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Yes it's actually getting a lot worse! Had a long discussion the other day about Amazon and where we went wrong as a society. Short version, Amazon should have

Yes it's actually getting a lot worse! Had a long discussion the other day about Amazon and where we went wrong as a society. Short version, Amazon should have been regulated to facilitate existing small specialist businesses supply chain and delivery, not directly compete with them and force them out of business. Amazon should have been fulfilling orders on behalf of mom & pop's knitting supply, not undercutting them and cutting them out. This is incredibly damaging to the tax base as most taxes are paid by small businesses. Now we have a pandemic where the big box stores and online retailers remain open while the mom & pops are closed and going bust. It's a slow moving economic disaster IMO

lotsofpulp 6y ago
>Amazon should have been fulfilling orders on behalf of mom & pop's knitting supply, not undercutting them and cutting them out. This is incredibly damaging to the tax base as most taxes are paid by small businesses. It's benefiting to me, and I think society, to not pay extra for unnecessary middlemen. If the problem is insufficient taxes, then raise taxes.
- olivermarks 6y ago
  raise taxes on who? If 'unnecessary middle men' are out of business that leaves a few wealthy consumers and a few centralized suppliers. The rest of the population will be unemployed supported by the state if they are lucky
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    Taxes on the wealthy. It is wealth redistribution one way or another, but a more efficient one than keeping middlemen around for no reason.
    - luplex 6y ago
      Middlemen still do have benefits. They provide resiliency. If Amazon commits serious fraud and is shut down, there is no one left. We should not have privately owned systems that are too big to fail.
    - olivermarks 6y ago
      Most wealthy people are multi passport stateless and keep their money offshore, paying little or no tax. The bigger the global corporation the more likely they are to be registered in Ireland or other tax free havens. There is no trickle down in taxes when a few have won the Monopoly game
lioeters 6y ago
> We ignored the need to regulate ... and allowed walled gardens of unprecedented size to be imposed I suspect this was done intentionally and systematically, as a kind of "shadow policy". It's resulting in massive concentration of wealth and control, which, from certain sociopathic/political perspectives, could be argued to benefit the country in terms of global economy and national security.

lotsofpulp 6y ago

>Amazon should have been fulfilling orders on behalf of mom & pop's knitting supply, not undercutting them and cutting them out. This is incredibly damaging to the tax base as most taxes are paid by small businesses. It's benefiting to me, and I think society, to not pay extra for unnecessary middlemen. If the problem is insufficient taxes, then raise taxes.

olivermarks 6y ago
raise taxes on who? If 'unnecessary middle men' are out of business that leaves a few wealthy consumers and a few centralized suppliers. The rest of the population will be unemployed supported by the state if they are lucky
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  Taxes on the wealthy. It is wealth redistribution one way or another, but a more efficient one than keeping middlemen around for no reason.
  - luplex 6y ago
    Middlemen still do have benefits. They provide resiliency. If Amazon commits serious fraud and is shut down, there is no one left. We should not have privately owned systems that are too big to fail.
  - olivermarks 6y ago
    Most wealthy people are multi passport stateless and keep their money offshore, paying little or no tax. The bigger the global corporation the more likely they are to be registered in Ireland or other tax free havens. There is no trickle down in taxes when a few have won the Monopoly game

lioeters 6y ago

> We ignored the need to regulate ... and allowed walled gardens of unprecedented size to be imposed I suspect this was done intentionally and systematically, as a kind of "shadow policy". It's resulting in massive concentration of wealth and control, which, from certain sociopathic/political perspectives, could be argued to benefit the country in terms of global economy and national security.