Ending Amazon Giveaways
Amazon is one of the country’s fastest-growing and most controversial corporations. Critics have cited its hazardous working conditions, strident opposition to organized labor, detrimental environmental impacts, and anti-competitive behavior as reasons to rein in the corporate giant.Â
Amazon’s rapid expansion has been fueled in part by an aggressive strategy to extract tax breaks: internal documents reveal a goal of $1 billion per year in public subsidies. Indeed, it has been getting about 20 economic development subsidy packages a year since 2012 for its warehouses, offices, and data centers—as of late 2022, our Amazon Tracker database lists over $5.1 billion’s worth.
Ending Amazon Giveaways places a critical spotlight on the ways states and municipalities have supported Amazon’s exponential growth and provides communities with tools to challenge these wasteful giveaways. Amazon has gotten increasingly secretive about the money it demands and receives from communities. We oppose the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) by Amazon, muzzling public officials when Amazon’s Prime business model requires it to open lots of new warehouses. Instead of extracting subsidies, Amazon should provide robust community benefits in exchange for the harms caused by its arrival.