Originally Posted by
LanghamP
Both Amazon and Walmart have been able to shift their cost of doing business elsewhere, usually local and city governments. They have been able to extract significant infrastructure support by having the locals pay for it, in the hopes that the taxes on job income will be greater than the infrastructure cost (although, absurdly, Chicago offered no income taxes collection on Amazon's distribution center).
This is false economy; Amazon and Walmart are essentially warehouses for Chinese-made goods, depending on a transportation system that is already in place for a century or more. Most of Amazon's workers are dependant on food stamps while most of Walmart's workers do not have health insurance (the health premiums exceed the median wages--in other words you'd be paying Walmart to work for them!).
True, but also true of almost any business of significant size and corporate value, whether it's a prospective employer or sports franchise. Taxpayers are expected to shoulder the burden to minimize risk to businesses. It rarely works out as promised.
My gut feeling is really bad times are coming, with the majority of the US population being turned into Helots...
Precisely my description in debates with Facebook contacts. But this is how the U.S. was founded and it's the direction we've always been heading. The U.S. founders' concept of a "republic" was a variation of the Spartan melding of feudalism, aristocracy and oligarchy, based on the assumption of a class of slaves, serfs, helots, etc., as a given.
For much of the 20th century the drive away from this neo-feudalism was fueled by socially conscious legislation and by world wars that diverted at least some profitability toward average Americans, enabling more people to leverage themselves out of serfdom.
But those days are gone. It's full steam back toward the original intent of the founders. I suspect they recognized that feudalism is the equilibrium point of all civilizations and a tremendous concerted effort is needed to swing the pendulum away from that resting point.