Summary: Meet Me in St. Louis, Bezos

Ross Douthat, a New York Times op-ed columnist, thinks St. Louis may just be the perfect spot for Amazon’s second home. That is, if they want to avoid too much government regulation.

In his article β€œMeet me in St. Louis, Bezos”, Douthat points out the irony that while tech giants appear to be losing favor in the political realm, Amazon is on the hunt for a place to house more than 50,000 employees and β€œan awful lot of tech-industry dollars over the years and decades ahead,” and speculates how a city like St. Louis could fit the bill.

Of course, Douthat points to several quantifiers such as β€œjob growth, an educated labor pool, quality of life and ease of transportation” that data heads use to narrow Amazon’s list of potential landing spots, but he surmises that it might be in Amazon’s best interest to take this opportunity to not only choose a city where they would create profit for themselves, but also a city in need of an economic boost. In other words, Douthat sees an opportunity for Amazon to be a big business trendsetter to rebuild our nation’s heartland as a way to show their support for the country and in turn get back on the good side of politics.

With these new β€œwhat’s good for America” metrics in place, Douthat argues for Amazon to consider β€œAmazon Cleveland or Amazon Detroit”–or even our very own St. Louis–stating that a company like Amazon could really forge its own path by taking advantage of the space a once-booming city offers, and the stability that is found with employees who are married with kids. Douthat concedes that there is no one city offering everything Amazon needs. And he ends with his thesis that in order to sidestep regulatory actions that seem imminent, Amazon might want to to be seen as a patriotic company that revitalizes rather than destroys.

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