Amazon, Grow Up
Today, Amazon announced they'd be shutting down a distribution center in Dallas, Texas. This is a result of Amazon's ongoing battle with Texas over collecting sales tax, and is just one more salvo in the war Amazon is fighting with a number of states, ranging from California to New York to Colorado to North Carolina to Tennessee.
A lot of people are up in arms, opposing any attempt to collect sales tax — on that side of the equation are many of my fellow technorati.
The rally cry goes "Information wants to be free!" and apparently, "Business wants to be free!"
I'm in the opposite camp. Here's why.
Believe it or not, taxes exist for the common good. Especially state taxes. I live in a state capitol (the lovely Olympia, WA), and I gotta tell you, state workers are hardly over-compensated. Every dime is micro-managed down to the bone, and the vast majority of funds are used for important items like nursing homes, rehabilitation services, child welfare services, police pay, highway repair, and — believe it or not — ensuring that we have a solid infrastructure for corporations.
Amazon is the beneficiary of an improving public transportation system (which will be improving further) in Washington State, and a dynamic building boom in the Seattle area — much of which was funded by public dollars. Taxes. Corporate taxes.
Finally, they sure as hell couldn't attract their employees to Seattle if it had the tax base of a Detroit. High-tech employees wouldn't re-locate to an area with terrible schools, defunct public utilities and urban blight. The taxes paid by every other company in Washington State sure as hell made it possible for Amazon to exist, and thrive in this state. Hell, they couldn't have a distribution center in Texas — or Colorado — if some corporation hadn't paid taxes for the airport and the roads.
Pony up, Amazon, make it right. (By the way, if you work for any brick-and-mortar retailer, Amazon's approach to this fight has a corollary in the way China's policies have crippled our economy in real competition. Amazon is also fighting an unfair fight. If you're a techno-libertarian — or a conservative economist — don't you want a fair field for a fight? Should government largesse privelege one player over another?)
Here's a quote that sums up the moral contract a business should uphold as a "corporate citizen" in our society: "A company the size of Amazon with $14 billion in sales should not be given a government-sponsored advantage over brick-and-mortar retailers," said Jason Brewer, a spokesman for Retailer Industry Leaders Association.
The libertarian rallying cry taken up by many is really a childish approach to the tax fight. Amazon is simply trying to avoid the basic responsibilities of a grown-up business, to contribute to the economy in areas in which it has customers. Sure, it won't be good for the bottom line.
That's kind of the point. It's for the larger good. Not your bottom line.
Be a grown-up business, and stop fighting the hand that actually feeds you.
Grow up, Amazon.
