Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#201

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #151

strombofulous wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#202

Post by sumeno » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

aga98mtl wrote: post #30

perryizgr8 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the phrase "company town" itself does not signify anything evil. In fact I'm wondering if such a place might be better than the usual government administered cities and towns.

Honestly, I was hoping Amazon was actually making housing for its workers. I think high density housing within walking distance of your job is the realistic solution for lowering co2 emissions.

What happens if you want to switch jobs? Tying basic necessities like housing to your employer is a disaster that traps people in jobs. It's part of the reason healthcare in the US is so screwed up.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#203

Post by azemetre » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

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…

The argument against Amazon not "supporting the local school system" is that it's a public good in most western democracies. Amazon can support the school system by appropriately paying taxes.

I won't argue against the employer aspect, because many of these jobs are in dilapidated towns and they are often better than the alternatives (unemployment/workmans comp claims or fast food versus getting scheduled work with great benefits).

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#204

Post by Retric » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

strombofulous wrote: post #140

Retric wrote: 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?

They do operate some heavy equipment in the warehouse, but the people on foot aren’t that safe. Many injuries are based on people being unprepared for such an extremely athletic job, repetitive strain, or continuing to work injured. The more serious injuries are normally stuff like back injuries from lifting heavy weights bent over in a hurry, falls etc.

One example was dog food stored under a low platform so people needed to Cary 50lb bags while bent over. It’s possible to do that safely, but when you’re tired and in a hurry it’s easy to hurt yourself doing that.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#205

Post by snypher » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

pinewurst wrote: post #200

anm89 wrote: post #167

Jacobin finds the act of running a for profit business under any circumstances to be unethical so does it really matter what they have to say past that? Jacobin is left Breitbart.

I think they're actually more left authoritarian than Breitbart (feh) is right authoritarian. I'm reminded of the old Soviet joke than under capitalism, man exploits man, but under socialism it's the other way around. In the ideal Jacobin world, all towns would be company towns ("owned by the people"). Please keep that in mind.

I think it would be less of a company town if the workers owned the entirety of the company.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#206

Post by lrdswrk00 » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

f6v wrote: post #98

lrdswrk00 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yup, so is the original comment.

The meaning of all that “glitters is gold” applied to reality is arbitrary.

I don’t have obligation to recite some historical meaning the author might intend.

I can see Bezos as glittering now but not gold.

I can see accruing fiscal wealth as the same.

The only language with concrete meaning are the outputs of physical science experiment. There is or is not a physical object or force.

Colloquialism are subjective. The when and where to apply a math formula is subjective. Just because one can be defined such that it abides the order of operations of math doesn’t mean it represents reality accurately. Who eats still comes down to political influence.

We can help a lot more people thrive if we socially allowed for less rounding off of who is valuable. But since we prefer to do that; why not round off this community as unimportant? You’re all just as normal as anyone.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#207

Post by hughrr » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #179

wincy wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It actually sounds like a great way to lose weight if you can handle it. We need to walk more. I’ve thought about moving to NYC just to walk more.

We do need to walk more but it's a crappy way to lose weight. You have to put a huge number of miles in to lose a significant amount. Tracking your eating and eating less calories is the only winner really.

Put it this way: Don't eat a 250 cal chocolate bar or take a 60 minute walk? Same impact.

Incidentally I have walked 103 miles in the last 24 days...

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#208

Post by salawat » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #144

jsjsbdkj wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Benefits only work if there's a large population where the risks can be averaged out. If you let people pick and choose whether they want insurance, people with known health problems will overwhelmingly want insurance, and the price will be driven up. Really this shouldn't be dealt with at the employer level but by the government - there's a net public good to everyone having guaranteed healthcare, because preventati…

I 100% agree that adverse selection is a problem, but the government's rule doesn't really fix it. All that happened is that people with known health problems will look harder for full-time jobs, and healthier people will take the part-time jobs that pay slightly more per hour.

The issue there is that that if you divest the employer from the consequences of working conditions, the individual is left carrying the bag.

If as an employer you just can't get a break on the rates it costs to insure you, that's a really strong signal you have something wrong. Doing it through the government in theory gives people freedom of moving from employer to employer, but I guarantee you there is some juju that needs characterization in wresting some of the incentive shaping powers of insurers and vesting them in Government.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#209

Post by claytoneast » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

wincy wrote: post #152

strombofulous wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure how anyone could walk 5+ miles a shift @350lbs and not injure themself, unless they were that big from training for Strongman or the like. Humans are not meant to have that much fat.

Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States

#210

Post by BoxOfRain » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #151

strombofulous wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Good Lord, that's genuinely dystopian. People often say the '70s was too biased in favour of unions, but I can't help but wonder if the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction in the present. Those two paragraphs make me want to retch like a cat puking up a hairball.