the government offered that caused Amazon to withdraw. Not socialism.

P.S. On the leaving NYC story

artappraiser — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 23:44:47 +0000

In reply to Re: Do what makes you happy.

P.S. On the leaving NYC story, this quote from the New York Times report yesterday struck me for some reason I can't yet verbalize. On first glance, yes of course it's just yuppie anger about her candy being taken away. But there seems to be an anger below that which might be more lasting: the danger of do-gooder socialists evolving to egostisical nanny staters, vs.libertarian mindset (basically, the whole Venezuela thing allover again). My underlining

Gianna Cerbone, who owns a restaurant several blocks from what would have been the main Amazon campus, said the demise of the deal was a major blow to people who need jobs and local businesses that would have benefited.

“I’m really upset because I don’t think they realized what they did,” she said of the elected officials who had opposed the plan. “And they’re proud of it? They think they did something lovely? They wanted the political gain, they should have done it in a different way. They get put into office for us, not to work for themselves.”

She's talking about the danger of charismatic Ocasio-Cortez types there. I.E. first comes Chavez, then comes Maduro....

p.s. good nuanced Twitter

artappraiser — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 23:43:53 +0000

In reply to Re: Do what makes you happy.

p.s. good nuanced Twitter thread here by Barry Ritholtz on what actually happened with the HQ2 deal for those into this stuff, takes the Goodman article further

Re: Do what makes you happy.

artappraiser — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 22:24:29 +0000

In reply to Amazon’s Big Swingin’ Di—

Re: Do what makes you happy.

looks like he took your advice on that here, too:

This is key to Amazon's decision as we understand it:

Executives were confident the deal would one day be approved.

But they were looking at decades in a political climate in which everything they did would be scrutinized.

So they said no thanks.https://t.co/UtvdOkZFUC
— J. David Goodman (@jdavidgoodman) February 15, 2019

I also think of it as just say no to bureaucracy and political machines and perhaps also just say no to NYC kvetching and whining and arguing and negativity culcha

Just describing, not opining yet...

Edit to add: except for adding the thought that I think this is getting at some crucial contradictory flaws in libertarian mindsight.

And that him buying WaPo in order to support an alternative to Sulzberger's New York Times, to keep it from fading away, was putting his money behind the basic beliefs.

Just don't call me

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 20:13:00 +0000

In reply to You’d be doing the world a

Just don't call me "peckerhead" - I think that name's taken. Of course we all know the adage, "You can lede a horticulture..."

You’d be doing the world a

CVille Dem — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 14:33:18 +0000

In reply to Except my headlines are a bit

You’d be doing the world a favor. We could all just read the headlines and ignore the rest!

Looking more like "Pecker

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 07:42:26 +0000

In reply to I''m liking "Heedless Pecker

Looking more like "Pecker used as proxy for short-fingered man, fails to rise to the occasion".

Except my headlines are a bit

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 07:35:00 +0000

In reply to You need to do this for a

Except my headlines are a bit too verbose/too many notes.

Reminded of a sailor who had "Wendy" tatooed on his joint, which caused quite some jealousy with a new encounter until he explained/showed that with a bit of persuasion it expanded to "Welcome to Coney Island, home of the world's best cotton candy".

Maybe I can write ledes that when stroked expand to full stories, tho arguably that's just a URL, boring.

I''m liking "Heedless Pecker

jollyroger — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 01:51:13 +0000

In reply to Moi? How bout "David Pecker

I''m liking "Heedless Pecker in plea deal bar" only for the historicity...

Or perhaps (ouch) Headless Pecker...? nah, we have no data to that effect, and it is unlikely.