Quote:
Originally Posted by west-town-brad
Haven't we discussed on this forum how the very rich buy mansions and penthouses for fun and it should not be viewed with any other meaning?
As a shareholder I'd say his job should be running Amazon and not becoming the most influential person in the world, even if it is on his bucket list. And I'm not sure I'd go to DC to become influential.
That being said they could pick DC - I just don't see it as being in line with their stated objectives with HQ2.
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Yes, the argument of where someone bought a mansion is one of the stupidest fucking arguments I've heard in my life for this situation. This isn't a 200 person csuite office ...it's an office of 50k workers that will bring in tons of money. It's a hell of a lot more complicated than figuring out where in 2018 you can take your 3 executive calls from per day (answer: anywhere).
A lot of people have obviously never worked at large corporations, especially public ones, who think this is a factor. Bezos and his team are looking at the place that will help them grow whatever part of the business the best, at least with tradeoffs. Where he wants to spend his time is completely pointless when you are talking about an office of this scale. This is like saying Ken Griffin is going to move Citadel to the Miami area because he owns a few huge mansions there and he really likes spending time in Miami. These guys are some of the richest guys in the world, and they understand there's a difference between where you really like spending time and another place that is going to make you way richer.
If this was a csuite office, then this might be valid...but it's not. The stakes and situation are much different.
Also, this "rubbing elbows" with politicians thing IMO is a weak argument. Most influential businessmen in this way do not live in or near DC. But yet they manage just fine. They are all rich. If they need to at the drop of a dime be in DC, they can do it. This is also not accounting that a lot of politicians also travel a lot and aren't constantly IN DC. Not to say that DC isn't a strong contender, but this is a weak argument. You would see a lot more CEOs who are influential in government who already live in DC, but you don't because you don't need to be right there to be influential. If someone like Jeff Bezos needed to charter a jet to DC right at this instant, he could without giving one shit.