You could list all Ocasio-Cortez knows about economics in five seconds or less. I know she has a degree in economics, I just don’t know why she received one.
Her newest erroneous assertion on economics is to criticize the deal Gov Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio made to get Amazon to move to New York City. She is bemoaning the fact that the taxpayers gave Amazon 1.5 billion dollars to open a large office in New York City.
But, did they really? Nope. It is true that New York City and State gave Amazon tax breaks in order to get the headquarters, but had they not, Amazon would have gone somewhere else, where they could get the breaks. Plenty of cities would have gladly made the same deal. Either way, New York wouldn’t collect that 1,5 billion in taxes. But, what they did get was 25,000 high paying jobs, for which they will collect state and local taxes on the income of those 25,000 employees. They will also benefit greatly from the economic activity that comes from those 25,000 high paying jobs.
The new building will draw people from all over the globe to visit or conduct business with Amazon. That’s a boon for hotels and restaurants.
“Amazon is a billion-dollar company,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.”
The tax breaks that she’s referring to were part of a process that the state used to woo Amazon to New York, correctly presuming that attracting one of the largest employers in the world to the area would be a good thing. Without the tax breaks, Amazon would almost certainly have built in another state.
Yet tens of thousands of new jobs in New York is apparently “extremely concerning” to the socialist congresswoman. As The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra keenly pointed out, Ocasio-Cortez provided no proof that anyone other than her was upset with the Amazon decision.
Economics degree my butt. I would trust her to balance my checkbook.