ILSR researcher Charlie Thaxton, who works with the Community-Scaled Economy initiative, published an op-ed for Fortune on Amazon’s history of skirting sales taxes and extracting public funds for its own benefit.
Amazon secured billions in tax incentives and other money to locate its second headquarters between New York City and Northern Virginia. But it was hardly the first time the company has received such economic incentives from governments.
“…the most serious and undertheorized consequence of these giveaways is how they hasten market concentration. Local governments spend between $45 and $90 billion dollars each year subsidizing companies, and 90% of these dollars go to big businesses. These companies often don’t have any special investment or stake in the communities they settle in…”
