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> It’s that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only that’s not just Amazon, it’s how 21st-century capitali

> It’s that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only that’s not just Amazon, it’s how 21st-century capitalism is done. Stung me the most. Capitalism seems to have such an increasingly firm grip on the world that I'm starting to think the only way out is from some drastic worldwide event (Corona?).

asah 6y ago
21st century? 20th century? 19th? Seems to me, this is the story of the industrial revolution and arguably all civilization pre-IR, when serfs were fungible labor units to the landed gentry. Standardize the design and production of something, then bring in labor to produce mass quantities to a certain level of quality. Coronavirus won't change this: with 8B people on the planet, we've come to depend on industrial production for food, medicine and more.
- awild 6y ago
  Industrial production and capitalism are not the same thing. I don't know about the ethics nor the day-to-day, but Mondragon is a largecorporation and worker owned.
- bigiain 6y ago
  > 21st century? 20th century? 19th? Does it matter? We can't change the 19th or 20th centuries. Perhaps we can change the 21st...
schnischna 6y ago
What is so bad about treating somebody as someone who can pick and pack your parcels? It's just a job? And what does it have to do with Capitalism. You think under Socialism they would care about your individuality? No they wouldn't - Socialism is a Collectivist ideology, after all. The way to strengthen workers is to increase demand for their work, or find ways to make their (limited) skills more useful, or give them new skills. Those are all compatible with Capitalism.
- cameronbrown 6y ago
  Alarming number of downvotes you're being hit with, when you're providing a real solution that isn't socialism.
  - ludocode 6y ago
    There are 149 comments so far in this thread. Absolutely zero of them have suggested socialism. Workers' rights are not socialism. Unions are not socialism. Minimum wage is not socialism.
    - schnischna 6y ago
      All those things are partially socialism. Simply instating minimum wage laws doesn't make a country fully socialist, but it is a puzzle piece. It means the wage is not set by the market anymore, but by a committee.
- awild 6y ago
  Because the way these people are treated relies entirely on the fact that their social status and education is so bad that they cannot effectively put demands on their working conditions, it's not like if they quit there is magically a different job on offer they can get to; none of them are doing it out of authentic volition. You're also completely disregarding the fact that people working in amazon warehouses are tracked the entire time, put under a lot of unnecessary stress and denied basic needs.

asah 6y ago

21st century? 20th century? 19th? Seems to me, this is the story of the industrial revolution and arguably all civilization pre-IR, when serfs were fungible labor units to the landed gentry. Standardize the design and production of something, then bring in labor to produce mass quantities to a certain level of quality. Coronavirus won't change this: with 8B people on the planet, we've come to depend on industrial production for food, medicine and more.

awild 6y ago
Industrial production and capitalism are not the same thing. I don't know about the ethics nor the day-to-day, but Mondragon is a largecorporation and worker owned.
bigiain 6y ago
> 21st century? 20th century? 19th? Does it matter? We can't change the 19th or 20th centuries. Perhaps we can change the 21st...

schnischna 6y ago

What is so bad about treating somebody as someone who can pick and pack your parcels? It's just a job? And what does it have to do with Capitalism. You think under Socialism they would care about your individuality? No they wouldn't - Socialism is a Collectivist ideology, after all. The way to strengthen workers is to increase demand for their work, or find ways to make their (limited) skills more useful, or give them new skills. Those are all compatible with Capitalism.

cameronbrown 6y ago
Alarming number of downvotes you're being hit with, when you're providing a real solution that isn't socialism.
- ludocode 6y ago
  There are 149 comments so far in this thread. Absolutely zero of them have suggested socialism. Workers' rights are not socialism. Unions are not socialism. Minimum wage is not socialism.
  - schnischna 6y ago
    All those things are partially socialism. Simply instating minimum wage laws doesn't make a country fully socialist, but it is a puzzle piece. It means the wage is not set by the market anymore, but by a committee.
awild 6y ago
Because the way these people are treated relies entirely on the fact that their social status and education is so bad that they cannot effectively put demands on their working conditions, it's not like if they quit there is magically a different job on offer they can get to; none of them are doing it out of authentic volition. You're also completely disregarding the fact that people working in amazon warehouses are tracked the entire time, put under a lot of unnecessary stress and denied basic needs.