Recently, the common practice of municipalities offeringincentives to companies for relocating or expanding has beenvilified as “corporate welfare.” Amazon's bid to open theirmuch-hyped HQ2 in Long Island City was received by accusations ofgreed, among other politically motivated gripes. Why should acorporation helmed by the richest man in the world be given anincentive package worth $3 billion? That kind of rhetoric served toderail the project and, as this article is being written, city andstate officials are scrambling to put the Amazon deal backtogether.

So why give a company like Amazon such incentives? Simply put:because it's worth it. New York State estimated that Amazon wouldgenerate $27.5 billion in state and city revenue over 25 years, andemploy over 100,000 people, including 25,000 directly employed byAmazon at an average salary of $150,000 per year. That is agame-changer for any city.