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I think the gov, at this point, should do a serious and thorough investigation on workers rights violations with proper/harsh punishments where appropriate alon

I think the gov, at this point, should do a serious and thorough investigation on workers rights violations with proper/harsh punishments where appropriate along with investigating anti competitive practices. But I dont believe its genuine for someone to complain about what Amazon is doing, then fund the company to continue their shady practices. It's like someone in Greenpeace crying for more laws to protect animals while they club a seal to death for their fur. You dont "need" laws for you to do the moral and correct thing in your personal life. It's more meant to protect you from others doing bad onto you. Unless you're a whiny child with no sense of responsibility... anyways, stand up for what you believe. Dont wait around. Thats the adult pants comment. Sure, you now have to click a few extra times to buy the same item elsewhere... what a painful sacrifice... Go ahead and buy from Amazon but dont get on a high horse, saying workers have rights, but fund a company for violating those rights. By the way, when someone says to "put your adult pants on", that means you do things for yourself, by yourself, no matter how difficult or painful. Not have someone else do it for you.

adamsea 6y ago
Thanks for the clarification. Yeah I agree about the government doing an investigation. In spirit I agree with you but think it's not as black-and-white as you described. For example: I forget to get a book as a birthday present. The party is in two days. If I decide to order the book on Amazon, because it's the only fast and reliable shipper of books whom I know will have the book I want, I don't see that the same as clubbing a baby seal, so to speak. The issue being of course, whether Amazon qualifies as a monoply in the "Ma Bell" sense or not, there's not an obvious peer competitor, so, human behavior being what it is, people default to Amazon because, well, people are people. We're all babies sometimes. That said I did just recently order a book from https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ so there ya go. : )
- NoOneNew 6y ago
  The baby seal analogy is extreme. But the base point, dont complain people do something bad, when you do it yourself. If you think Amazon is great and unskilled labor doesn't deserve equal rights, that's fine. I can't argue with your personal logic or habits. Youre... true to your ethos? What my real problem is, people walking around without taking responsibility for their own actions and that's become the cool, normal thing to do. It's not their fault they do something they dont agree with, it's the gov fault that they aren't led around correctly. Thus, they want the government to have a heavier and heavier hand in the public's lives. And no, I'm not a libertarian. We need laws and people to lay down the law. But, for example, that doesn't absolve me from doing what I think is morally correct. I think all humans have rights and should be treated fairly in a workplace. I technically dont have to give a shit about any of this. I've been a straight up asshole to protect my own rights in the workplace. I dont need the gov to protect me, mostly because I know how to negotiate and strategically position myself in a work environment. Not everyone has those skills and/or circumstance to do the same. A collar and muzzle needs to be put on some (eh, a lot) managers/businesses to help out people not like me. I get that and agree. But I also refuse to fund and support a company that openly takes advantage of people. They dont even bother hiding it anymore. I dont need help to stand for my own beliefs. With that, I'm more afraid that because people want the gov to interfere rashly, they're just going to pull a Standard Oil break up. Rockefeller became far richer after the monopoly breakup. Can you imagine the same gaffe happening to Bezos? Amazon gets broken up and in 10 years he'll look back to 2020 and say, "Ah yes, the year I went from being poor to rich." Or, everyone goes, "yes, i believe in workers rights and refuse to aid a company taking advantage of its employees." Then Amazon must change something when their profits take a hit. And dont get me wrong, lots of companies are shitheads. Hell, it's part of the world economy that you buy something from abused labor somewhere down the chain. Pretty much all food, clothing, batteries, rare earth minerals... the world is generally a mess and a half. But something like Amazon is far easier to give up than eating food... unless you have a victory garden. Now, if we can get gov to help break localized telecommunications monopoly control... that'd be great.

adamsea 6y ago

Thanks for the clarification. Yeah I agree about the government doing an investigation. In spirit I agree with you but think it's not as black-and-white as you described. For example: I forget to get a book as a birthday present. The party is in two days. If I decide to order the book on Amazon, because it's the only fast and reliable shipper of books whom I know will have the book I want, I don't see that the same as clubbing a baby seal, so to speak. The issue being of course, whether Amazon qualifies as a monoply in the "Ma Bell" sense or not, there's not an obvious peer competitor, so, human behavior being what it is, people default to Amazon because, well, people are people. We're all babies sometimes. That said I did just recently order a book from https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ so there ya go. : )

NoOneNew 6y ago
The baby seal analogy is extreme. But the base point, dont complain people do something bad, when you do it yourself. If you think Amazon is great and unskilled labor doesn't deserve equal rights, that's fine. I can't argue with your personal logic or habits. Youre... true to your ethos? What my real problem is, people walking around without taking responsibility for their own actions and that's become the cool, normal thing to do. It's not their fault they do something they dont agree with, it's the gov fault that they aren't led around correctly. Thus, they want the government to have a heavier and heavier hand in the public's lives. And no, I'm not a libertarian. We need laws and people to lay down the law. But, for example, that doesn't absolve me from doing what I think is morally correct. I think all humans have rights and should be treated fairly in a workplace. I technically dont have to give a shit about any of this. I've been a straight up asshole to protect my own rights in the workplace. I dont need the gov to protect me, mostly because I know how to negotiate and strategically position myself in a work environment. Not everyone has those skills and/or circumstance to do the same. A collar and muzzle needs to be put on some (eh, a lot) managers/businesses to help out people not like me. I get that and agree. But I also refuse to fund and support a company that openly takes advantage of people. They dont even bother hiding it anymore. I dont need help to stand for my own beliefs. With that, I'm more afraid that because people want the gov to interfere rashly, they're just going to pull a Standard Oil break up. Rockefeller became far richer after the monopoly breakup. Can you imagine the same gaffe happening to Bezos? Amazon gets broken up and in 10 years he'll look back to 2020 and say, "Ah yes, the year I went from being poor to rich." Or, everyone goes, "yes, i believe in workers rights and refuse to aid a company taking advantage of its employees." Then Amazon must change something when their profits take a hit. And dont get me wrong, lots of companies are shitheads. Hell, it's part of the world economy that you buy something from abused labor somewhere down the chain. Pretty much all food, clothing, batteries, rare earth minerals... the world is generally a mess and a half. But something like Amazon is far easier to give up than eating food... unless you have a victory garden. Now, if we can get gov to help break localized telecommunications monopoly control... that'd be great.