Why Is Amazon So Important To Boston?

Within the past few months, the whole country has been informed of Amazon’s new plan to build a second headquarters known as “Amazon HQ2.” The company that dominates e-commerce has decided to expand its workforce and reach by letting major cities “bid” for their new headquarters. Amazon said they will be “spending more than $5 billion” on the new headquarters and provide approximately 50,000 jobs (Walsh, 2017). They’ve already made a mock up list, placing Boston at the number 2 spot. The headquarters will be similar to Seattle’s in size with all of the buildings, restaurants, and employees. Initially, it’s evident that this new headquarter will add wealth to any lucky city in the nation. However, through further research, there seems to be

19). So it’s normal to expect large companies such as Amazon to expand and make their mark in various places in the world. But this is not a small operation for any company, which makes Amazon’s HQ2 a spotlight in the news in technology and business. Overall, it would be hard for Amazon to preserve the culture of Boston when they are bringing about major problems that must be solved by the people and city.
Amazon’s impacts to a city are discussed in the articles “Amazon a blessing to Seattle, also a burden” and “The HQ2 effect on Massachusetts, no matter what Amazon decides,” written by Nestor Ramos and Scott Kirsner, respectively. By looking at mainly these two articles, we can see that Kirsner’s article is able to discuss the initial impacts as Ramos’ article discusses the causes of what will eventually happen to a city. In Ramos’ article, the main argument is that Amazon is a burden on Seattle, not just a blessing. With any large, profitable company, an influx of residents and employees is inevitable. But with the growing number of housing

With taxes, subsidies for large companies will come about. Just like how the mayor gave $150 million of taxpayer money to GE, Amazon may get the same treatment (“Wooing Amazon, raising awareness,” 2017). Historically speaking, big businesses are favored when the government helps them through creating laws, policies, and regulations. Taxation is inevitable and people have never enjoyed increases in taxes. This means Amazon won’t be getting the short end of the stick, but rather the residents in the city will. Taxation also leads to upset citizens because it increases wealth inequality. Rarely anyone is satisfied with the tax provisions and laws passed because it’s bound to help one and harm the other. Many successful cities are known to be a “luxury product” since it’s focusing on the wealthy, pushing out the middle class, and making low-income family’s lives worse (Kotkin, 2016, p. 39). It’s not maximizing the happiness and wealth of the majority of the people, which is the middle and low-income class in a city. There’s always going to be higher rent, higher demand for homeless shelters, and higher taxes that will impact the middle and lower income class the most. Boston will continue to be known as a “luxury-oriented city” and it’s not going to be any more affordable for people if Amazon arrives (Kotkin, 2016, p. 40). Imagine the kind of job and status one must