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Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

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Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#411

Post by batman-farts »

Well, this stinks. For a point of reference, I had it activated for about 2 years and directed the donations to Federation of American Scientists - not a huge name in the nonprofit space, but well-established and well-respected. According to the impact page, my orders during that time (including some big ticket stuff, about half the parts for a high-spec gaming PC) generated a grand total of $35.22, and FAS has received $1,150 during their participation in the program. I’m glad I could help pay for what’s probably less than one month of their hosting costs…

It was something of a psychological hook for me, that a few pennies from each order would go to support content I appreciated. I did mentally kick myself when I forgot to place an order through the smile.amazon.com portal. I’ll probably end up giving a bit more consideration to other online retailers now, although every time I’ve ordered online from Walmart lately has been a complete disaster.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#412

Post by smcin »

WorldMaker wrote: post #397
bombcar wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I'm surprised they're doing this; something must have bit them on the paperwork side, because $100-$200 for each tiny charity (think local dog shelter, local church, etc; even if they're 'branded' they're often independent charities) was a cheap advertisement for Amazon. Now that's over.

One of the best reasons to use Amazon Smile was to reduce and launder affiliate links and ad spam. I can't help but wonder if the real reason they are doing this is because of affiliates and/or advertisers. (As someone paranoid of targeted advertising, but who doesn't mind normal advertising, the death of Amazon Smile was the final push I needed to move all my Amazon tabs into their own Firefox Container.)

> reduce and launder affiliate links and ad spam

Can you explain that?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#413

Post by rwalle »

skee8383 wrote: post #394

I haven't bought anything from Amazon in years and you shouldn't either. Buying things from them supports slave labor, union busting, and low wages.

Wow, that sounds very privileged and condescending. "And you shouldn't either"? I'm sorry I can't do that, so can't many other people. Despite all the problems, in general, Amazon is still the most convenient and accessible place to buy things with relatively good customer service. In some cases it's the only place to buy certain products. If you can live in a bubble without Amazon, great for you, but don't preach others with your (almost) impossible personal choice.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#414

Post by smcin »

darth_avocado wrote: post #365
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.

Unpopular opinion, but charities are like carbon credits. Most of the money goes into people’s pockets and very less percentage of the donations actually make it towards helping the cause they run on. Very few legitimately use the money in the way we expect it to be used. So I’m okay with them losing $400M.

Use CharityNavigator.org or GuideStar to verify charities' overhead %s, at least in the US! The information is only a click away.

There are good charities that do spend 70-99% of their revenues on their cause. And there are high-profile charities that don't.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#415

Post by divbzero »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #340
rpmisms wrote: post #322

Damn. I used AmazonSmile to support my favorite extremist group. (Firearms Policy Coalition) I wonder if that had anything to do with it...

I wouldn't be totally surprised, given the effort to get the FPC 501c3 delisted from smile last month. I thought part of what made Smile cool is that Amazon would forward my donations to such a wide range of organizations (eg my local church OR my local satanic temple). Talk about consumer choice.

Berkshire Hathaway had a program where shareholders would allocate corporate donations to charities [1] but shut it down after subsidiaries faced misplaced criticism [2] for shareholders’ choices.

[1]: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/1997ar/shcontri.html "Shareholder-designated contributions"

[2]: https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/pampered-... "Pampered Chef profits will no longer fund abortions"

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#417

Post by fallinghawks »

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.

They could increase the impact by giving a larger percent of the sale. Amazon sends an email every so often telling you how much you've "donated" via Smile, and I'm always surprised how sadly small that number is. I've been in the program for many years and I buy a lot of shit from them.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#418

Post by fsckboy »

minsc_and_boo wrote: post #406
fsckboy wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think the sins of Amazon are any worse than most other major U.S. retailers. monopolies are bad, for consumers and for competitors. Even if you build your monopoly "fairly" by inventing a better mousetrap, putting the competition out of business is a reward that that is unfair and does not belong to the owner of the mousetrap. For example, Amazon could be split into 3 smaller Amazon mousetraps that compete…

>Even if you build your monopoly "fairly" by inventing a better mousetrap, putting the competition out of business is a reward that that is unfair and does not belong to the owner of the mousetrap. Antitrust laws exist to protect consumers, and if you're forcing consumers to buy inferior mousetraps, you're not helping.

we don't actually have anti-trust laws, we have laws against the abuse of monopoly power, a standard that can be difficult to prove and well after the commission of the injustices. I think there is sufficient theoretical and practical experience to have anti-trust laws simply be anti-market concentration.

I'm arguing for it because it's an example of "third way" regulation, regulation that should be embraced by left wing socialist and right wing capitalists.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#419

Post by BeetleB »

Retric wrote: post #389
Domenic_S wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

net tax rate is meaningless in this context. Besides the fact that they're doing what each one of us do (take deductions following the law), it completely ignores all the other tax they pay - like payroll tax on a massive employee base and so forth. To imply Amazon (or any corp) are floating by with a total tax load of ~1% is either profoundly disingenuous or profoundly naïve.

Saying companies pay payroll tax is like saying they pay sales tax when you buy something from them. It’s sort of true and sort of false.

It sounds like you don't understand the basics of payroll tax.

The SS tax that gets deducted from your paycheck is only half the amount. Employers are required to pay the other half.

If you're self-employed, you pay both halves, and that is one of the penalties of being treated as self employed.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#420

Post by notatoad »

skee8383 wrote: post #394

I haven't bought anything from Amazon in years and you shouldn't either. Buying things from them supports slave labor, union busting, and low wages.

i really don't want to be in the position of defending amazon, their anti-union activities and their treatment of workers is awful. but that's definitely not the same thing as slavery.

and their pay rates for warehouse workers is high enough that it tends to raise wages in the surrounding areas.

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