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Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

jacobinmag.com

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Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#91

Post by tomcooks »

iamacyborg wrote: post #43
emteycz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? The EU and other similar institutions require their branding to be present in classes too. I'd rather have obviously absurd corporate branding than slow but sure political indoctrination (e.g. the EU makes it look like the local government is incapable of doing anything on its own, while the fact is that everything worked pretty well before the EU and even today 90%+ of funding is local - but the EU flag mus…

I went to school in British and French schools and never saw European flags. You’re talking absolute nonsense.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/02/french-and-eu-flags-comp...

For obvious reasons there's no British equivalent.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#92

Post by gruez »

amelius wrote: post #11
JeanMarcS wrote: post #4

So we are back to the 19th century ? Will they have their own money only usable there and pay their local employees with it too ? /s

19th century? This smells more of medieval style feudalism.

>This smells more of medieval style feudalism.

In what way? Are people obligated to work for amazon?

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#93

Post by tomcooks »

emteycz wrote: post #73
throw474747 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been in multiple educational institutions in different EU countries I have never seen this anywhere. Did you perhaps confuse this with the common signs indicating that the EU funded that particular project/institution?

I am not confusing anything, that's exactly what I mean. The EU sends a minor (sub 1%, in many cases) contribution but its flag must be displayed on the right side of the local flag facing the children/people - that's exactly the problem. Now the flag is everywhere - public parks, public transit, hospitals, schools, etc - and today's children think there was nothing before the great EU funds rescued us from total pov…

Sub 1% is a figure I don't see anywhere here https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries/member-c...

Edit: ah yes, less than 1% is what Chzechia contributes TO the EU.

```

Intra-EU trade accounts for 84% of the Czech Republic’s exports (Germany 32%, Slovakia 8% and Poland 6%), while outside the EU 2% goes to both the United States and Russia.

In terms of imports, 76% come from EU Member States (Germany 29%, Poland 9% and Slovakia 6%), while outside the EU 8% come from China and 2% from the United States.

```

```

    Total EU spend in Czechia –  € 4.123 billion
    (equivalent to 2.10 % of the Czech economy)
    Total contribution to EU budget – € 1.720 billion
    (equivalent to 0.88 % of the Czech economy)
```

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#94

Post by ghaff »

gruez wrote: post #83
ghaff wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not an accountant but presumably any material issuance of some sort of scrip that could be exchanged for goods would be seen as tax evasion. Free meals are allowed under certain guidelines, which seem to be written in a way that generally lets companies like Google skate right up to the edge and not go over it (AFAIK). Things like loyalty points and rebates on business expenses are similarly ignored.

> I am not an accountant but presumably any material issuance of some sort of scrip that could be exchanged for goods would be seen as tax evasion. It's not. You just have to pay taxes on it.

At which point, why would I want "fake" money that I could only spend in one place rather than real dollars? (That said, this does happen at a small scale with things like peer reward points and so forth but that's a fairly straightforward point->dollar exchange through things like gift cards.)

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#95

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

aww_dang wrote: post #23

Is there an argument for not having Amazon as an employer in these towns? Is there an argument for not having Amazon support the local school system? I understand that working conditions are rarely ideal. Many would prefer to enjoy leisure and collect a paycheck as the ideal source of income. Jobs pay because workers need an incentive to provide labor. What exactly would JacobinMag.com's alternative to Amazon employm…

> Why aren't they providing this alternative?

Because Bezos/Amazon spent years building barriers to entry?

Because people's preference for shopping at Amazon, like their preference for shopping at malls 30-40 years earlier, began the disintegration of other forms of retail work?

Because "fulfillment" centers (are you fulfilled yet?) benefit from being in locations that are not typically the ones where people are choosing to live. They need only space and transportation (typically highway) access, and there's no need for there to be other excellent reasons for vibrant human communities to be in the vicinity.

Because employee-owned business (a Jacobin and personal favorite) face numerous obstacles in the US due to legal, political and cultural factors.

Because it's the entire economy, not just Amazon, that is collapsing into "low wage jobs that we don't have robots for yet" and "high wage jobs that can be done from anywhere" (plus, well paid skilled manual labor). When the alternative to one low wage job that will eventually be automated is another low wage job that will eventually be automated, there's not a lot of motivation to create that alternative.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#96

Post by clajiness »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #54
vortico wrote: post #27

>$15 an hour, Amazon’s starting wage, is below the average for the warehousing industry Where are they getting this information? The average wage in the US is lower, like $13-14. https://www.indeed.com/career/warehouse-worker/salaries https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Ho...

I have a long-time friend who tried to get an Amazon Warehouse job after relocating to a new city for his SO’s career. Given all of the negative press he assumed they’d be desperate for employees and he could walk right into the job. It turns out those jobs are highly competitive in the area because they paid relatively well and had good benefits. The hourly rate alone doesn’t tell the full story. Many more typical w…

Found the Amazon exec.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#97

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

dalbasal wrote: post #37

I suppose the name of the magazine implies this, but the amount of "concept terms" loaded into each sentence sounds so old timey, or something, to me. " Such a relationship between the company and public goods like a high school is part of what it means to consider Amazon as “the major working-class space of suburban and exurban socialization.” The behemoth is here, producing not only profit but people, too. That ent…

Or maybe it's because the education system you were provided with has significant incentives to avoid getting you too familiar with these words and concepts?

"Old timey" in this context might translate into "written by someone who is aware of a century or three's thinking and writing about the relationships between labor and capital and how they impact social and economic structure".

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#98

Post by f6v »

lrdswrk00 wrote: post #78
inglor_cz wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it ever different? The saying "All that glitters is not gold" exists for a reason.

Exactly. All your warm fuzzies about yourself are not for me to bother with. I am as beholden to coddling all y’all’s self as you are to making sure people who need it today have cheap insulin. It’s a semantics free market not a financial one. If my efforts undo your wealth, zero fucks. See we get to pick and choose who figuratively exists. Doesn’t have to be Bezos or you. Or me. None of us are gold or glitter. As no…

You’re downvoted because it’s gibberish.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#99

Post by Retric »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #54
vortico wrote: post #27

>$15 an hour, Amazon’s starting wage, is below the average for the warehousing industry Where are they getting this information? The average wage in the US is lower, like $13-14. https://www.indeed.com/career/warehouse-worker/salaries https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Ho...

I have a long-time friend who tried to get an Amazon Warehouse job after relocating to a new city for his SO’s career. Given all of the negative press he assumed they’d be desperate for employees and he could walk right into the job. It turns out those jobs are highly competitive in the area because they paid relatively well and had good benefits. The hourly rate alone doesn’t tell the full story. Many more typical w…

A relative worked at Amazon’s warehouse, he described it as slightly above average pay for the area with above average benefits. However, the job really sucks, injuries are common, and turnover is high at least in VA. There is a huge range of warehouse jobs including many with a lot of paid downtime, the easier the job the less they can pay.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#100

Post by gruez »

beckman466 wrote: post #20

> the warehouse worker is neither seen nor heard by the customer; at least at Walmart, you go to a store and you see the workers — you know they exist. This made me think of the movie 'The Island' where in one scene, somewhere in the beginning of the movie, they show us the work our protagonists do in their community. There are tubes coming out of the wall on one side of the room and out the other; tubes which have a…

>I honestly think everyone around us is capable of so much more. Our current system, through Intellectual Property types such as copyrights and trade secrets, has made it hard to ascend 'intellectual ladders' because the intellectual ladders used by those in power have kicked them away (after they were used by them).

Can you give some examples? "Intellectual Property" isn't preventing you from learning programming and earning 6 figures.

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