Asking Amazon to contribute is not the American Way

As the deadline for Amazon’s HQ2 approaches, a new rallying cry is emerging. Civic groups are now saying that Amazon isn’t doing its fair share.

I’m a person that is driven by fairness, too, but let’s take a closer look at the logic of this argument.

RELATED: Let’s talk about the growing disparity in Seattle

A letter addressed to Amazon titled “Our HQ2 Wishlist” has been published. Advocacy groups can add their names to this document that divides their requests into three areas: Jobs; Great Communities; and Accountability and Transparency. These groups are from the areas bidding on HQ2.

I completely agree with the jobs part. That makes sense. But the other two categories seem new to me. Are we now saying that when a company becomes a certain size that the normal rules of business in America no longer apply?

These groups would like Amazon to forgo tax breaks, be responsible for transportation issues and affordable housing. They want Amazon to protect small businesses and be transparent and accountable to some outside group. They are asking the tech giant to be “fully committed to open-sourcing the process of reaching … our whole community.”

What are we talking about here? Since when has it been the responsibility of one company to do any of these things? Do a quick Google search — or Bing if you work in Redmond — on Fortune 500 tax breaks, and you’ll find this is the way things get done. Big companies get tax breaks. Builders build houses and municipalities build roads.

So why do cities give big companies like Boeing or Microsoft tax breaks? Because it’s good for the cities in the long run to have quality jobs available. Do you think that Microsoft paid for all those fancy improvements to Highway 520 over the years? Please. They have full-time employees whose entire job is to massage their relationship with government officials.

And affordable housing? What? One big company is now supposed to take on the burden of building housing? That sounds like the missing chapter to Orwell’s 1984. The giant company that sells everything and is in charge of your community, your transportation, and your housing.

Just stop. Businesses run their businesses and people take care of their communities. The American Way has always been to hire the best people you can find, and in turn, those people will create a vibrant community. It’s up to the people, not a company, to build the infrastructure of a community. This isn’t Russia or Cuba. America is built on competition and the free market.

Build your own community. Build your own transportation. Don’t single out one company because it’s successful. That’s not the American Way.