Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: MillCreek on September 09, 2017, 09:42:21 AM
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http://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazons-second-headquarters-expect-the-unexpected/
Amazon announced they are looking for a site to build a second headquarters with up to 50,000 jobs. The Dallas or Austin areas of Texas and Toronto in Canada are considered Prime candidates.
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Minneapolis is courting them. I don't want it here; I'm pretty sure it would mean I would have to pay sales tax on everything from Amazon instead of just a few items.
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Minneapolis is courting them. I don't want it here; I'm pretty sure it would mean I would have to pay sales tax on everything from Amazon instead of just a few items.
Isn't Minneapolis pretty much TargetLand? Amazon would seem to be competition for them.
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As much as Jeff Bezos is Mr SJW, in the end he's a "bottom line" guy. He'll end up going to a city and state that meet Amazon's criteria, are geographically well located (i.e., not close to the current HQ), and where they'll get good tax breaks and affordable housing for workers. Not that housing won't shoot up within a few years wherever they locate.
I think it's funny that California in general, and San Francisco in particular, are courting them. I'm sure Amazon wants to chose the most business unfriendly, high tax climate that they can. ;/ While they might look for a somewhat liberal city (e.g., Austin) I'm betting they won't go for a commie state.
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Scuttlebutt in these parts is that Texas is all but offering to name them the Official State Business to get the HQ here. Lot's of rampant speculation feeding that, though, although Texas has made no bones about the fact that they are aggressively pursuing corporations relocating from business-unfriendly areas.
We already pay sales tax on Amazon orders so it's not an issue.
Brad
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I heard Midwest is where they are looking. I figure twin cities, Kansas city or Milwaukee.
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A LOT of people in the Austin area don't want 50,000 Amazon employees and their families quickly moving here and clogging up the roads, overfilling the schools, and using up the water.
(There's some doubt that any substantial percentage of the alleged 50,000 new jobs will be local hires.)
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Maybe it is going to be in the greater Washington DC area.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-20/did-amazon-employees-unwittingly-reveal-location-hq2
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Somewhere east coast-ish would make sense logistically.
Brad
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I heard Midwest is where they are looking. I figure twin cities, Kansas city or Milwaukee.
Omaha would be interesting. Buffett power I guess, for being in the middle of nowhere the Omaha/Lincoln area does business.
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A LOT of people in the Austin area don't want 50,000 Amazon employees and their families quickly moving here and clogging up the roads, overfilling the schools, and using up the water.
(There's some doubt that any substantial percentage of the alleged 50,000 new jobs will be local hires.)
Austin's roads are already clogged.
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Chicago has been spreading it's legs for this business with promises of tax breaks and like. I would be surprised if Amazon picked Chicago, but I was surprised when Boeing moved their HQ here.
(And in regards to the "Separate but Equal", I worked for a company that had three HQ's, because when the bought/merged with other companies, they kept the HQ's but made each "specialize". Logistics was in Cincinnati, HR and IT was in Atlanta, Accounting, the President and Chairman were in Chicago. It was fustercluck...)
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Rumor has it Charlotte, NC is aggressively pursuing Amazon.
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Columbus is offering big tax incentives, a pair of international airports, and an Ohio State campus full of college students to recruit. Already have an Amazon distribution location about 5 miles from here.
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Most anywhere in central Texas you are a couple hours drive to a major college campus. I guess it depends on if you are trying to hire college graduates or college students. College graduates are generally more willing to move if needed. I would think being able to recruit good hourly help locally would be more of an advantage.
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Austin's roads are already clogged.
And that's during light traffic periods.
Brad
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And that's during light traffic periods.
Brad
I drove through Austin once at peak traffic hours. Never again. San Antonio isn't all that great, but it's a lot better than Austin or Houston.
Most anywhere in central Texas you are a couple hours drive to a major college campus. I guess it depends on if you are trying to hire college graduates or college students. College graduates are generally more willing to move if needed. I would think being able to recruit good hourly help locally would be more of an advantage.
There are a few distribution centers in central Texas as well.
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Rumor has it Charlotte, NC is aggressively pursuing Amazon.
please no
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Austin's roads are already clogged.
That's because for decades the Austin Sh1ty Clowncil has been actively hostile towards motorists, and simply DOES NOT WANT a better road system. Even their road "improvement" projects are often foolish if not downright asinine.
Calling them "Idiots" is SUCH a masterpiece of understatement . . . :facepalm:
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Amazon is run by leftists and tree-huggers. They want public transport, socialized everything, and 24 hour access to the latest restaurant or bar fad. Odds are strong that Amazon won't settle in a Red state or in fly-over territory.
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Amazon is run by leftists and tree-huggers. They want public transport, socialized everything, and 24 hour access to the latest restaurant or bar fad. Odds are strong that Amazon won't settle in a Red state or in fly-over territory.
Then again, if they settle in a red state, they could shift it into purple territory over time.
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Then again, if they settle in a red state, they could shift it into purple territory over time.
Maybe. How many people do they plan to hire?
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I have a spare bedroom...
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Maybe. How many people do they plan to hire?
About 50k initially. Any shift in a blue direction would be small at first, but certainly add pressure to the generally leftward tilt (that most states are experiencing).
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About 50k initially. Any shift in a blue direction would be small at first, but certainly add pressure to the generally leftward tilt (that most states are experiencing).
To say nothing of the leftist influence a large company can have simply by intimating that they will choose or not choose a location on the basis of their position on particular legislation.
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"About 50k initially."
That's a bit deceptive, actually.
Amazon won't look at hiring 50,000 people for the new HQ on Tuesday and have them all show up at work on Wednesday.
Amazon has said that it will take several years at least for them to ramp up to that number at their new facility.
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Still, that seems like a huge amount for a HQ complex. That is a decent size city in many states.
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"About 50k initially."
That's a bit deceptive, actually.
Amazon won't look at hiring 50,000 people for the new HQ on Tuesday and have them all show up at work on Wednesday.
Amazon has said that it will take several years at least for them to ramp up to that number at their new facility.
You're right in that regard, Mike. I should have been clearer in my explanation. But when they do eventually hit their initial planned level of employment, it will definitely sway the political demographic wherever the HQ is built. If they add to it over the years (and they will, as HQ facilities always bloatify), I suspect the leftward tilt in the chosen state will only increase.
Bloatify = made up word
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Let's hope their new HQ is designed better than Apple's.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/people-are-walking-into-glass-at-the-new-apple-headquarters-2018-02-15
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You're right in that regard, Mike. I should have been clearer in my explanation. But when they do eventually hit their initial planned level of employment, it will definitely sway the political demographic wherever the HQ is built. If they add to it over the years (and they will, as HQ facilities always bloatify), I suspect the leftward tilt in the chosen state will only increase.
Bloatify = made up word
So, the assumption you're making is that, in order to work for Amazon, you must be hard left.
OK.
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So, the assumption you're making is that, in order to work for Amazon, you must be hard left.
OK.
Not so much, rather that many of the folks that work for Amazon are already of that political persuasion. And their hiring process may tend to select for folks that are left of center. I've been through hiring processes with other companies where the interview process skews that direction.
eta: I've known several people from the company I am currently working for that have moved to Amazon. Many were left-of-center politically. I wonder if there is some kind of attraction that Amazon holds for people of that political bent.
Interestingly enough, most folks that I know that have gone to work for Amazon have lasted only two years or so before moving on again. They're supposed to be pretty hard on their employees.
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If they move to DC or Maryland, what difference would it make, really, because those two places are irretrievably havens for liberal bullshit.
Unfortunately, Northern Virginia is experiencing an infestation of liberal bullshit that is tipping the entire state more and more liberal. Their bullshit gave us 4 years of progressive communism in action under our previous governor, and it's not much better with the newly installed tool.
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Living in the Seattle area, I know many people who work at Amazon. A former classmate of mine works in the Legal Division doing intellectual property matters. She is 56 years old, and she confirms that she is very unusual being her age and still working at Amazon; age discrimination if you are over 40 years old, is rampant there. She thinks she is still there only because she is a lawyer and has intimated filing a discrimination action if she is forced out. She says that the type of work she is doing can be done by a lawyer with only a few years of experience at half of her salary and her department lead has pointed this out to her many times.
There can be exceptions in the business and support services areas, but a coder/programmer over 40 years old is rare. There is a Microsoft-Google-Amazon cycle that the programmers do in Seattle: work for a couple of years at either of the three and then move on to one of the other companies. This is especially true now that the days of getting stock or stock options after a certain number of years are long gone.