Amazon should pay its fair share, NYU Professor says
As Amazon continues on a seemingly unstoppable growth trajectory some are asking: should we reign in the e-commerce giant.
Amazon’s growth has been popular with the U.S. consumer, but there are questions about what potential longer-term economic impacts Amazon’s business will have on the overall economy.
“Should taxpayers be subsidizing the fourth biggest company in the world?,” Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University’s Stern Business School and the author of “The Four, the Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google” told FBN’s Stuart Varney on Tuesday.
Galloway noted that Amazon has added the value of Wal-Mart to its market capitalization in just the past two years. But, since the Great Recession, Amazon has paid just $1.4 billion in corporate taxes, whereas Wal-Mart has paid $64 billion. Until recently, Amazon wasn’t paying any state taxes.
While consumers may cheer Amazon’s services, the company employs one person per every two people that would be employed in conventional retail, according to Galloway. It is no secret that brick and mortars are struggling as a result of the online retailer’s growing dominance.
So, how has Amazon grown so rapidly while at the same time paid a negligible amount of taxes versus its competitor Wal-Mart? Galloway believes that Amazon has not been subject to the same scrutiny as other companies because “we worship innovators.”
