Amazon Must Be Stopped
newrepublic.com
Amazon Must Be Stopped
1–10 of 106 posts
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#2Convenience, low prices, extensive catalogue, pleasent customer support, innovative products... Yes, we need to kill the beast. Maybe pander and bait some clicks in the meantime.
I particularly liked the part where threatening Hachette's business is threatening democracy. What about shitty journalism? Seems like a much bigger threat to me.
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#3Brilliant piece, also in comparison to Walmart:
"Meanwhile, both companies have studiously avoided unionization and treat their workers miserably. In one famous incident, Amazon hired paramedics to revive heat-sick employees at a Pennsylvania warehouse rather than buy an air-conditioning unit."
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#4Ain't Amazon unstoppable by now?
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#5>Amazon has left a trail of destruction—competitors undercut, suppliers squeezed...
We normally call that progress. That "trail of destruction" is leaving money in the hands of millions of people who used to be captive to the local brick and mortar retailers.
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#6Hmm, then we also need to stop Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox, TimeWarner Cable, military industrial complex, some big oil companies, a few hedge funds, a few banks, etc. Probably might as well call it quits with this whole capitalism thing.
In all seriousness though why don't any of these articles ever address the underlying issue of why this stuff happens. If you have a certain kind of economic system then some things are inevitable. It is the exact analog of traffic on highways. It is just an emergent property of the system.
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#7It seems as though the author has a problem with capitalism and free markets in general. Yes, let's abolish capitalism, allow some central bureau to fix prices and use its power of violence over actors who don't comply. Oh wait... it was attempted 90 years ago and it didn't work out.
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#8> ".. more attention will fall on a strange inefficiency at the heart of the business: the advances that publishing houses pay their writers. This upfront money is the economic pillar on which quality books rest, the great bulwark against dilettantism."
It can't be that inefficient, since publishers are still in business and Amazon wants more of their money.
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#9>Amazon has left a trail of destruction—competitors undercut, suppliers squeezed... We normally call that progress. That "trail of destruction" is leaving money in the hands of millions of people who used to be captive to the local brick and mortar retailers.
Are those the same people whose jobs were lost due to Walmart and Amazon? Or who prefer to have a vibrant local downtown?
Re: Amazon Must Be Stopped
#10Brilliant piece, also in comparison to Walmart: "Meanwhile, both companies have studiously avoided unionization and treat their workers miserably. In one famous incident, Amazon hired paramedics to revive heat-sick employees at a Pennsylvania warehouse rather than buy an air-conditioning unit."
They also use lame processes here in Germany, by hiring people from the job centers in a situation that they cannot reject offers, with a salary that barely gets to the end of the month and bad working conditions.