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> Amazon could easily afford to hire more people for the workload but instead they choose to squeeze everything out of existing employees. That’s just not the

> Amazon could easily afford to hire more people for the workload but instead they choose to squeeze everything out of existing employees. That’s just not the Titan of Industry mentality. And the Titan of Industry mentality is required to build a company like Amazon. And everyone buys from Amazon because they offer the lowest price and the greatest convenience. It’s got nothing to do with whether he could hire more people. It’s that whether it’s the Pyramids or Versailles or Amazon, humans are largely drawn to these things that represent or require the toil and suffering of invisible anonymous masses. It’s weird, but it seems fundamental to humanity. It’s always made me question the compatibility of humans with “human rights.” We fundamentally don’t value these things. At least we prioritize symbols of collective greatness to individual human experience.

gonyea 9y ago
Amazon is wildly expensive compared with Target and Costco. Its success is convenience and extensive product reviews.
- erikig 9y ago
  I find this claim hard to believe - what products are you using to make the comparison?
CapacitorSet 9y ago
>humans are largely drawn to these things that represent or require the toil and suffering of invisible anonymous masses. It’s weird, but it seems fundamental to humanity. Consumers are largely drawn to low-cost products, which require the exploitation of masses. It is fundamental to capitalism, but not to humanity.
- vixen99 9y ago
  Well, poor people tend to be drawn to low-cost products or do without. I wonder what you'd prefer the masses to be doing as against producing those goods? Capitalism enables global wealth re-distribution. Thus were 500 million Chinese lifted out of poverty from 1981 to 2012 (World Bank figures) thanks to consumers who've bought the products of their industry. Most of us have helped in that respect. Almost all of humanity lived for thousand of years in miserable and degrading poverty; the life of even the very rich two hundred years ago and later would be considered a low grade existence by a great majority of ordinary people today and not just in the West.
zaroth 9y ago
Pyramids? Versailles? That is an absurd comparison — working conditions here are orders of magnitude better on every possible scale, he is getting paid good money which he is taking to the bank, and we’re talking what 50 hours a week of work? Plenty of leisure time to keep learning and striving and bettering oneself. Healthy 24 year old male with a functioning brain complaining that life is hard work? Give me a break. The market provides a pretty damn diverse set of job opportunities. It turns out that shuffling boxes doesn’t require any intelligence and therefore doesn’t pay well. The problem is not that there are entry level jobs to shuffle boxes. Take those away and then this guy doesn’t just have a loser job, he has no job at all. Make Amazon pay humans more to shuffle boxes and they’ll just have more incentive to buy better robots. Pay humans what it’s worth to shuffle boxes and the smart and motivated ones won’t be shuffling boxes for very long at all. Because it turns out if you have a brain you decide it’s better to learn a marketable skill in your off time instead of playing video games. This guy has no need for current income. He says his expenses are about 100/mo. He should be working his 50 hours a week and then putting another 50 hours into coursework if he doesn’t like the job he’s got. His government benefits which he doesn’t want to lose would (or should) not lapse if he has 40 hours of work AND/OR accredited coursework. If he loses benefits for choosing schooling over labor then that is a policy that should be fixed. There are a lot of societal pressure which is putting 24 year old males in their parents basement working dead-end jobs and playing video games. But very very little of the blame sits on Amazon’s shoulders if you ask me. There are a lot of controversial social theories on the way we’ve been talking to and about adolescent men are driving them into these low self esteem self-defeating positions, and it’s certainly a growing demographic and a big problem. Look at labor participation rates for 20-30 yr old men, for example. Again, Amazon is providing a service here, not the villain of the story.
- linkmotif 9y ago
  I agree with this. You couldn't find a person who more strongly laments the toll that Netflix/video games have taken on my generation. I've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by Netflix and video games. It's horrifying. I was just responding to the GP, who was wondering why Bezos doesn't just pay him more.

gonyea 9y ago

Amazon is wildly expensive compared with Target and Costco. Its success is convenience and extensive product reviews.

erikig 9y ago
I find this claim hard to believe - what products are you using to make the comparison?

CapacitorSet 9y ago

>humans are largely drawn to these things that represent or require the toil and suffering of invisible anonymous masses. It’s weird, but it seems fundamental to humanity. Consumers are largely drawn to low-cost products, which require the exploitation of masses. It is fundamental to capitalism, but not to humanity.

vixen99 9y ago
Well, poor people tend to be drawn to low-cost products or do without. I wonder what you'd prefer the masses to be doing as against producing those goods? Capitalism enables global wealth re-distribution. Thus were 500 million Chinese lifted out of poverty from 1981 to 2012 (World Bank figures) thanks to consumers who've bought the products of their industry. Most of us have helped in that respect. Almost all of humanity lived for thousand of years in miserable and degrading poverty; the life of even the very rich two hundred years ago and later would be considered a low grade existence by a great majority of ordinary people today and not just in the West.

zaroth 9y ago

Pyramids? Versailles? That is an absurd comparison — working conditions here are orders of magnitude better on every possible scale, he is getting paid good money which he is taking to the bank, and we’re talking what 50 hours a week of work? Plenty of leisure time to keep learning and striving and bettering oneself. Healthy 24 year old male with a functioning brain complaining that life is hard work? Give me a break. The market provides a pretty damn diverse set of job opportunities. It turns out that shuffling boxes doesn’t require any intelligence and therefore doesn’t pay well. The problem is not that there are entry level jobs to shuffle boxes. Take those away and then this guy doesn’t just have a loser job, he has no job at all. Make Amazon pay humans more to shuffle boxes and they’ll just have more incentive to buy better robots. Pay humans what it’s worth to shuffle boxes and the smart and motivated ones won’t be shuffling boxes for very long at all. Because it turns out if you have a brain you decide it’s better to learn a marketable skill in your off time instead of playing video games. This guy has no need for current income. He says his expenses are about 100/mo. He should be working his 50 hours a week and then putting another 50 hours into coursework if he doesn’t like the job he’s got. His government benefits which he doesn’t want to lose would (or should) not lapse if he has 40 hours of work AND/OR accredited coursework. If he loses benefits for choosing schooling over labor then that is a policy that should be fixed. There are a lot of societal pressure which is putting 24 year old males in their parents basement working dead-end jobs and playing video games. But very very little of the blame sits on Amazon’s shoulders if you ask me. There are a lot of controversial social theories on the way we’ve been talking to and about adolescent men are driving them into these low self esteem self-defeating positions, and it’s certainly a growing demographic and a big problem. Look at labor participation rates for 20-30 yr old men, for example. Again, Amazon is providing a service here, not the villain of the story.

linkmotif 9y ago
I agree with this. You couldn't find a person who more strongly laments the toll that Netflix/video games have taken on my generation. I've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by Netflix and video games. It's horrifying. I was just responding to the GP, who was wondering why Bezos doesn't just pay him more.