Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#141

Post by psychoslave » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:01 PM UTC

vasco wrote: post #34

ramon156 wrote: post #5

Had to buy some simple toolkit today. It was 5 bucks on Amazon, but I decided to find a local store that sells it. Same price btw. I think we should be a bit more aware about the impact of ordering everything through Amazon. Not only regarding delivery, but also the message it sends to local stores.

I've had this exact sentiment for many years but... what are we supporting really? Is it because you want a distributed network of inventory across the country near you in case of emergency? Is it because you like talking to someone when doing purchases? Is it because you think someone is doing a societal good by parking money in inventory they brought near you? Is it because you just don't like someone doing it more…

>Is it because you just don't like someone doing it more efficiently and getting "too" rich? ie dislike of big corporations?

That’s such an odd way to paint it.

When people live in a system with millions of quettallionaires and the bilion left are mere millionaires where 1 unit of currency is enough to buy the best meal in town with all towns in the world equally provided in services, the system won’t see much strikes happening soon.

When people live in a system where a small cake is growing at a slow rate and a few hundreds people are cornering always more of it at an accelerating rate, all the more when the extraction rate of the cake is known to exceed the cake regeneration rate, the system is well on its road for repeated strikes or even bloody social movements.

Ok, these allegories are two possible points in a spectrum. Which scenario is most likely to be closest to the world as its perceived by most people out there?

People don’t love or hate big corporations and riches out of the blue. If there are given room out of the vivid feeling that their life is a day to day struggle to survive, most people can perfectly demonstrate nuances in their judgment.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#142

Post by cpitman » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:02 PM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #137

nxm wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should I spend 15 minutes each way driving (carbon emissions) to the store and waste 1 hr of my time in this case, when it can be delivered to me tomorrow? I definitely want to support local, but the cost/benefits are not as clear in this case.

You really need to consider the reality outside of your own bubble of concern. Especially as your bubble doesn't even extend beyond the door of your house, since you don't understand that the Amazon delivery driver is also driving and also spending his time.

That driving and time is amortized across 1000s of deliveries.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#143

Post by Yeul » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:03 PM UTC

n144q wrote: post #138

nine_k wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the key feature of Amazon is the fast delivery with Prime. Do other merchants offer fast delivery often enough? Regarding credit cards, I started using privacy dot com for virtual, merchant-locked cards. It protects against (rare) card details leaks, but, of course, does not give you any points or cashback.

Do you actually care that much about fast delivery? My Prime membership ended 3 years ago. These days I just put items in the cart, and place order whenever it reaches $35. If I need an item in a hurry -- which rarely happens -- I go to a store to buy it. This barely affected me, and I ended up with much fewer impulse purchases. What's funny though is that the "standard" delivery often takes 5 calendar days. But AliE…

This is true. DHL asked me to delay my shipping because of Black Friday chaos and it was a bunch of crap that I didn't really need immediately so I delayed it for a week.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#144

Post by WillAdams » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:03 PM UTC

jclulow wrote: post #4

lnsru wrote: post #3

I am just curious who still orders anything today with delivery expectation to get it before Xmas. From my experience the delivery drivers are today delivering tons of stuff ordered a week ago and they are so overloaded, that todays order might come only in January.

Speaking from personal experience: people with ADHD, who don't have their shit together but desperately want to avoid disappointing the people they care about. People who then get hoodwinked by the bald faced lies everybody from Amazon right through to the courier staff will tell you about projected delivery dates and "oh, gosh, sorry, you know we just attempted delivery but couldn't get in!" (while you're sitting in…

My solution for this is to keep gifts for the people I buy presents for in mind throughout the year, and buy things as I come across them, then, when it's time to wrap, my wife and I lay things out and decide what actually gets gifted, excess gets set aside for upcoming birthdays (which are both fortunately early in the year, Jan. and March) or possibly even the next Christmas, then come April I start in on the process again.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#145

Post by WillAdams » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:05 PM UTC

nielsbot wrote: post #22

akokanka wrote: post #14

[flagged]

Amazon is going to do that anyway. May as well stand up for your share of the profits.

The thing is, it used to be standard for full-time employees to get a full stock share, but that was bargained away --- anyone know the rationale?

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#146

Post by arkh » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

vouaobrasil wrote: post #79

ptero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On (1), I grew up behind the iron curtain in a pre-internet age next to a village (no TV, no organized entertainment). The typical non-working activity there was not to enjoy the beauty of nature (as farmers they were fed up with it) but to be bored, get drunk and start fights with anyone non local. When the economy opened up in late 1980s anyone who could ran out to cities. I will take technology and some globalism…

False dichotomy. Both situations are bad because both are predicated on lack of wisdom. A lack of wisdom in a poor place implies brawls and wanton violence. A lack of wisdom in a rich, technological age implies resource destruction and climate change. Wisdom combined with restricted technology would be ideal, such as with the Amish. They have their problems but they show that a technologically restricted society is b…

Ok, let's restrict the technology. What's the end goal?

Because 1 billion years from now, even if humanity is back to before the wheel technology plants will have disappeared and the oceans evaporated due to the sun.

If we want Earth originated life to have a chance to go over this bump something will have to go forward.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#147

Post by WillAdams » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

SiempreViernes wrote: post #43

akokanka wrote: post #14

[flagged]

> The world's second-largest private employer employs 1.5 million people. While that's a lot, it's a decrease of over 100,000 employees from the 1.6 million workers it had in 2021. [...] While Amazon is bringing on hundreds of thousands of robots per year, the company is slowly decreasing its employee numbers. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-grows-over-750-000-153...

This is the discussion which we need to be having, and one which has been put off since Jimmy Carter failed to put a tax into place on computers so as to budget for worker re-training for folks whose jobs were eliminated by computers.

Instead, you had situations such as the type compositors unions bargaining for sinecures for their members, rather than participating in, and informing the usage of the new systems, contributing to a decade of ugly "Desktop DTP".

On-going automation should reduce the total number of hours which humans need to work to ensure that humanity is housed, clothed, fed, &c. --- why aren't we talking about reducing the workweek? See recent story in Tokyo:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42342203

Or, if the U.S. gathered together all the money used for Disability, SSI, WIC, Unemployment, Welfare, Social Security &c. _and_ their administration and overhead, there would be a significant amount of money --- would that be sufficient to fund a Universal Basic Income?

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#148

Post by delichon » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:11 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #95

ptero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On (1), I grew up behind the iron curtain in a pre-internet age next to a village (no TV, no organized entertainment). The typical non-working activity there was not to enjoy the beauty of nature (as farmers they were fed up with it) but to be bored, get drunk and start fights with anyone non local. When the economy opened up in late 1980s anyone who could ran out to cities. I will take technology and some globalism…

That's the thing that I see a lot of. I grew up in Africa, and was exposed to extreme poverty, since as far back as I can remember. People living poor don't like it. They may have accepted it, and may have learned to deal with it, but they don't tend to like it. They want out, and generally jump at the chance to do so. People in richer communities may have fantasies about "living closer to nature," but that doesn't u…

I picked a place to live that's close to nature, right across my back fence from millions of acres of public forest. I love it here. Poverty is not required. I commute to work via Starlink and most nonperishables are delivered to my front porch by UPS, mostly from Amazon. It's green on both sides of my fence, and it's a choice that normal people, who can work remotely, can make if they value it. My house is far cheaper than one in a city and local costs are lower. Amazon deserves credit for making such a lifestyle easier, and if we can export more of it, that sounds like an advance.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#149

Post by Yeul » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:12 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #71

vouaobrasil wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my grandpa's village everything was local production and commerce but they all lived way worse than me and my friends that get paid through remote companies and spend our money online. (1) That is because technology also takes away components of life that one can enjoy without being rich such as accesss to nature and local food production. (2) The global economy is only so "good" because it takes advantage of th…

The first point is true, but most people do not choose it. I do not think your second point stands. Almost the entire world is financially better off than it was in the past. Lots of third world economies are visibly richer than they were a few decades ago. Whose suffering are they benefitting from?

The last 40 years have seen enormous economic growth outside the G7 to the point that North America and Western Europe no longer dominate the global economy.

Vice president Vance marrying a woman from India was a look into the future. The rich elite know what's happening.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#150

Post by amelius » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 2:18 PM UTC

bdangubic wrote: post #105

amelius wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This should be illegal.

what kind of a law would you put in place here to make this illegal? and who would it cover? amazon has a business, yes? and if you want to do business with amazon you have to abide but those rules. you can also just NOT do business with amazon - sell your shit at another place, done deal. too many times here on HN we see people say what you say - let's just add mooooooar laws (these would have to be FEDERAL to make…

Are you saying that antitrust law is nonsense?

The laws of our economy are not there to serve a few large companies. They are there to serve us, people, most of all. Do you think that markets will collapse if we had more fair rules for big companies?