These guys have taken us for fools in this country. They've looked at us in New Zealand and they've gone, let's take these guys for fools.
That $7.5 billion wasn't new, it was already announced by Jacinda 4 years ago. It's not even actually a convincing number, because it looks like what they've done here is included their power bills.
Now power bills are not an investment, they're an operating cost. The 1000 jobs that Amazon now tells us that they're supporting also looks questionable.
It looks like they've included people who already work in the electricity sector - and some say the real number is more likely a few dozen jobs.
Amazon's not building anything. All the data centres they tell us are now live, have actually been built by other companies, which means that you could argue that they haven't actually added anything material to the New Zealand economy.
Because if they didn't use those existing data centres, someone else would just be using those existing data centres.
In fact, you could argue that Amazon running those data centres is actually not the best outcome for New Zealand, because Amazon does not pay tax on all of their revenue here, which means if another local company used those data centres and paid full tax like they do, we'd all be better off.
We'd be better off than Amazon using the centres and then sending hundreds of millions of dollars overseas like Google and Facebook do.
Now, being critical of that announcement by Amazon yesterday is not the same as being ungrateful for the good that they're doing.
I think you should interrogate an announcement just a little bit more than simply taking it at face value, because that is what Amazon wants you to do.
They want to play us for fools. They want to make us believe that they're doing good when what they're actually doing is just making money off us.
And that's fair. I don't mind them making money off us, they're a business, we're customers, but let's see it for what it is.
Let's not be grateful for them doing business.
I still like Amazon's product, but to be honest with you, I like it a little bit less than I did yesterday when they assumed that this country was full of stupid people who would just simply believe anything.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
9 comments:
No mention of adsquawkzb's role in this farce. It allowed the Chief fool to spout his crap without any challenge from His Holiness Hosking making the PM's spot about as useless as the rest of the show.
Amazon prob has a bigger GDP than NZ.
The country is not be full of stupid people but we certainly have our fair share. The country however has a large number of stupid politicians (central and local) who are very stupid and it seems we cannot find any better ones to vote for because smart people stay out of politics as it is a game seemingly made for stupid, childish and vacuous people.
Chris Luxon and Mike Hosking believed it...Mike was very vocal about how the (second) announcement was reported in MSM, now he's gone very quiet...
They’re only playing us for the fools that we are
The NZ cultural theme I used to know and which served me well in the wider world was "substance over form". Kiwis were authentic. Genuine. Diamonds in the rough. No bullshit types. Ed Hillary symbolized it. My European friends, always better dressed & smoother than me, nevertheless loved this quality NZ had bestowed on me in my youth. Now we've had two PM's in a row that symbolize form & superficialty over substance. PR and marketing over the quality of the product. Spin over truth. Ardern's background was PR; Luxon's marketing. Every day Ardern did a PR job on us. Every day Luxon tries to sell us a product or an announcement that is later found to not work and fall apart. Both these PMs over-sold and under-delivered. Hillary was a beekeeper. Tenzing lifted loads. They both under-sold and over-delivered. The new New Zealand is loaded with bullshit politicians and con-artist business "leaders" who are unrecognizable to the deliver-the-goods, straight-shooters who once characterized this country.
We're doomed in such increments by fools to an energy scarce future where folk will be found sitting at home in winter, with the lights and heating out, trying to find solace by way of a signal on their mobile phones. Because, when power becomes in short(er) supply, guess whose will get cut first? Hint: not the Datacentres'!
O'Lacey @ 12:52
I'll ad to your last sentence, "Hint: not the Datacentres'! ad, or Marae.
Have we become a nation of naysayers? Amazon are not doing good, they are doing business. Which can be mutually beneficial if we have the ambition to pursue technological advancement. And perhaps this may further precipitate some changes in our stale power industry?
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