It’s Time to Play Amazon’s New Hit Game, ‘Milk the Taxpayer!’

(This article first appeared in the March-April 2018 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine) 

The following article by Jim Hightower (former Texas Agriculture Commissioner and popular activist) originally appeared in the Hightower Lowdown and was edited for length.

Milk the Taxpayer, the old corporate-politico con game, is a 5-step con that generally works like this:

1. GreatBigCorporation decides to build a facility in City A.
2. Claiming the project will create beaucoup jobs, GBC demands that City A’s officials fork over boodles of tax breaks and gimmes.
3. If the officials hem and haw, GBC approaches City B to stir up a bidding war.
4. Fearing the stigma from “losing” those jobs, City A officials cave to GBC’s demands.
5. At a joint press conference, both parties hail the “win-win” deal and praise each other’s forward-looking vision and integrity.

The Great ScAmazon of 2017

While practically every big brand name (Apple, Disney, Marriott, Toyota, Walmart, YouNameIt) travels hither, thither, and yon to play Milk the Taxpayer, Amazon is totally re-writing the rules of the game, supersizing its piles of public money without even having to go door to door. In September, the $136-billion-a-year, multi-tentacled monopolist sparked a prairie fire of excitement among state and local economic development officials when it coyly announced its intention to build a second corporate headquarters in Someplace, North America. Game on!

CEO Jeff Bezos baited his location-subsidy trap with red meat, announcing that Amazon “expect[ed] to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs.”

Then Bezos & Co. made a bold move: They sat still and waited. Stretching corporate overreach to new lengths, the Amazonian royals bid public officials to approach the Seattle throne with all the jewels, bars of gold, frankincense, myrrh, and any other tribute they could muster to show their worthiness for HQ2 (Amazon’s cute, high-techie appellation for the proposed co-head- quarters). Thus, in one stroke, Amazon switched its corporate role from asker to askew and instantly pitted taxpayers across Mexico, Canada, and the US against each other in a no-limit bidding war.

Reaching even farther, Amazon issued a seven-page directive listing some specific bribes (excuse me, “incentives”) that each supplicant should offer. First was a “business-friendly environment.” Then, urging hopefuls to “think big” when offering freebies, the directive listed specific incentives that would be “Decision Drivers,” including contributions of “land, site preparation, tax credits/exemptions, relocation grants, workforce grants, utility incentives/grants, and fee reductions.”

Oh, and also a highly-educated labor pool; an international airport with direct daily flights to key cities; quality of life where “our employees will enjoy living”; and, most important, “elected officials eager and willing to work with the company.”

Surely no self-respecting civic official would willingly play the sucker in such a demeaning, sell-out-the-public scam.

Ha! Officials from 238 cities, regions, and states have so far rushed to Bezos’ corporate castle to grovel, dance, beg, and stage dog-and-pony spectacles in the perverse hope that Amazon might choose their taxpayers to rip off.

All this for a tacky PR stunt with one purpose: to compel the half dozen or so actual contenders to jack up their offers. In fact, Amazon’s data-driven, hard- nosed “economic development department,” set up five years ago, will decide among the few locations it has already deemed most profitable. All other cities are being snookered into spending millions on a rigged game only Amazon can win.

Stop This!

Why are we subsidizing these over-privileged, arrogant elites to enrich themselves at the expense of our common good? Of course, “we” are not actually the ones cutting these deals – our public officials are cutting them in our name (and often in secret), with most people not even aware of the costs.

If people in even one place stop their public officials from giving in to this shameful corporate selfishness, the whole game will change, because others will realize they can rise up and stop it where they live. That’s how “STOP THIS!” becomes a national movement.