Amazon is dicking around with a new home, but HQ2 won’t fix anyone’s problems
Using the cover of public works to find a new, friendlier home, the company ignores the actual work of public good in the home they already have
The other week, Amazon announced their intention to build a new headquarters. It’s not replacing the South Lake Union campus it has already sunk billions of dollars into and houses over a quarter of their corporate (not distribution) employees in Seattle. Amazon wants instead, to supplement its Puget Sound home, hence, the unimaginative moniker HQ2. Based on the abrupt, audacious way it made the announcement and what it’s looking for, it’s fair to say Amazon is facing growing pains here in the Pacific Northwest.
In a Goldilocks-inspired approach to finding a headquarters that’s *just smart enough* but *not too regulatory*, Amazon is taking Requests for Proposals. That’s right: Cities, metropolitan areas, and other jurisdictions all across North America can put their name in a hat to be selected as the new half of a home.
In the specs and requirements form Amazon released, the company announced its intentions to build between 500,000 and 8,000,000 square feet for up to 50,000 employees (which they’ve estimated will earn $100,000 each). So if you have a site that is 30 miles from a population center, 45 minutes from an international airport, access to mass transit, and more than one million people that you’ve deprioritized in favor of “a stable and business-friendly environment,” you could be the one!
Amazon’s is an audacious move, to be sure — one that a pro-business Seattle Times unsurprisingly heralds as “a bold experiment.” Through the myopic lens of a sleazy MBA or a smarmy corporate business consultant (hey, that’s me!), it makes cold, hard business sense. Amazon has leverage. It’s a juggernaut of a company that — for better or worse — has buoyed Seattle’s surging economy. Its growth simultaneously exploded the issues of income inequality, housing affordability, and homelessness. In the meantime, Amazon will take the credit for a 2.6% unemployment rate and will implicitly promise to bring that to your city. After all, it’s trying to hire a lot of local contractors and construction workers who will build a sprawling campus, then hire a buttload of well-paid people who will in turn spend their money at cafes, juice bars, and crossfit gyms.
So now, elected officials from Richmond to Boulder are boxed into at least floating a 48-hour-guaranteed-Prime-delivery test balloon. Amazon is leveraging their too-big-to-fuck-with status into a goldmine for any and every political candidate by aligning their goals with the politically expedient issues of jobs, tech, and a 21st century economy. Every single one of them could sew up re-election if they deliver 50,000 jobs to their constituency.
If you suspend your sense of ethics (as a good business mind often requires), this is all fine and well. But let’s be clear: Amazon is as bad as those toddlers playing big-boy politics in D.C. without actually giving a damn about the communities they belong to. Amazon is using the cover of a public works to find a new, friendlier home, while ignoring the actual work of public good in the home they have.
This is Amazon’s fearless leader, putting out his own ridiculous RFP of sorts on Twitter earlier this year:
According to Forbes, Jeff Bezos is the third richest person on the planet. He’s also a resident of Washington , where there is no state income tax (we also happen to house the richest person on the planet, Bill Gates, and he too does not pay one penny in income taxes).
Amazon is ostensibly fleeing Seattle because it’s expensive to build here and because local talent has nearly been tapped. Let’s break that down. It’s expensive to build in Seattle because real estate is expensive, which is made more expensive because property taxes have increased precipitously alongside Amazon’s rise. The lack of an income tax means, jurisdictions in our state are forced to turn to property taxes to fund basic government services. Of course Amazon doesn’t want to build another million square feet in Seattle. If it did, it would have to foot the exorbitant bill for things like education for future workers, sheltering domestic violence survivors, treatment for drug addiction, job training and placement for veterans, housing for seniors, health care for low-income mothers and their children — you know, things that don’t add to the bottom line.
The lack of income tax in Washington state is directly connected to Amazon’s growth. Of course, we make every top-ten list of best states to do business in; CNBC calls us the best (so do we, by the way). It’s another arrow in the recruiting-top-talent-from-around-the-country-to-Seattle quiver. It also allows venture capitalists (like the guy that signs my checks) to keep a greater share of their money. Seattle is one of the bigger hubs of tech VCs in the country. Despite years of quarterly losses, Amazon persisted largely on checks by VCs.
In Amazon’s hometown, we’re trying to solve a homelessness crisis capped by people dying in the street. The state’s mental health system is in dire need of systemic reforms. Our aging infrastructure and mass transit has major gaps and exacerbates already deep, racially segregated community divides. We’re in the midst of an education funding crisis with no end in sight. Income inequality has swelled (in large part due to business practices Amazon leads on), and the starting point for all these fights are how we generate revenue and tax businesses to best serve communities and people.
I’m not making the case that Amazon shouldn’t leave (which, to be fair, it technically, currently isn’t doing). It’s likely in Seattle’s best interest to diversify its economy with a greater plurality of local employers — not to mention, Amazon’s likely to hire 15,000 more employees in Seattle.
I’m making the case that all businesses — not just Amazon — have a responsibility to the place they call home. The sales and property taxes I pay, that my mom pays, that the guy sitting next to me on the bus pays, all accumulate to fund the roads that get products to customers, the schools that educate future employees, the police and fire departments that secure your place of business. Businesses like Amazon don’t just get to make billions of dollars and up and leave. Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to strip-mine a city for its labor and space. We aren’t just resources to be spent. We can’t just be replaced with an RFP. Employers, especially the biggest ones, owe more because they’re more reliant on place and community— not less.
