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Bye, Amazon

tbray.org

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Re: Bye, Amazon

#151

Post by scruffups »

krig wrote: post #105
reitzensteinm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you can trust that it's the real reason, because either way it's going to make him radioactive for the next gig like this. No large company keeps its hands completely clean. Defense contracts, Chinese censorship, exploiting addiction, anticompetitive behaviour, sexism, the list goes on. Having a public figure at your company that's willing to martyr themselves to push the knife in just a little deeper when yo…

What an utter disaster this society is if having a conscience makes you "radioactive" to employers. I can only aspire to be as radioactive as possible, then.

Count me in.

Re: Bye, Amazon

#153

Post by nicoburns »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #2

> I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers Assuming this is the real true reason (I would trust Tim, but you never know, so just being explicit here), it takes huge balls to do something like this. The economic loss has to be somewhat taken in relation to your total wealth (e.g. if you lose $1M by quitting but you already have $10M+ in the bank, it's not as hard as if you had zero in the bank), but still... V…

> Very few people would have the courage to walk away from big sums of money purely on principle.

On the contrary, bucketloads of people do this all the time. The world would be a better place if more people did.

Re: Bye, Amazon

#154

Post by readwind »

philipov wrote: post #147
readwind wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not by far radioactive, and he's got tons of friend, including Tom Waits, and etc, he's got tons of contacts, and ephemerality my dudes, he can get jobs. You know. But this was a f good post. Yeah. He's friends with Tom Waits, dudes, and tons of other people, he'll get jobs like hell. Brave move though. I love you Tim Bray been reading the blog for ages it seems. Tim things up. Good luck onwards.

Tom Waits the musician?

As far as I've picked up, yes, but, not that matters in the direct software industries. Tim's got tons of connections though so I doubt he will starve. Tom Waits while Tim Brays.

Check out your email signature Tim Bray. Good luck onwards

EDIT: I might be totally wrong but I read somewhere he's friends with yes that guy.

Re: Bye, Amazon

#155

Post by fastball »

Havoc wrote: post #71

>humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only that’s not just Amazon, it’s how 21st-century capitalism is done. That's the part that scares me - it's not just Amazon. Automation hasn't even kicked off properly and we've already got humans being replaceable at best

I'm not sure what else you can expect in a world where jobs that require effectively 0 skill exist.

I'd prefer the "full automation" route, as I think it would be better for humans to not need to perform these jobs. But until then, isn't it a good thing that jobs which require no skills exist? Since there seem to be many people with little-to-no skills?

Re: Bye, Amazon

#156

Post by lftherios »

We need more Tims in the tech world.

From a place for renegades, the valley has quickly become a safe place for "yes men", that all they do is to obey to their corporate overlords.

Re: Bye, Amazon

#157

Post by Jaruzel »

Maakuth wrote: post #152

His page seems to be melting under HN effect (was: Slashdot effect), luckily IA seems to have a copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20200504111506/https://www.tbray...

HN 'Hug-of-death' is what we call it around here.

Re: Bye, Amazon

#158

Post by rjkennedy98 »

mercury_craze wrote: post #106
enitihas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is the mythical company treating their low-skill workers far better than Amazon? Does the rest of big tech even employ their non professionals directly? Which of big tech directly employ their janitors and treat them much better than Amazon warehouse workers? Which of big non tech company does this? >its refusal to pay tax. What do you even mean by this? Companies can't refuse to pay tax. They have to pay tax a…

Ignoring the bad faith questioning, I dont have to provide a gold standard in order to criticise Amazon. Everything I've said is extremely well documented.

That was not bad faith questioning at all. He was making excellent points that you refused to answer.

Companies exist to make money period. Look at the most powerful companies throughout history (British East India Company, Standard Oil, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, IBM, Facebook, Google, Apple ect). Do any of these have as good of a record as Amazon? IBM for instance played a major part in the Holocaust. Goldman Sachs was involved in the scams crashing the world's economy. Facebook and Google prey upon people's addictive behavior and use it to sell adds. Apple simply has all their employees run out of sweatshops in China, and has all their tax havens in Ireland.

I'm for workers rights and for people getting more pay, but let's be honest, expecting Amazon to fix our inequality problems is astonishingly naive. If Tim Bray wants to leave to have a good conscious about it - that's fine. I myself would never work for Facebook or Google because of how they addict people to their phones. We all have our own standards, but not our own facts.

Re: Bye, Amazon

#159

Post by marvindanig »

krig wrote: post #105
reitzensteinm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you can trust that it's the real reason, because either way it's going to make him radioactive for the next gig like this. No large company keeps its hands completely clean. Defense contracts, Chinese censorship, exploiting addiction, anticompetitive behaviour, sexism, the list goes on. Having a public figure at your company that's willing to martyr themselves to push the knife in just a little deeper when yo…

What an utter disaster this society is if having a conscience makes you "radioactive" to employers. I can only aspire to be as radioactive as possible, then.

> What an utter disaster this society is if having a conscience makes you "radioactive" to employers...

Exactly what this whole conversation made me feel.

Re: Bye, Amazon

#160

Post by ludocode »

cameronbrown wrote: post #52
schnischna wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is so bad about treating somebody as someone who can pick and pack your parcels? It's just a job? And what does it have to do with Capitalism. You think under Socialism they would care about your individuality? No they wouldn't - Socialism is a Collectivist ideology, after all. The way to strengthen workers is to increase demand for their work, or find ways to make their (limited) skills more useful, or give the…

[flagged]

There are 149 comments so far in this thread. Absolutely zero of them have suggested socialism.

Workers' rights are not socialism. Unions are not socialism. Minimum wage is not socialism.

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