“Corporate subsidies, including the $3 billion package offered to Amazon, are often pernicious and usually pointless. Studies show that these sorts of measures ‘have no discernible impact on firm expansion, measured by job creation.’ Yet every year, local governments spend more than $90 billion to move headquarters and factories between states, a wasteful zero-sum exercise whose cost is more than the federal government spends on affordable housing, education, or infrastructure.”
The Atlantic

This ordeal is “in some ways symbolic of the troubled American economy at large, in which nominal good news (Dow 26,000!) is meaningless to an underclass increasingly without stakes (half the country has no money in the stock market)... the burden now lies on businesses and politicians to show why new jobs are good for people who won’t be hired for them… Forget the jobs mantra. New Yorkers want to know something more: What’s in it for me?”
Slate

Supporters note that “the deal would've created $27.5 billion in tax revenue over the next 25 years. With the city and state receiving a roughly 50/50 split, that amounts to a 9-to-1 payout on the investment... So why was there such strong public hostility to Amazon’s plan[?]… nearly 80 percent of voters believed the city should have had more input in the process, which happened in secret and without input from local Queens politicians… This moment in history provides a unique opportunity for politicians to change the narrative… [and] enact economic development decisions with greater transparency and inclusivity.”
The Hill

“Critics dismiss the idea that Amazon would have helped grow [the] tax base, pointing to the subsidies it was scheduled to receive and falsely claiming those dollars could have otherwise been spent on schools and subways. But the bulk of those abatements weren’t cash handouts — they were discounts on the taxes Amazon would have paid in the future…

“The deal signed with the government also included important objectives like the hiring of residents from Queensbridge Houses, the nation’s largest public housing project. While progressives often rally for populations like those at Queensbridge, their job prospects rarely appear in their rallying cries… the NYCHA Tenants Association issued a scathing indictment of local politicians in the aftermath of the deal’s collapse.”
Buzzfeed News

“Politicians and activists had good reason to criticize the size of the tax breaks and the secrecy of the negotiations… [But] it seemed that few were interested in having a constructive conversation about how to improve the deal and make it work for the tech giant and the city.”
New York Times

Some argue that despite headlines, “Amazon’s about-face was not a temper tantrum. It was a calculated move to preserve, even enhance, the company’s leverage in trying to extort taxpayer-funded handouts for projects across the country. Amazon is sending the message that it will bend to no city or state government. If any locality tries to cut a better deal—or, god forbid, criticizes the company for its business practices—Amazon will walk away. Bezos is making the cynical, and probably accurate, bet that many desperate communities in America won’t dare to try.”
The New Republic