Why is everyone so excited?

[billryan]

I tried to edit the previous post but I wasn't able.
All interest was deductible when the first Federal taxes were instituted, but as only about 3% of Americans paid income tax, it was only available to the very elite. In the late 1970s, when Congress rewrote the tax codes, they did away with most personal interest deductions but kept the mortgage deduction.
Prior to that, individuals and businesses both could deduct any interest expenses.

[Eduardo]

Amazon was just given some twenty million dollars in tax breaks to build a warehouse on Long Island.

Why are you comparing such wildly different situations?

Do you really not understand why a city would offer a $1.5 trillion business incentives that they don't offer to a low income renter?

[advantage playe]

Try to understand that these BAD corpoations hire millions of workers so these same workers can pay tax to supply welfare checks and other moneys needed or sometimes wasted on nonsense but really needed most of the time I hope !!

[billryan]

Amazon was just given some twenty million dollars in tax breaks to build a warehouse on Long Island.

Why are you comparing such wildly different situations?

Do you really not understand why a city would offer a $1.5 trillion business incentives that they don't offer to a low income renter?

Does that change the fact that these are handouts? Calling it an incentive doesn't change that. Perhaps we could call them allowances?

[Eduardo]

You can call it whatever you want (I would call it an offer to a business in a competitive landscape) but let's go with handout. Handouts to businesses and handouts to individuals are completely different things.

[billryan]

You can call it whatever you want (I would call it an offer to a business in a competitive landscape) but let's go with handout. Handouts to businesses and handouts to individuals are completely different things.

See how easy that was. I'm not saying some handouts are good and some are bad, I'm just saying they are all handouts.
What I find amazing is that people think a 1.2 trillion dollar company needs subsidies in the first place.
In the case of the Long Island Amazon center, it is located very close to a mall whose tenants are predicting a large loss of jobs. I'm sure those workers will appreciate their tax incentives at work.

[Eduardo]

But they aren't all handouts. You gave one very different example. A tax break for an individual is not a handout.

As for whether Amazon "needs" a subsidy... they don't. But cities are competing to get Amazon to invest there (for a lot of reasons) so they can offer a subsidy if they choose to.

[Tedlark]

So, it was reported today that President Biden is "loaning" Canada and Mexico 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The logic is because "we are so far ahead of hitting our 100 day vaccination goal we should be good neighbors to our friends to the north and south of us.

Isn't the bigger goal to get Americans vaccinated? Does being a good neighbor to Canada include the immediate halting of the Keystone Pipeline the very same day President Biden takes office?

I'm sorry but in this situation we need to think of ourselves first. Especially considering that Americans ARE STILL DYING FROM THIS VIRUS!!!

[billryan]

If I understand the situaion, the US Government is lending them doses of the Astra Zenaca vaccine that is not approved for US use. We bought it ahead of the approval and instead of having it sit in the warehouses, it is being lent out. It's not close to getting even emergency use approval so the doses are being used to save lives now.

[billryan]

I had my first shot yesterday. It turned out to be the Moderna so I have to do a followup in a month.
There were three places in Bisbee giving the shots yesterday.
The hospital received the one-shot dose and was chaotic, as it is every week. I was told by text to go to one address but when I got there I was redirected to another place about four blocks away.
Everything went smoothly and I was in and out in a half hour. My neighbor spent the afternoon waiting for the one shot at the hospital.
No arm discomfort, or side effects. So far, so good.