In the News: Stacy Mitchell
October 17, 2017
Media Outlet: Morning Consult
In a poll of American adults, Morning Consult found that majorities of each subgroup were generally favorable to Amazon locating its second headquarters to their community, “including 72 percent each of suburbanites and urbanites and 70 percent of rural dwellers.”
However, as Joanna Piacenza from the Morning Consult reported, the evidence in favor of these headquarters are not all positive. She reached out to and spoke to ILSR co-director and director of the Community-Scaled Economies initiative Stacy Mitchell about the economic impacts of the second Amazon headquarters possibility, including referencing the Amazon’s Stranglehold report from last November.
Here’s Stacy’s contribution:
On the issue of jobs, many U.S. adults believe the new headquarters will help, with 70 percent saying there will be a positive impact on jobs for low-skill workers and 61 percent saying the same about high-skill workers; 65 percent also believe Amazon would positively impact wages in their city.
But research from Stacy Mitchell, co-director of advocacy group the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, shows such views may be misguided.
“For most people who live in this city, this is going to be more of a burden than a benefit,” Mitchell said in an Oct. 2 phone interview about the future location of the second headquarters. She is co-author of a report from November 2016 entitled “Amazon’s Stranglehold: How the Company’s Tightening Grip Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities,” which provides a critical look at Amazon’s economic impact on local communities.
“At first blush, it seems very much like the thing that cities are all hoping for: a big job creator and high-quality jobs,” Mitchell said of Amazon’s announcement. But she adds that residents of the selected city are likely to experience disproportionate housing price spikes, increased traffic congestion, a skyrocketing cost of living and growing inequality.
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