121–130 of 581 posts
No need to be sad, though. Look at what Amazon donated to your charity from your purchases, then just go give that amount directly to them next year. And then quit buying on Amazon. Everyone wins!
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Honest question: why would tech companies oppose those charities in particular?
The people who really, really hate guns are more likely to work for tech companies than their counterparts, at least in my experience.
Also, Amazon in particular has long banned the sale of a large variety of gun components on their platform - even those that aren't regulated in any state. (bolts, barrels, handguards, stocks... oddly enough they do allow optics)
The fun part of Amazon Smile was that it let customers decide how they wanted to change the world…but now they’ve decided they - Amazon - know better, thank you very much. This is surprisingly honest for corporatespeak and I think reflects the god-complex which tends to follow people who spend a lot of time taking in billions of dollars. The reality is there were a lot of charities - maybe even most of them - who wer…
I had already canceled my Prime membership and started shopping elsewhere. I'm not exactly outraged by this news - although I did always buy through Smile - but I'm now doubly sure Amazon won't be my first choice going forward.
I've now opted for the "free" shipping that you get when you spend $25+. Items that I cannot wait for I will buy local, which usually now offer same day delivery.
I like that fully a third of their "charitable" targets are seeking ways to create a better environment for Amazon itself. Funding affordable housing in Seattle and training more software engineers both.
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One of the primary strategies activists have managed to successfully deploy against those groups is through targeting advertisers. Also most tech workers are college educated which is a demographic that (increasingly) supports gun control/does not like the NRA
> Also most tech workers are college educated which is a demographic that (increasingly) supports gun control/does not like the NRA It's less a college educated versus not and more an urban versus rural issue.
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> …but now they’ve decided they - Amazon - know better, thank you very much. Or, a less cynical take is that they really can have more impact by focusing on fewer charities. Another commenter posted Amazon Smile's Form 990 from 2018 [1], the most recent year on Pro Publica's website that has a full listing of all the charities that received funds. The total PDF is 2121 pages long, and the list of charities starts on…
Realistically, corporate donations are almost entirely measured by the "gross value added to brand/reputation." Not "actual worth to society." A market based, consumer driven approach like Amazon Smile, is likely optimal. Consumers, on average, are very effective and logical choosers (on average). Amazon Smile was likely a highly effective program. Issue is, Amazon now wants to redirect its customer's dollars to impr…
There's something very "early 21st century social trust crisis" about keeping the "capitalist utlitarianism" logos of neoliberalism while throwing out the "democratized decision making" ethos of neoliberalism.
The first is about building houses in areas near Amazon offices. The second is training future Amazon employees. The third is delivering food that I'm sure won't use existing Amazon delivery solutions at all. And the fourth is disaster relief, which I'm less cynical about though I am reminded of their recent tornado issue.
What a charitable company.
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Yeah it's a bummer, we used it to donate to our local charter school.
What prevents you from donating to your local charter school without Amazon Smile?
I think this will hurt smaller charities. They might not have been getting a huge donation from Smile, but I also think a lot of Smile users aren't going to consciously donate to the charity they selected - certainly not in the $5-$10 range that is probably more than most individual shoppers accounted for each term - and as a result those charities will be taking in less than before.
Smile was a good program. I have no idea what it cost Amazon to operate, but I am pretty confident it resulted in more money going to charity than whatever Amazon will now do instead.
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they could've simply made an ethics committee and removed certain options while still giving users some choice...
What's unethical about supporting the Constitutional rights of Americans?
If you're of the opinion that gun rights cause massive numbers of deaths in the US, then you might think supporting the NRA or any of their more extreme counterparts is unethical.