What's Under That Amazon Tank?
If you shop much on Amazon, you know that the selection is incredible, it's easy to press the buy-button, and, if you have Amazon Prime, things come really fast to your house and oft- times with free delivery. I bought something the other day and it arrived in less than a day. Thus the bright side of the Amazon phenomenon.
But even and perhaps especially in a holiday shopping season, it's good to think about the dark underside of the Amazon tank that is rolling over businesses, cities desperate for distribution centers and headquarters, and the people who labor in the warehouses or drive for delivery services, but don't earn a living wage.
A smart piece that focuses on Amazon's effort to gain monopolistic control of the whole retail market is Stacy Mitchell's piece, "The Empire of Everything." It appeared last March in The Nation. Mitchell writes about the company's predatory pricing practices, ruthless dealings with recalcitrant businesses, and its contribution to the world of crummy jobs and greater income inequality. It's fun to buy on Amazon, but not so much when you think about these things. And especially not when you think that with every purchase we are helping to enrich Amazon chief Jeff Bezos. He is already the richest man in America and probably in the world. He really a monopolizer in the mold of oil baron John D. Rockefeller, but he's worse. Bezos wants to squeeze all retail commerce through the Amazon pipeline.
Posted by Frank Stricker, NJFAC board member
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