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Roll call Amazon
Amazon has become a thorn in Trump's side. On Saturday, local time, US President Trump once again issued a document attacking Amazon. Trump said on Twitter that every time the US Postal Service sends a package for Amazon, the average loss will reach $65,438 +0.5, with a total count of $1 billion. If the US Postal Service raises the parcel rate, Amazon's transportation cost will increase by $2.6 billion, and Amazon must now pay the actual cost and tax.
People sit at home, and pots come from heaven. Washington post was once again criticized by Trump because he worked for Amazon CEO Bezos. Trump said that Washington post had the problem of reporting false news, and Bezos used it as a lobbying tool for his policies. Last year, Washington post also won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism for investigating Trump's charitable donations.
As early as last Wednesday, the American news website Axios revealed that Trump would "start work" on Amazon, saying that Trump was "obsessed" with Amazon and considered dealing with this e-commerce giant through a series of means such as anti-monopoly sanctions, supervision and potential tax adjustment. This kind of information made the whole Wall Street worry that the war between Trump and Amazon would become a reality, which caused Amazon's share price to fall by 4.38% that day.
A day later, Trump personally sent a tweet to add fuel to Amazon's fire, criticizing Amazon for not paying enough taxes, saying that it only paid little or no taxes to state and local governments, and also used the postal system as Amazon's deliveryman, which led to the bankruptcy of thousands of retailers and brought huge losses to the US economy.
Trump's tweet made Axios's report a real hammer. Affected by this, Amazon's market value fell to the bottom on the morning of the 29th 10, with a total loss of $53 billion. Although the White House spokesperson clarified that there are no specific policies and actions for Amazon, Trump's influence is obviously not to be underestimated.
In fact, Trump and Amazon are old enemies. As early as 20 15 12, Trump denounced Amazon's "tax avoidance". Bezos did not show weakness, mocking Trump for "sending into space" and staying away from American politics as much as possible. Trump warned Amazon in the 20 16 election campaign that if he became president, Amazon would be in trouble, and now Trump has become a prophecy.
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Trees attract wind ―― People with high status/fame are vulnerable to attack.
This round of contest between Trump and Amazon comes from a book. Previously, the latest data from Scott Lowe, a marketing professor at new york University, showed that in the past nine years, Amazon paid $654.38+04 billion in corporate income tax, while its competitor Wal-Mart paid $64 billion. Compared with the same period, Wal-Mart's pre-tax profit and shareholder dividends were $229 billion, while Amazon's profit was only $654.38+04 billion. In contrast, Wal-Mart's tax burden is twice that of Amazon.
From the perspective of taxation, this round of "embarrassment" of Amazon is really unfair. According to statistics, from 2007 to 20 15, the average tax burden of S&P 500 listed companies in the United States was 27% of their profits. However, the tax burden of the four American technology giants Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon is far from this average level. Among them, Amazon's tax burden is 13%, only half of the average tax burden, even lower than Apple's 17% and Google's 16%.
How to avoid tax reasonably seems to be a compulsory course for an enterprise, but as far as the scale of Amazon is concerned, tax avoidance seems to be only a starting point for Trump's operation. The truth is that Amazon has extended its reach to various economic fields. Previously, a report by the Local Institute for Self-Reliance (ILSR) showed that half of American residents were members of Amazon Prime, and half of all online shopping activities started directly from Amazon. The amount spent on Amazon accounted for half of all online shopping in the United States.
As of last year 10, Amazon's market value of $427 billion has reached the sum of the market values of eight American retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's and Sears. The contrast between the same industry is even more amazing. During the three years from 20 14 to 20 16, Wal-Mart's share price dropped from 74 dollars to 7/kloc-0 dollars, while Amazon's share price rose from 370 dollars to 845 dollars.
Amazon, which is aware of the problem, has begun to adjust. Since last April 1, Amazon began to levy sales tax on direct selling products in 45 States of the United States. Starting from April this year 1, Amazon will also impose a sales tax on parcels sent to Pennsylvania. Last year, Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a bill requiring Internet retailers to collect consumption tax on behalf of consumers, thus creating a level playing field for physical stores in the state. The industry is also worried about the increasing monopoly of the four American technology giants, including Amazon, and the negative impact on industrial and social spillover effects. After all, it is not necessarily a good thing to help a few enterprises succeed at the expense of huge industrial and social resources.
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Trump's fear
Regarding Trump's attitude towards Amazon, GQ magazine hit the nail on the head, saying that Trump is afraid of Amazon because Amazon lives in a world he doesn't understand at all. This conclusion directly pokes Trump's pain point. As a traditional businessman, his proud family history is being attacked by the new giant Amazon. Axios commented that Trump is an old-school businessman who likes to see the world from the perspective of physical assets: real estate, postal express, main street stores and retail stores. And Amazon just pointed the gun at the core of the business model of that era. In Trump's view, Amazon is not only forcing those couples to go to retail stores, but also frantically using the US postal system.
Studies have shown that about120,000 jobs in the US retail industry are facing increasingly fierce competition from Amazon, especially the 6.2 million employees in shopping malls and shopping centers. If Amazon can win 40% market share in these industries within five years, it is estimated that there will be 6.5438+0.5 million people unemployed. In 20 17, American department stores * * * reduced 32,000 jobs, in contrast to the retail industry without stores, which increased 29,000 jobs. The phenomenon of uneven salary has gradually become prominent. In 20 16, the average annual salary of e-commerce employees such as Amazon exceeded 59,000 US dollars, while the average annual salary of department store employees in the same period was only slightly higher than 20,000 US dollars. It can be seen that Amazon is reducing the jobs of low-income groups and increasing the jobs of the middle class.
This may be the part that Trump cares most about. Liu Xiangdong, an associate researcher in the Economic Research Department of China International Economic Exchange Center, said in an interview with beijing business today Today that although Amazon itself has great added value, it will have a certain impact on both employment and overall GDP because its industrial chain devours the attributes of the intermediate links in physical stores. Trump has paid more attention to the traditional business of the entity since his election, and he himself supports the development of agro-industry. Although the current unemployment rate in the United States has rebounded, the desire of many middle and lower class voters to increase their income has not been met, which is exactly what Trump promised during the campaign, because technology has cancelled jobs and emerging industries are the reason for their unemployment.
I haven't seen him before, but I heard his voice for the first time. Amazon's "terrible" lies in its power. On June+10 this year, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway jointly established a non-profit medical and health company to provide medical insurance services for more than 500,000 employees and their families of the three companies. As soon as the news came out, the stock prices of more than 30 medical insurance companies fell, and the market value evaporated by more than 30 billion US dollars. In view of this, Trump also warned that Amazon's monopoly position and taxation should be subject to more stringent scrutiny.
Liu Xiangdong said that Trump itself does not exclude emerging industries, but Amazon itself is a completely global form, and its existence can not only solve the trade deficit problem, but even aggravate it. As a multinational online store, Amazon's model bypasses taxation and Trump's internalization policy. Trump's worry is that Amazon's uncontrolled expansion will give Amazon a stronger voice, which will adversely affect his policies.