By Christopher Trick
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, Nov. 13, Amazon announced that it would move its new headquarters to New York City and Arlington, Virginia; the corporate giant also said that it would invest about $5 billion, and each location would see around 25,000 new job openings. Sounds good, right? Well, there is another side to this story.
Corporations usually decide to locate in areas with sturdy infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and reliable transportation, so they can operate effectively. Ac- cording to The New York Times, Amazon was given $2 billion in tax subsidies for its decision to build facilities in these locations. Why is it that one of the nation’s most prosperous companies was just given $2 billion?
The answer is simple: Amazon is just one example of an alliance between the business class and the political class. Amazon’s decision to move one of its new headquarters to New York City is no accident, as the city is run by Mayor Bill de Blasio, one of the most liberal mayors in the country. Big corporations often lobby before Congress and give contributions to the politicians; in turn, the politicians give favors to the corporations.
Unfortunately, the Right has defended large corporations for years. Corporate America, however, hates the idea of free markets and competition, which are conservative ideals: according to The Daily Beast, a left-leaning website, “That’s because they have the resources to hire the lawyers needed to navigate regulations, and the lobbyists who can help change the rules if necessary.” Companies like Amazon end up becoming monopolies, and competition from small business is crushed. There is nothing conservative about this practice, just as there is nothing conservative about most big corporations. It is just the opposite: they are the backbone of the Democratic Party.
If you were to check the donor lists of Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, you would find that many large corporations often donate generously to Democrats. According to AlterNet, the Walton family, the owners of Walmart, gave over $300,000 to Hillary Clinton in the last election.
For all the yammering we hear from Democrats about the evils of corporate America, they certainly have no problem taking donations from large corporations for their political campaigns.
The Republican Party deserves some blame, too: in order to satisfy the business interests that fund their campaigns, establishment Republicans often are silent on the issue of illegal immigration and border security, as they want to provide cheap labor to their corporate donors. A mass influx of low-skilled labor often puts downward pressure on the wages of Americans. Many on the Left are right to say that corporate America deserves some skepticism; the problem is, they are enabling the very practices they claim to be fighting against.
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