In defense of the company town:
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/01/in...
Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
51–60 of 271 posts
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#52A key aspect of company towns is that there's only one serious employer. This then gives that employer a very dangerous amount of power, which is why we don't like this structure. Possibly this is true in don't places with Amazon, but the article doesn't make the argument. The closest they get is saying that Amazon is a large employer in Seattle, but that's not enough -- the city is large enough that there are tons o…
Historically, company town companies also paid in their own currency that was only spendable in the company stores. Amazon still appears to be paying in standard dollars.
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#53> the warehouse worker is neither seen nor heard by the customer; at least at Walmart, you go to a store and you see the workers — you know they exist. This made me think of the movie 'The Island' where in one scene, somewhere in the beginning of the movie, they show us the work our protagonists do in their community. There are tubes coming out of the wall on one side of the room and out the other; tubes which have a…
Even if we were to accept class theory, in the 21st century nearly everyone has access to a computer, one of the most productive goods. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27903630
> Even if we were to accept class theory, in the 21st century nearly everyone has access to a computer, one of the most productive goods.
You sure that's all that's needed? I am continually surprised when someone claims the internet is some all-mighty resource-rich network. It wasn't the internet that made world class scientists, it was access to privileged firewalled networks: capitalist universities, as well as state-funded yet privately controlled multinationals (more and more through trade secret law [1]), which 'own' and house - read: hoard and violently withhold - the sum total of all human knowledge (commons which belongs to all of earth's children, not just ones with rich mommies and daddies).
When someone like Aaron Swartz is driven to his death for campaigning for open access, it shows that he has come upon something that wants to stay hidden: the structures and dynamics of outdated knowledge hierarchies. Have you read his short and concise manifesto? It's an awesome (and better) articulation of what I am talking about here. [2]
That story about the Indian man is not empirical data, it's an example of an anecdotal story that helps to keep the working class distracted, stopping them from seeing how the system actually works. Stories like that are 'magical voluntarist' fantasies that end up alienating more people than they inspire. [3]
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26805062
[2] https://archive.org/stream/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamj...
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#54>$15 an hour, Amazon’s starting wage, is below the average for the warehousing industry Where are they getting this information? The average wage in the US is lower, like $13-14. https://www.indeed.com/career/warehouse-worker/salaries https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Ho...
I have a long-time friend who tried to get an Amazon Warehouse job after relocating to a new city for his SO’s career. Given all of the negative press he assumed they’d be desperate for employees and he could walk right into the job. It turns out those jobs are highly competitive in the area because they paid relatively well and had good benefits.
The hourly rate alone doesn’t tell the full story. Many more typical warehouse jobs are truly hourly jobs with minimal or no benefits. He said a lot of them tried to hire people for less than full time to avoid having to provide benefits. For all of the negative press, it sounded like the Amazon Warehouse was the place to be if you wanted a decent warehouse job with benefits in his area.
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what? The EU and other similar institutions require their branding to be present in classes too. I'd rather have obviously absurd corporate branding than slow but sure political indoctrination (e.g. the EU makes it look like the local government is incapable of doing anything on its own, while the fact is that everything worked pretty well before the EU and even today 90%+ of funding is local - but the EU flag mus…
I went to school in British and French schools and never saw European flags. You’re talking absolute nonsense.
I believe that, these countries are strong-willed because they had enough time to develop on their own before the EU. I am from eastern EU and well, you can't go outside without seeing an EU flag, much less to a school (see other replies under my comment confirming this to be the case).
Today's children think this country was a shithole prison before it joined the EU, while in reality it was a pretty strong economy quickly recovering from the trauma of communism with opportunities booming everywhere, good educational system and well functioning healthcare and social system. Not even 2 decades and the history is rewritten - that's not good.
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what? The EU and other similar institutions require their branding to be present in classes too. I'd rather have obviously absurd corporate branding than slow but sure political indoctrination (e.g. the EU makes it look like the local government is incapable of doing anything on its own, while the fact is that everything worked pretty well before the EU and even today 90%+ of funding is local - but the EU flag mus…
> everything worked pretty well before the EU Just, you know, two World Wars.
I'm not aware of any world war occurring between 1989 and 2004.
Edit: I see what you mean now. What I wanted to say was "before joining EU" (so pre-2004), I didn't mean 1950's or pre-war period.
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#57>$15 an hour, Amazon’s starting wage, is below the average for the warehousing industry Where are they getting this information? The average wage in the US is lower, like $13-14. https://www.indeed.com/career/warehouse-worker/salaries https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Ho...
I take data from these sites with a grain of salt because it seems far too easy and tempting to poison the data well for those wishing to see the rates lower than reality. Payscale is a bit closer to what I think reality might be. It's unfortunate how gaming perception and such information is such a potentially successful strategy. The OOH from DOL puts it closer to $14.66/hr which I put a bit more faith in: https://…
I don't see starting average pay on the OOH website, only median pay.
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#58>$15 an hour, Amazon’s starting wage, is below the average for the warehousing industry Where are they getting this information? The average wage in the US is lower, like $13-14. https://www.indeed.com/career/warehouse-worker/salaries https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Ho...
I have a long-time friend who tried to get an Amazon Warehouse job after relocating to a new city for his SO’s career. Given all of the negative press he assumed they’d be desperate for employees and he could walk right into the job. It turns out those jobs are highly competitive in the area because they paid relatively well and had good benefits. The hourly rate alone doesn’t tell the full story. Many more typical w…
Not the US, but 2 of my siblings have worked in Amazon warehouses in the UK and it's the same story. The pay is decent, the work is simple (if physically taxing), and plenty of overtime is available. Only downside is the warehouses tend to be outside bus/train routes so getting there without a car is an arse, but Amazon set up shuttle buses to compensate for that.
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#59A key aspect of company towns is that there's only one serious employer. This then gives that employer a very dangerous amount of power, which is why we don't like this structure. Possibly this is true in don't places with Amazon, but the article doesn't make the argument. The closest they get is saying that Amazon is a large employer in Seattle, but that's not enough -- the city is large enough that there are tons o…
Historically, company town companies also paid in their own currency that was only spendable in the company stores. Amazon still appears to be paying in standard dollars.
Be careful what you wish for!
Re: Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
#60A key aspect of company towns is that there's only one serious employer. This then gives that employer a very dangerous amount of power, which is why we don't like this structure. Possibly this is true in don't places with Amazon, but the article doesn't make the argument. The closest they get is saying that Amazon is a large employer in Seattle, but that's not enough -- the city is large enough that there are tons o…
Historically, company town companies also paid in their own currency that was only spendable in the company stores. Amazon still appears to be paying in standard dollars.
isn't this mainly because paying in anything other then the national currency is illegal in most western nations?
For tax purposes, even things like free lunch are considered paymeny aswell.