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it's improve your life because you're probably a highly paid software developer or engineer (guessing because here you are on hacker news). I would like to hear

it's improve your life because you're probably a highly paid software developer or engineer (guessing because here you are on hacker news). I would like to hear more from the people who work for amazon (not the devs reaping all of the rewards of stock shares) and the retailers selling their goods on amazon to see if the company has "improved" their lives. https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17243026/amazon-warehouse-jobs-worker-conditions-bathroom-breaks https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17243026/amazon-warehouse...

Reedx 7y ago
Engineers are not the majority of Amazon's customers. Nor are they the ones that benefit most from buying there. For example, consider single mothers working two jobs, ordering from Amazon.com to save time & money. And depending on where they live, they might even get the order within a couple hours. That's a new kind of efficiency that many benefit from.
- ethbro 7y ago
  Consider why that person has to work two jobs, and the contribution Amazon made towards that. Low prices aren't free. Some of it came from efficiency, the rest comes from simply paying labor less.
  - Reedx 7y ago
    That's a different discussion and it's hard to untangle and weigh all of the effects. But it's worth noting that the % of people working multiple jobs has actually decreased with the rise of Amazon. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/4-point-9-percent-of-workers-held-more-than-one-job-at-the-same-time-in-2017.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/4-point-9-percent-of-worke... That's not to say it's casual. Maybe it would've decreased more sans Amazon. Who knows. Anyway, the point was simply that it's not only/mostly engineers who derive value from their existence. It includes every Amazon customer who saves time & money - especially those who have too little of both.
    - twoandfifteen 7y ago
      It also includes every person who lives in a city whose tax base has been eroded by Amazon, so those "hard working single moms" send their kids to shitty schools that will perpetuate the cycle of poverty. For tens of millions of working poor who live in apartment complexes, Amazon provides absolutely zero benefit since they cannot order anything bigger than a kumquat without risk of it being stolen off of their porch. The office? The office doesnt exist or is closed during the hours they are working - and UPS wont deliver there anyways a lot of the time.
      - comex 7y ago
        In theory that’s what Amazon Locker is for, though it’s less convenient.
HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
Those people aren't the customers, though.

Reedx 7y ago

Engineers are not the majority of Amazon's customers. Nor are they the ones that benefit most from buying there. For example, consider single mothers working two jobs, ordering from Amazon.com to save time & money. And depending on where they live, they might even get the order within a couple hours. That's a new kind of efficiency that many benefit from.

ethbro 7y ago
Consider why that person has to work two jobs, and the contribution Amazon made towards that. Low prices aren't free. Some of it came from efficiency, the rest comes from simply paying labor less.
- Reedx 7y ago
  That's a different discussion and it's hard to untangle and weigh all of the effects. But it's worth noting that the % of people working multiple jobs has actually decreased with the rise of Amazon. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/4-point-9-percent-of-workers-held-more-than-one-job-at-the-same-time-in-2017.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/4-point-9-percent-of-worke... That's not to say it's casual. Maybe it would've decreased more sans Amazon. Who knows. Anyway, the point was simply that it's not only/mostly engineers who derive value from their existence. It includes every Amazon customer who saves time & money - especially those who have too little of both.
  - twoandfifteen 7y ago
    It also includes every person who lives in a city whose tax base has been eroded by Amazon, so those "hard working single moms" send their kids to shitty schools that will perpetuate the cycle of poverty. For tens of millions of working poor who live in apartment complexes, Amazon provides absolutely zero benefit since they cannot order anything bigger than a kumquat without risk of it being stolen off of their porch. The office? The office doesnt exist or is closed during the hours they are working - and UPS wont deliver there anyways a lot of the time.
    - comex 7y ago
      In theory that’s what Amazon Locker is for, though it’s less convenient.

HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago

Those people aren't the customers, though.