Readers React: The wrongheaded idea that New York would ‘give’ $3 billion to Amazon

To the editor: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that the $3 billion that would have gone to Amazon.com in tax breaks for its aborted plan to build offices in New York City could better be spent on teachers and the subway.

Here is what Ocasio-Cortez clearly does not understand: There is no $3 billion. Amazon would have brought 25,000 great-paying jobs to New York, and thousands more from other companies would have followed.

According to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Amazon’s new corporate presence in New York would have resulted in $27 billion more in tax revenue, which might have been used for the very things Ocasio-Cortez champions.

Socialists see money as a pie with too much in the hands of the wealthy. They strive to seize this “excess” money and redistribute it. Individuals and corporations will not risk their capital if they believe that the government will simply take away their profits.

And, without this, the pie will assuredly shrink.

Hal Bookbinder, Oak Park

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