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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

#151
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Serious question, how do you injure yourself in an Amazon warehouse? I thought there wasn't any heavy machinery or other dangerous machines. Is it just from too much walking?

Amazon calls their warehouse staff “industrial athletes” in internal docs.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/2/22465357/amazon-industrial...

> Amazon tells its warehouse employees to think of themselves not as overworked cogs in an enormous, soul-crushing machine, but as “industrial athletes,” and to prepare their bodies for that experience like someone training for a sporting event, according to a pamphlet obtained by Motherboard. The comparison is a troubling euphemism for a company whose workers have almost double the amount of serious injuries as the rest of the warehousing industry and who reportedly are often unable to take bathroom breaks.

> The pamphlet tells employees that some of them will walk up to 13 miles throughout the course of the day, burning an average of 400 calories an hour. It also suggests all sorts of ways to help workers prepare for the athlete life, including changes to their diets and sleep schedules and making sure they’re not dehydrated throughout the day by keeping an eye on the color of their urine. It also suggests that employees buy shoes “at the end of the day when [their] feet are swollen” to avoid tightness and blisters — advice that will be familiar to distance runners or multi-day hikers.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#152
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Serious question, how do you injure yourself in an Amazon warehouse? I thought there wasn't any heavy machinery or other dangerous machines. Is it just from too much walking?

A friend of mine working at an Amazon center injured himself because he walks 5+ miles per shift. He also weighs like 350 pounds. He’s lost like 50 pounds already so hopefully he’ll get to a weight where he’s not injuring himself before he ends up having to quit.

Amazon isn’t obligated to provide my morbidly obese friend with a job, and he knows that, and he’s doing his best to keep on without destroying his body.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#153
post #21

A key aspect of company towns is that there's only one serious employer. This then gives that employer a very dangerous amount of power, which is why we don't like this structure. Possibly this is true in don't places with Amazon, but the article doesn't make the argument. The closest they get is saying that Amazon is a large employer in Seattle, but that's not enough -- the city is large enough that there are tons o…

Jacobin is not a publication worth taking seriously.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

My early education was, in fact, was quite steeped in such terms. I'm a apostate, not an infidel. Anyway, my point wasn't a criticism of the content, or anything really. Just pointing out that its clunky and verbose sounding, to my rusty old ears.

Fair enough. But I haven't seen anyone describe these sorts of concepts in any other terms other than cloying cute folksy-funny stump speeches that tend to obfuscate things as much as they make them more accessible.

The relationships between labor and capital are not obvious to the naked eye, and are subject to a lot of different kinds of analysis. Trying to describe them with language from outside the field can end up missing the critical points.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assume that I give you on top of salary Amazon coupons for 1000$. No tax shenanigans. I (employer ) pay all needed taxes to be clean with IRS. This way I can guarantee quite a nice chunk of revenue for the whole foods store that is opened there. And I effectively subsidize it.

Even better: Make it an employee discount of 50% off at Whole Foods for all Amazon employees, up to some monthly limit. If structured this way, would it even be taxable at all? I'm not aware of employee discounts being taxed.

In the US tax handling of employee discounts at least on physical goods is as follows: if the discount brings the price paid below cost, then the below-cost subsidy is treated as income received by the employee.

Concrete example: Company sells widgets for $12, of which $2 is profit. Then as long as the employee price is at least $10 there are no tax implications for the employees. If it were $9 they would owe tax on $1 per widget bought, etc.

That said, some companies will pay the relevant taxes for you, or at least try to by guessing at your marginal rate...

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#156
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are amazon jobs the new McJobs?

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#157
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…

Software engineers (including me) tend to forget what the labor market is like outside our own bubbles. Most people can’t do things we take for granted like hop to a better paying job when they get bored/unhappy.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#158
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, company town companies also paid in their own currency that was only spendable in the company stores. Amazon still appears to be paying in standard dollars.

isn't this mainly because paying in anything other then the national currency is illegal in most western nations? For tax purposes, even things like free lunch are considered paymeny aswell.

>isn't this mainly because paying in anything other then the national currency is illegal in most western nations?

I can offer you 10 chickens to dig a trench, nothing illegal about that. You'd have to pay income tax tho, and the IRS does not accept (fractions of) chickens.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#159
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comment you replied to predicted your comment: > it’s interesting to watch efforts to spin things one way or another

political and class ambivalence is also a way to spin things. which the original comment itself did. this is a navel-gazing, meaningless criticism. if you disagree substantively you should just say so.

Class ambivalence? Who is upper class here? Jeff Bezos? He was born to single mother out of wedlock in highschool. Or is class something you can buy your way into now?

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#160
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

political and class ambivalence is also a way to spin things. which the original comment itself did. this is a navel-gazing, meaningless criticism. if you disagree substantively you should just say so.

Class ambivalence? Who is upper class here? Jeff Bezos? He was born to single mother out of wedlock in highschool. Or is class something you can buy your way into now?

Yes. Social mobility is one of the hallmarks of a class system.

If you can’t spend your entire life improving yourself from the circumstances of your birth then you don’t have a class system, you have a caste system.

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