The [Current Year] General Political/Salma Hayek discussion thread, part 4!!!

[Alpo]

I thought it was pretty self explanatory.

Sometimes simple logic doesn't encompass the macro environment. You need to step away from your tree and look at the countryside.

 

[jamil]

I"m sure you're familiar with how Amazon has engulfed Seattle? Methinks not.

I don't think Amazon should pay for the homeless, but if their use of public services is financially beneficial to them at the expense of the population at large, then they are basically being subsidized by the city and the community.

How is that different than Microsoft or Boeing? I couldn't really evaluate it with the data I have...but in Microsoft's case, they are in Redmond.

Kings County has become extraordinarily expensive...brought on, in part (some say "large part) by Amazon's invasion. That displaced a number of lower income folks (one type of problem), increasing the need for transportation infrastructure. The homeless? I don't know. A pox on them.

Amazon's invasion? Seriously? They invaded? Oh yeah. Big mean HUGE Amazon, swooped in on the utopian little village of Seattle with their evil capitalism and **** on the unsuspecting commune.

If you recall, Amazon started out as an online bookstore. They weren't big enough to be noticed by the Seattle economy. They grew. They got HUGE! THAT's not an "invasion". THAT's a success story. One can argue too successful.

They're so successful that the problem they cause is displacing the poor? Are you sure you want to go with that?

 

[jamil]

And you know this...how?

I just read an article that said Amazon pays state and local taxes of ~$250M. Who pays that much in state/local tax? Could it possibly be, because if you make more....you generally have to pay more? Of course, we kinda have a crony system in the US, so it may be that they've lobbied for their own tax breaks or whatever, and maybe they're able to shelter some of their income so that their real burden is actually more than $250M. And I could not find how much local tax Amazon pays, just that state + local = $250M

But I'd say the onus is on you to show how they're not paying enough tax to cover the services they're using, which is what you claimed.

Let me ask. Does the average person pay enough local tax to pay for the city services they use? Think about all the city services you use. Does what you pay in local taxes cover what you use? Seattle's budget is ~$5.6 billion. So that's close to $8K/person. Not every resident even pays taxes. So that burden falls on the people who make enough to be taxed enough to pay for all that. THAT's not me or you. That's businesses and the kind of people who make enough to pay more of that. And sure, I'll give you that businesses do use more city services. But they typically pay a hella lot more in taxes than the average joe.

 

[Alpo]

I am now almost certain that you rarely FULLY read what someone writes. Didn't you see where I wrote: A pox on the homeless?

When a company grows as explosively as Amazon in a short period of time, it places a strain on ALL services in a community. In Seattle proper, the growth attributed to Amazon is 100,000 folks in 6 years. Now, add on the consumer demand that those additional people place on a community and you have a multiplier to be factored into that strain.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But, if you've ever been near Seattle, it was already crowded and almost undrivable before this growth rate. Why else would Amazon be looking for a second HQ city?

Talk with anyone living in the area. I know a fire chief in the Renton are. Amazon has placed an unbelievable strain on local resources over the last 10 years.

Look at a map. Seattle is geographically bounded.

 

[jamil]

It's a problem of too much scale too soon, but that says nothing about Amazon not paying for the services they use. If they brought 100K people into the area, that's a lot of paychecks, and a lot of local taxes paid, over the amount that Amazon paid.

This is a case where corporate growth can easily outpace infrastructure. And if the capacity to grow infrastructure is limited, then there's going to be problems. But to lay that at the feet of Amazon lacks depth. And you have to admit that this is kinda what you lead with.

BTW, nice graphics.

 

[Alpo]

It's a lot of local taxes...but you need to factor into this WHERE those taxes are paid. Where do the people live? In Seattle? Mostly not, I'd wager. I don't think Seattle has a city income tax...at least one that will withstand the court case (tax on high income earners).

Amazon is also not known for paying great wages, so I think we would also need to factor in the effects of adding lower wage jobs to the demographics of the area. I'd think, from one aspect, this would create additional transportation pressure on Seattle's already overburdened infrastructure.

 

[nonobaddog]

What else can you do, really? If you need more money, you need more money. Also, it's for the homeless. Maybe for the children, too, if need be. Who could argue against that? Will probably create jobs, too. Somebodies got to see to proper use of this new money, and our current staff is overburdened already.

Yeah. Somebody really ought to watch these good people. The left in Minnesota has been shipping Millions in child care fraud overseas every year, even to somalia and the terrorists. The liberal government has known about this for at least five years and done exactly nothing about it. Where there is money around the left it seems to get to anti-American places. It is treason.

Millions of dollars in suitcases fly out of MSP, but why? - Story | KMSP

 

[OakRiver]

Quality CNN journalism; Cillizza Puts Crosshairs Over Trump Pic | The Daily Caller

 

[ghitch75]

Quality CNN journalism; Cillizza Puts Crosshairs Over Trump Pic | The Daily Caller

bias bigot *******s......

 

[KLB]

It's a lot of local taxes...but you need to factor into this WHERE those taxes are paid. Where do the people live? In Seattle? Mostly not, I'd wager. I don't think Seattle has a city income tax...at least one that will withstand the court case (tax on high income earners).

Amazon is also not known for paying great wages, so I think we would also need to factor in the effects of adding lower wage jobs to the demographics of the area. I'd think, from one aspect, this would create additional transportation pressure on Seattle's already overburdened infrastructure.

Low wages for workers at the corporate HQ? Maybe they pay lower wages for warehouse workers, but I doubt they are behind for corporate types. They would have to pay pretty much the same all the other corporations do there. Why would anyone move to a city for a poor paying job? Why would they work for Amazon if everyone else paid more?

Kind of like the nonsense of the gender pay gap. If corporations could pay women less than an equally qualified man, why would they ever hire men?

 

[actaeon277]

Quality CNN journalism; Cillizza Puts Crosshairs Over Trump Pic | The Daily Caller

It's okay when you're on the "right" side, targeting the "wrong side".

 

[Alpo]

Low wages for workers at the corporate HQ? Maybe they pay lower wages for warehouse workers, but I doubt they are behind for corporate types. They would have to pay pretty much the same all the other corporations do there. Why would anyone move to a city for a poor paying job? Why would they work for Amazon if everyone else paid more?

Kind of like the nonsense of the gender pay gap. If corporations could pay women less than an equally qualified man, why would they ever hire men?

Amazon (AMZN) disclosed in a filing Wednesday that the median pay for its employees was just $28,446 in 2017. Put another way: half of Amazon's employees earned less than that amount.

Bezos also indicated that there are 40,000 people employed in Seattle.

More info is available if you want to do more than conjecture.

 

[Route 45]

 

[nonobaddog]

Bezos also indicated that there are 40,000 people employed in Seattle.

More info is available if you want to do more than conjecture.

How many are part-time?

 

[Alpo]

Read the proxy statement. That's where the quote came from.

If you still have questions, attend the annual meeting.

 

[jamil]

It's a lot of local taxes...but you need to factor into this WHERE those taxes are paid. Where do the people live? In Seattle? Mostly not, I'd wager. I don't think Seattle has a city income tax...at least one that will withstand the court case (tax on high income earners).

Amazon is also not known for paying great wages, so I think we would also need to factor in the effects of adding lower wage jobs to the demographics of the area. I'd think, from one aspect, this would create additional transportation pressure on Seattle's already overburdened infrastructure.

About how well amazon pays. Several engineers I worked with over the years moved to Seattle to work for Amazon. I don’t know what they pay general labor but they pay engineers pretty well.

But anyway, to the point, it may be that because of lines between tax jurisdictions cause ineffective distribution of the taxes collected. That’s not Amazon’s fault in any way fhat makes them accountable for negative societal outcomes. And that kinda was the original complaint.

And it’s not like I’m all that fond of Amazon. I think they are a danger to society. Two products scare the **** out of me. Alexa. And AWS. AWS is so damn good that companies are no longer investing in their own infrastructure. They’re moving their web services and apps to the Amazon cloud. In terms of cost, it’s almost insane not to. But because Amazon crushes everyone else in cloud infrastructure, they host an amazing list of top corporate and government orgs. Like Netflix. And NASA. Hundreds of thousands of web services and apps run on their infrastructure. Probably not all that good for society for one company to control so much.

 

[KLB]

Bezos also indicated that there are 40,000 people employed in Seattle.

More info is available if you want to do more than conjecture.

That is for all of their employees, everywhere. So your stat is meaningless and misleading.

Let me help you here

The median annual pay for Amazon's 560,000 employees is $28,446.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/20...pay-for-amazon-employees-as-of-2017-was-28446

Its froth is mostly in Seattle, where the median pay for its "more than 45,000 employees" is over $110,000.

Wow, only $110K for a median income. They are obviously not paying those poor workers at the HQ.

Now, you were saying something about conjecture...

 

[ghuns]

Wow, only $110K for a median income. They are obviously not paying those poor workers at the HQ.

Now, you were saying something about conjecture...

On a $110K income in Seattle, you can live an hour and a half outside the city, or in an outhouse sized apartment a little closer.

 

[KLB]

On a $110K income in Seattle, you can live an hour and a half outside the city, or in an outhouse sized apartment a little closer.

No different than any other larger city.

 

[Kutnupe14]

Well heck, maybe there wasn't any Trump/Russia collusion... but it's not because they weren't trying... as evidenced by today's news. But at least they've been consistent with lying to American people about why they attended the meeting.

Attorneys for Donald Trump Jr. sought to coordinate public statements for attendees of a June 2016 meeting between a Kremlin-connected lawyer and top Trump campaign aides after news broke of the controversial sitdown, according to transcripts released Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The 2016 meeting at Trump Tower — attended by Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and indicted former campaign chairman Paul Manafort — was billed as an opportunity for Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to share damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/don-trump-jr-russia-trump-tower-transcripts-590957