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Editorial: State leaders shouldn't get lost in the Amazon
Georgia doesn’t need to go overboard with incentives in bid to lure retail giant’s headquarters
01282018 AMAZON ATLANTA
A tract of land known to locals as The Gulch is shown Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, in Atlanta. As Atlanta vies to entice Amazon to build its second headquarters on the site, local leaders are studying a proposal to build a $5 billion project with more than three times the office space of New York’s Empire State Building. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Once upon a time, when the Amazon was merely a river in South America, governments would welcome a new business to town by perhaps putting in a road, maybe with a traffic light. Bending over backward was seldom the standard procedure. But times have changed, and efforts to attract corporate giants and the jobs they bring puts cities and states all-in by offering financial incentives in a poker game where the stakes keep rising.