It's not Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez who doesn't understand "how the world works", it's YOU. AOC knew EXACTLY how this was working and that's why she set out to stop it.
Amazon wasn't spending "their money" to build this big shiny campus. They were spending $9 billion of New York Taxpayers money to build this ugliness. Amazon - a company which pays no federal income tax but has the highest retail sales in the world. A company whose owner, Jeff Bezos, is one of the richest men in the world, who pays no income taxes was receiving $9 billion dollars in infrastructure improvements and enhancements to New York subway and transportation systems to move them to and from work.
Building this hub, which would have employed 50,000 New Yorkers in LOW WAGE JOBS, which would not have been sufficient to pay their living costs in New York. And the people currently living in this area, AOC's voters, would have pushed out of their homes to make way for this ugliness. One of the last lower cost housing areas in the New York, would have been eliminated so Jeff Bezos could make more money.
AOC's opposition to this boondoggle of a development shows that she is very economically astute and really does know "how the world works". You're the gullible and clueless fool.