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Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

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Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#291

Post by Retric »

throwayyy479087 wrote: post #280
rcme wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the sins of Amazon are any worse than most other major U.S. retailers.

They're absolutely not - but the people that attack Amazon don't care about that. Amazon to many represents Capitalism, and so acts as a catchall for criticisms of Capitalism. Ironically, small family shops use WAY more child labor, unpaid labor etc as a percentage than Amazon. They also produce more plastic per item, take only cash to evade taxes, etc.

It’s hard to imagine the average small business successfully evading taxes as well as Amazon.

In 2019 Amazon paid zero taxes receiving a net $129 million refund from the federal government, in 2018 they received a $137 million refund after paying 0$ on a net income of 11.2 billion dollars.

In 2020 they paid a net tax of $162 million on $13.9 billion of pre-tax income a net tax rate of 1.2%.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#292

Post by bombolo »

grantc wrote: post #187
boomboomsubban wrote: post #127

Canceling the program bothers me a little, but replacing it with "donating" to four in house charities, only two of which are properly labeled as such, that clearly help Amazon makes it so much worse. 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 fo…

The 20,000 families benefitting from housing in the Seattle metro area as a result of Amazon's investments in the community might define charitable vs. non-charitable differently than you. I've personally met the women and children benefitting from the $100M Amazon and its employees have donated to Mary's Place -- their lens is not yours. Your comments about AFE are a bit underdeveloped. File under no good deed goes…

Wow they are investing in real estate! How generous!

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#293

Post by DimitriPetrova »

Retric wrote: post #291
throwayyy479087 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're absolutely not - but the people that attack Amazon don't care about that. Amazon to many represents Capitalism, and so acts as a catchall for criticisms of Capitalism. Ironically, small family shops use WAY more child labor, unpaid labor etc as a percentage than Amazon. They also produce more plastic per item, take only cash to evade taxes, etc.

It’s hard to imagine the average small business successfully evading taxes as well as Amazon. In 2019 Amazon paid zero taxes receiving a net $129 million refund from the federal government, in 2018 they received a $137 million refund after paying 0$ on a net income of 11.2 billion dollars. In 2020 they paid a net tax of $162 million on $13.9 billion of pre-tax income a net tax rate of 1.2%.

I think they still have loss carryforwards, they didn't make money for several years initially

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#294

Post by waynesonfire »

babyshake wrote: post #276
dbg31415 wrote: post #275

It's weird that corporations have philanthropic arms, isn't it?

It's mostly just tax avoidance, right?

or a talking point. government and business work very closely together and when these two negotiate, the government likes to see philanthropy.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#296

Post by perlgeek »

spookthesunset wrote: post #290
perlgeek wrote: post #274

> "our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin" If that's the supposed reason, I call bullshit. Could've just reduced the number of charities.

Which charities should be remain?

You can select which charity to support on smile.amazon.de at least. So pick the top 10% or 5% or whatever charities that were supported by the most customers.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#297

Post by Retric »

DimitriPetrova wrote: post #293
Retric wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hard to imagine the average small business successfully evading taxes as well as Amazon. In 2019 Amazon paid zero taxes receiving a net $129 million refund from the federal government, in 2018 they received a $137 million refund after paying 0$ on a net income of 11.2 billion dollars. In 2020 they paid a net tax of $162 million on $13.9 billion of pre-tax income a net tax rate of 1.2%.

I think they still have loss carryforwards, they didn't make money for several years initially

They where profitable and paid net taxes in 2016 and where hugely profitable yet paid zero taxes in 2017, 2018, and 2019. So I don’t see how this could be loss carry forward offsetting a several billion dollar annual tax bill for 4+ years.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#298

Post by dsfyu404ed »

Retric wrote: post #287
rcme wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the sins of Amazon are any worse than most other major U.S. retailers.

There warehouses are significantly worse than average in terms of injuries per hour. They also frequently sell fraudulent items directly harming consumers. I can’t think of a metric where they aren’t worse than the average retailer.

>There warehouses are significantly worse than average in terms of injuries per hour.

Per man hour? Amazon is rich and super high volume relatively speaking. I got the impression their warehouses were pretty damn good compared to other warehouses handling consumer goods because the cost of hiccups is so high and they have a huge target on their back.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#299

Post by vineyardmike »

Retric wrote: post #287
rcme wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the sins of Amazon are any worse than most other major U.S. retailers.

There warehouses are significantly worse than average in terms of injuries per hour. They also frequently sell fraudulent items directly harming consumers. I can’t think of a metric where they aren’t worse than the average retailer.

Price and convenience are probably better than average.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#300

Post by tootie »

Retric wrote: post #287
rcme wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the sins of Amazon are any worse than most other major U.S. retailers.

There warehouses are significantly worse than average in terms of injuries per hour. They also frequently sell fraudulent items directly harming consumers. I can’t think of a metric where they aren’t worse than the average retailer.

Unless you have metrics for the average retailer, that's probably not true. Local corner shops vary widely, but are not the least bit shy about hiring undocumented workers, stealing wages, skimping on safety and avoiding taxes. They just do it at such a small scale, it doesn't make the news.
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