Amazon spends over $1 million on city council election

[Pacomia]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... -elections
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... this-week/
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... os-s-team/

"Amazon said Tuesday it would donate an additional $1 million into a PAC run by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, bringing the company's investment in November's elections to $1.5 million. That money is mindblowing in an election in which individuals can contribute just $500 each to most candidates.

The Seattle Times first reported Amazon's late contribution, just three weeks before Election Day.

At issue is a battle last year between the city council and large corporations headquartered in Seattle. Those corporations objected to a council-passed head tax, a $275-per-employee tax on businesses that generated more than $20 million in revenue in order to help solve the city's growing homelessness crisis."

Amazon has now spent 1.5 million dollars on the Seattle city council elections. Many people are worried that this is another attempt by Amazon to get more business-friendly and Amazon-friendly people into the city council. Amazon already has a large amount of influence over the city and its actions- in 2018, in response to a head tax introduced by the city that would tax large businesses ($20 million or more in revenue) $275 per employee to help fix homelessness in the city, Amazon threatened to pull jobs, halted new construction projects, and explored subleasing downtown office space. The city council repealed the tax soon after. Some council candidates and city liberals have then, understandably, expressed concerns about this move by Amazon.

So what do you think, NSG? Is Amazon overstepping its boundaries? Or is this a perfectly acceptable action? Why, or why not? Could this happen to national elections, or is this already being done?

My opinion is that this is another attempt by Amazon to take even more hold on the city, and it's not okay. Amazon is trying just to get more money for themselves, without consideration for the needs of the city as a whole, and that's not acceptable. They have been and still are manipulating the city government.

[Evil Dictators Happyland]

What is there to say?
Amazon is using its financial clout to gain more power at the expense of more or less everyone and everything that's not directly bringing profit to Amazon. Some people think that's a great thing to do, some don't, and both groups will probably try to convince each other of their wrongness and succeed only in entrenching the opposition's views even more.

I'm against this, but I can't say that I'm horrified or appalled by it, because that implies that I'm surprised, which I'm not. It's just a shitty company doing shitty things, and there's nothing we can do about it except maybe vote in some politicians who promise to break Amazon's control, which probably won't work for a variety of reasons.

[The New California Republic]

It's cases like this where it makes me wonder how compatible capitalism is with democracy.

[Ifreann]

Seize Amazon for the workers, eat Jeff Bezos.

[Sensorland]

Rather disturbing news, certainly. Big companies use their money to influence national and international politics enough already; we hardly need them interfering in local elections.

[Senkaku]

looking forward to the day when i fly home to see my family and find amazon using gray goo to disassemble everything in Seattle into its constituent molecules to build drones and warehouses

[Chan Island]

It's cases like this where it makes me wonder how compatible capitalism is with democracy.

Honestly, events like this really do raise that question...

[Cetacea]

so Amazon buys Seattle and makes it a company town? oh well at least its some honest American politics

though out of interest, if individual people can only donate 500, what loophole did the Plutarchs put in place for Amazon to use?

[Alans]

I hope Bernie Sanders will tax Jeff Bezos out of business.

[Risottia]

So what do you think, NSG?

Dish ish noting Shilvio Berlushconi woudln't have done.

Why do you hate free enterprishe? Are you a communisht?

[Risottia]

Seize Amazon for the workers, eat Jeff Bezos.

I doubt Jeff Bezos is healthy food.

[The New California Republic]

Seize Amazon for the workers, eat Jeff Bezos.

[Greallemonsland]

I hope Bernie Sanders will tax Jeff Bezos out of business.

Mhhh, I would hope not. If you go to far, and the economy will collapse.

[Pacomia]

so Amazon buys Seattle and makes it a company town? oh well at least its some honest American politics

though out of interest, if individual people can only donate 500, what loophole did the Plutarchs put in place for Amazon to use?

The loophole is that political action committees have no donation cap, so Amazon used one of those.

I live in Seattle. I'm really not looking forward to this election.

[Vivolkha]

It's cases like this where it makes me wonder how compatible capitalism is with democracy.

so Amazon buys Seattle and makes it a company town? oh well at least its some honest American politics

though out of interest, if individual people can only donate 500, what loophole did the Plutarchs put in place for Amazon to use?

The loophole is that political action committees have no donation cap, so Amazon used one of those.

I live in Seattle. I'm really not looking forward to this election.

How about actually controlling donations to politicians in the US? It's no wonder that a series of wealthy individuals/corporations have such a disproportionate influence in the country's politics.

[Napkizemlja]

Well Bezos can go get fucked as far as I'm concerned.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Eww, corporations in demorecy.

[Samadhi]

That's what you get for having government

[Nakena]

tbqh with 20 million USD they were not going to solve the homeless crisis in Seattle anyways.

[The Lone Alliance]

Neo Gilded Age, I can see the articles now "How Amazon has turned Seattle into a company town and why that's a GOOD THING" This article sponsored by Amazon

[Nagatar Karumuttu Chettiar]

I am a capitalist. Amazon needs to be broken up.

Existence of monopolies like that threaten the competition a good capitalist market needs to thrive.

USA is devolving into corporatism.

[Major-Tom]

Amazon is a predatory monopoly led by a dangerous individual, and Amazon should be swiftly and promptly broken up to allow for real competition in the marketplace, and within our democracies.

Amazon is terrified of candidates and councilmembers such as Sawant and can just shit out money until they get their desired result. That shouldn't happen in a so called "representative democracy." Period.

[Major-Tom]

Neo Gilded Age, I can see the articles now "How Amazon has turned Seattle into a company town and why that's a GOOD THING" This article sponsored by Amazon

It's the last leg of American capitalism, and it's not a pretty sight to see. Seattle has fundamentally been ruined by Big-Tech, particularly by companies such as Amazon, and even Boeing. People can point fingers at whomever for the rent crisis in Seattle, the homelessness, yada yada yada, but it comes down to a small group of corporations radically reshaping a once semi-affordable & alternative city in the course of about a decade and a half.

[Major-Tom]

I hope Bernie Sanders will tax Jeff Bezos out of business.

Mhhh, I would hope not. If you go to far, and the economy will collapse.

It's a copout argument, to tell you the truth. Our economy would arguably flourish more when the money could be placed into affordable healthcare, affordable higher education etc etc, allowing once broke consumers living paycheck to paycheck can actually become legitimate consumer spenders.

Additionally, companies like Amazon are monopolies. By allowing competition to thrive and placing regulations in this industry to avoid another dangerous monopoly like Amazon, we'll see growth through that competition alone. Taxing Bezos out of existence won't hurt the economy, we're taxing his personal wealth (which is near 1/3 of all accumulated wealth in this country), not the revenue stream that led to his wealth.

If anything, his enormous personal assets are a net detriment to this economy.

Well Bezos can go get fucked as far as I'm concerned.

He was until his wife wised up and left his ass.

[Nakena]

-double post-