@AThousandYoung saidHere is the whole answer from Perplexity :From ChatGPT:
Prompt: do the taxes Amazon pays fully cover all of the costs of the police, fire departments, judges, road maintenance and all other public goods and services used as part of its regular business activities?
Answer: Short answer: almost certainly not
*********************************
Q : Do the taxes Amazon pays fully cover all of the costs of the police, fire departments, judges, road maintenance and all other public goods and services used as part of its regular business activities?
A: No, Amazon's taxes do not fully cover the marginal costs of public services like police, fire, judges, and roads directly attributable to its operations. No single company's taxes are expected to fund its exact usage—taxes pool into shared public goods supporting the entire economy.
Why Taxes Don't Work That Way
Public services are financed collectively from all taxpayers (corporate, individual, sales/property taxes), not billed per business like a utility. Amazon contributes via sales taxes ($25B collected/remitted in one recent year), federal/state income taxes (~$4.9B cash US in 2025), payroll, and property taxes—but these fund general budgets, not itemized per user [ from prior].
Amazon's Broader Offset
Its $340B in 2025 US investments (infrastructure, wages) generate tax revenue from employees, suppliers, and economic multipliers—adding $1.8T to GDP since 2010 and creating 1M+ jobs that pay their own taxes. Fulfillment centers alone spawn 6,000 new small businesses and 10,000 jobs per site after five years, expanding the tax base.
The Real Question
Attributing "full costs" ignores how Amazon lowers consumer prices (saving households ~$1,200/year), enables remote work via AWS, and boosts overall growth—benefits that amplify public revenues economy-wide [ from prior]. Critics focus on federal income tax (often low due to R&D credits), but total contributions exceed many peers.
**************************************
@Rajk999 saidIf Amazon paid a percentage of taxes similar to mine, it could still do all those things AND pay for its own roads.
Here is the whole answer from Perplexity :
*********************************
Q : Do the taxes Amazon pays fully cover all of the costs of the police, fire departments, judges, road maintenance and all other public goods and services used as part of its regular business activities?
A: No, Amazon's taxes do not fully cover the marginal costs of public services like po ...[text shortened]... to R&D credits), but total contributions exceed many peers.
**************************************
@wildgrass saidIf you had contributed as much to the economy as Amazon did, maybe you might get more privileges and negotiating power. Right now you are a deadbeat as far as the economy is concerned. You contribute the bare minimum, which is the taxes you pay. I say thats a good deal. Take it and be thankful.
If Amazon paid a percentage of taxes similar to mine, it could still do all those things AND pay for its own roads.
@Rajk999 saidDon't tell me what to do, Dad. Don't you remember? I'm all grown up now and I can do what I want. Just last week I stayed up until midnight. But whatever, you were hardly there for me anyways. I had to ask Mom to teach me how to drive a car.
If you had contributed as much to the economy as Amazon did, maybe you might get more privileges and negotiating power. Right now you are a deadbeat as far as the economy is concerned. You contribute the bare minimum, which is the taxes you pay. I say thats a good deal. Take it and be thankful.
So, no I don't think I will take it and be thankful. I would prefer to complain on an internet forum. A government that takes middle class taxpayer dollars and gives them over to a billionaire so he can cut jobs is something to complain about.
@Rajk999 saidYou're just the kind of slop-slurping imbecile AI chatbots were invented for, who finds even a search of Wikipedia and reputable news sources just "too hard" to do.
AI simply produces information about a topic. The opening post ignores the contribution made by these large companies. It is the opening comment that is loaded and biased and therefore means nothing.
1 edit
@Rajk999 saidSo...
Here is the whole answer from Perplexity :
*********************************
Q : Do the taxes Amazon pays fully cover all of the costs of the police, fire departments, judges, road maintenance and all other public goods and services used as part of its regular business activities?
A: No, Amazon's taxes do not fully cover the marginal costs of public services like po ...[text shortened]... to R&D credits), but total contributions exceed many peers.
**************************************
The answer from your conservatively biased AI is no, but with a lot of spin.
For example, the AI attempts to give Amazon credit for paying sales taxes that the customers pay and income taxes that the employees pay!
It also gives its "opinion" in response to a simple yes/no question.
No single company's taxes are expected to fund its exact usage...
Did I ask that? No. But it really "thinks" (i.e. is programmed to act as if) we need to be told what is expected of companies.
Expected by who? I thought the Representatives of the People carried out the wills of their constituents when deciding what taxes are "expected" of companies.
@wildgrass saidOk .. I get your point. But ... get some help with your daddy issues.
Don't tell me what to do, Dad. Don't you remember? I'm all grown up now and I can do what I want. Just last week I stayed up until midnight. But whatever, you were hardly there for me anyways. I had to ask Mom to teach me how to drive a car.
So, no I don't think I will take it and be thankful. I would prefer to complain on an internet forum. A government that takes middl ...[text shortened]... ayer dollars and gives them over to a billionaire so he can cut jobs is something to complain about.
@Soothfast saidAttacking me for using AI tools instead of addressing the actual argument is a convenient way to avoid thinking and contributing. If thats the best you can muster just let us know. Not everyone is capable of contributing ... we understand.
You're just the kind of slop-slurping imbecile AI chatbots were invented for, who finds even a search of Wikipedia and reputable news sources just "too hard" to do.
@Rajk999 saidThe operative word in AI is not "intelligence", but "artificial".
Attacking me for using AI tools instead of addressing the actual argument is a convenient way to avoid thinking and contributing. If thats the best you can muster just let us know. Not everyone is capable of contributing ... we understand.
Seems we have yet another candidate for the "Irony Man" title.
@Rajk999 saidOk, will do Dad.
Ok .. I get your point. But ... get some help with your daddy issues.
Amazon should pay taxes too. Rich people should pay taxes. That's a problem with our government.
I saw a headline the other day that Bezos' ex wife Mackenzie Scott has given away tens of billions of dollars that she has from the divorce settlement a few years ago. So you gotta imagine she doesn't have as much money today as she did then? Nope. She is even more wealthy. Her only job is to give away money and she does it by the billions every year and every year she still gets richer.
Because she's not required to pay taxes on any of it.
We should be taxxxing the bejeeezus out of these folks, give the middle class a break.
@Suzianne saidYeah, so many people are using these chatbots wrong, assuming they are objective truth-tellers. But study after study shows that their main programming is designed to tell the user what it wants to hear. All information is FoxNews now.
The operative word in AI is not "intelligence", but "artificial".
Seems we have yet another candidate for the "Irony Man" title.
@Rajk999 saidIf you post the prompt, then that will clear things up. A fun exercise for your free time is to try to get perplexity to contradict itself by changing the prompt.
Attacking me for using AI tools instead of addressing the actual argument is a convenient way to avoid thinking and contributing. If thats the best you can muster just let us know. Not everyone is capable of contributing ... we understand.