1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee • Hacker News Board

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#101

Post by bobthechef » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #82

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

Why do you accuse them of suppressing wages when they lead the way to $15/hr, and when they literally spend money lobbying congress to raise the federal minimum wage? https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-15-minimum-wage-lobby...

Is it because they can crush small business who can’t afford to pay as much through regulatory capture?

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#102

Post by chubot » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:49 PM UTC

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

For diversity, I buy from target.com. They don’t have the selection but sometimes that’s what you want. I don’t need to look through 20 brands of tissue. Their prices and shipping are generally on par with Amazon (I assume they are forgoing profit to get loyal customers)

So basically I would try going to target first, then Amazon. Or Newegg or B&H first, then Amazon. There are other retailers of course but those tend to have operational competence, which is hard because Amazon raised the bar.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#103

Post by cassac » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:50 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #82

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

Why do you accuse them of suppressing wages when they lead the way to $15/hr, and when they literally spend money lobbying congress to raise the federal minimum wage? https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-15-minimum-wage-lobby...

Does that include their contractors ? Or the “gig economy” delivery style workers they try to trim all the fat off of? The only thing they lead the way on is new ways to package their poor behavior.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#104

Post by TheSoftwareGuy » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:51 PM UTC

ethbr0 wrote: post #96

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

Amazon is Amazon because they didn't let size dull their edge. Unfortunately, that cuts both ways. There are a lot of ways to be exploitive, to your and your customers' benefits, when you're a $113 B revenue/quarter company, that simply aren't available when you're a startup. Hell, Walmart pioneered the "How'd you like to sell in our stores?" + "You need to reduce prices, or it'd be a shame if we, your biggest custom…

> Amazon pioneered hyperscale logistics efficiencies

Actually, I believe that was Walmart as well: >TIMMER: I used to ask my class, I’m talking 1985, “Where is the world’s largest supercomputer?” And the correct answer was, “It’s at the Pentagon.” Okay. “Where is the world’s second largest supercomputer?” Bentonville, Ark. Home of Walmart. They used that computer to track every single item on every single Walmart shelf. That information technology is what revolutionized food marketing. And it was pretty much invented by Walmart.

Source: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/farms-race/#:%7E:text=where...

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#105

Post by nixpulvis » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:51 PM UTC

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

Fact is, a lot of times that extra 50% you pay will come back in lifetime of the product, if you know how to shop for it. And shopping in person often makes it a lot easier to assess quality. Especially when Amazon orders turn out to be straight up forgeries.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#106

Post by jhallenworld » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:52 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #89

cs702 wrote: post #59

That makes Amazon #3, after the federal government and Walmart: Entity US Employees 1. US Government 2.7M 2. Walmart 1.6M 3. Amazon 1.0M If Amazon continues to grow at current rates, it will surpass Walmart's figure within 2 years. Looking at these figures, it's evident that these three entities are far larger, wealthier, more connected, and likely more powerful than the vast majority of US cities, the vast majority…

Is this level of concentration a totally new phenomenon? In the 1970s GM employed almost 700k people, and the US population like 30% lower. Is it just different companies every generation?

Oh boy, the new quote: "What's good for Amazon, is good for America."

When GM was "good for America", we pretty much lost public transportation, so what are we losing now?

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#107

Post by JustARandomGuy » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:53 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #98

"The US has a population of 261 million and an employed non-farm workforce of 145 million, per the BLS" Anyone know why the "non-farm workforce" is the number reported here?

It's nothing malicious; it's a common way to express employment figures. Farm payrolls tend to swell and contract seasonally (to pick/plant and much less work in-between) so "non-farm workforce" is a way of smoothing out the numbers.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#108

Post by bobthechef » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:53 PM UTC

tvirosi wrote: post #78

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

Stop being a slave to your addictions and form some principles. Come on.

You got downvoted but there’s something to be said for this.

If you are “torn” over this, if it’s so bad that you’re “torn”, how is this a difficult decision? Convenience trumps being “torn”. I mean, really.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#109

Post by chubot » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:54 PM UTC

TheSoftwareGuy wrote: post #104

ethbr0 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is Amazon because they didn't let size dull their edge. Unfortunately, that cuts both ways. There are a lot of ways to be exploitive, to your and your customers' benefits, when you're a $113 B revenue/quarter company, that simply aren't available when you're a startup. Hell, Walmart pioneered the "How'd you like to sell in our stores?" + "You need to reduce prices, or it'd be a shame if we, your biggest custom…

> Amazon pioneered hyperscale logistics efficiencies Actually, I believe that was Walmart as well: >TIMMER: I used to ask my class, I’m talking 1985, “Where is the world’s largest supercomputer?” And the correct answer was, “It’s at the Pentagon.” Okay. “Where is the world’s second largest supercomputer?” Bentonville, Ark. Home of Walmart. They used that computer to track every single item on every single Walmart she…

Ironically Barnes And Noble was also a significant computer user in the 80’s and 90’s. They put a lot of local bookstores out of business with superior inventory, prices, and generally being data driven. Then they were one of Amazon’s first casualties!

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#110

Post by jaredklewis » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

underseacables wrote: post #88

missedthecue wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you accuse them of suppressing wages when they lead the way to $15/hr, and when they literally spend money lobbying congress to raise the federal minimum wage? https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-15-minimum-wage-lobby...

That’s a fair point. I see them as suppressing wages because they open warehouses in small towns, pay $15/hr and then work the person to death so they become dependent on that job. Amazon can totally dominate an area’s workforce and use that to drive wages and benefits down.

This argument sounds entirely theoretical. Do you have an example of even one small town where average or median wages or benefits were decreased as a result of Amazon?

I frequently encounter armchair economists on the Internet making sweeping claims about various, but it is frustrating. It takes basically no effort to think up something plausible. But to take even the first step towards empirically verifying a given hypothesis is an enormous amount of work. Without even a rough empirical foundation, how valuable are these armchair theories?

A little dated now but the Economist had a little mini-article about Amazon and wages. Really highlights how difficult it is to draw any definitive causal links, as well as trade offs (like benefits and unemployment): https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/01/20/what-amaz...