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Amazon has made my life better with cheap and convenient products. Amazon has given a lot of relatively high paying jobs to people without a postsecondary educa

Amazon has made my life better with cheap and convenient products. Amazon has given a lot of relatively high paying jobs to people without a postsecondary education -- they've provided a living wage to middle America. I "get" that there's a big mound of hipster cred available if you pretend to be ashamed or disgusted by this, but I have no interest in that. Maybe it's because I'm from middle America and have friends in those sorts of jobs. The problem with this sort of rant is that no amount of equity would ever be enough to satisfy you, and you don't care about the cost to their customers. America and American psuedocapitalism has still made countless lives across the world better in spite of that. If this opinion hurts your feelings, you should probably spend less time on what is principally a venture capitalism forum. I think Bezos will have an excellent legacy.

slt2021 6y ago
cheap products and tech jobs at cost of USPS's losses and backbreaking and piss-keeping warehouse workers. It is important to know where the created value comes from
- pc86 6y ago
  Amazon generated $1.6 billion in profit for the USPS. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/17/21443933/amazon-post-office-revenue-delivery-trump https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/17/21443933/amazon-post-offi...
_greim_ 6y ago
Amazon has committed the sin of success, so they're the ones made an example of. Criticizing the myriad businesses that lumber along in Amazon's shadow—whose business practices are worse on average—would be pointless, because they're not the ones who so brilliantly and visibly succeeded. Based on that, I don't discount criticisms of Amazon, but rather take them as criticism of the incentive structures in which all businesses operate. The cult of criticism around Bezos is silly, but ignorable. People need something easy to fixate on, and it's hard to do that for something so abstract and complicated as an economic incentive structures.
warent 6y ago
> The problem with this sort of rant is that no amount of equity would ever be enough to satisfy you ... if this opinion hurts your feelings, you should probably spend less time on what is principally a venture capitalism forum. I find it amusing that sharing a negative opinion about Bezos has apparently affected you so deeply that you've immediately marked me down as an irrational idiot who needs to be shown the door. Usually these situations occur when people accidentally project their own wounded feelings. Frankly I'm just here for stimulating discussion and stay here because HN has changed my mind before, and generally makes me less dumb. Your comment has not made me less dumb. It's just boring gatekeeping. Continue posting like this if you'd like; I have zero interest in it.
msrenee 6y ago
Yes Amazon created $15/hour jobs in areas where that's an above-average wage. But you've got to leave your dignity at the door to earn that. Most warehouses where I'm at pay $15/hour. Amazon is not paying above the going rate for warehouse work. They are, however, running their workers into the ground even moreso than the average warehouse, which typically runs people into the ground. I thought I had a shitty warehouse job with no hope of advancement until a few coworkers of mine went to work for Amazon and then promptly got the hell out of there. They have below-average working conditions for average pay. I'm not sure how they are supposed to be the saviors of the uneducated workforce. I hear better things about the local meat packing plants than I hear about the Amazon warehouse. At least the meat packing plants don't blow smoke up your ass and then try to tell you they're doing you a favor paying the average market rate for your work.

slt2021 6y ago

cheap products and tech jobs at cost of USPS's losses and backbreaking and piss-keeping warehouse workers. It is important to know where the created value comes from

pc86 6y ago
Amazon generated $1.6 billion in profit for the USPS. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/17/21443933/amazon-post-office-revenue-delivery-trump https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/17/21443933/amazon-post-offi...

_greim_ 6y ago

Amazon has committed the sin of success, so they're the ones made an example of. Criticizing the myriad businesses that lumber along in Amazon's shadow—whose business practices are worse on average—would be pointless, because they're not the ones who so brilliantly and visibly succeeded. Based on that, I don't discount criticisms of Amazon, but rather take them as criticism of the incentive structures in which all businesses operate. The cult of criticism around Bezos is silly, but ignorable. People need something easy to fixate on, and it's hard to do that for something so abstract and complicated as an economic incentive structures.

warent 6y ago

> The problem with this sort of rant is that no amount of equity would ever be enough to satisfy you ... if this opinion hurts your feelings, you should probably spend less time on what is principally a venture capitalism forum. I find it amusing that sharing a negative opinion about Bezos has apparently affected you so deeply that you've immediately marked me down as an irrational idiot who needs to be shown the door. Usually these situations occur when people accidentally project their own wounded feelings. Frankly I'm just here for stimulating discussion and stay here because HN has changed my mind before, and generally makes me less dumb. Your comment has not made me less dumb. It's just boring gatekeeping. Continue posting like this if you'd like; I have zero interest in it.

msrenee 6y ago

Yes Amazon created $15/hour jobs in areas where that's an above-average wage. But you've got to leave your dignity at the door to earn that. Most warehouses where I'm at pay $15/hour. Amazon is not paying above the going rate for warehouse work. They are, however, running their workers into the ground even moreso than the average warehouse, which typically runs people into the ground. I thought I had a shitty warehouse job with no hope of advancement until a few coworkers of mine went to work for Amazon and then promptly got the hell out of there. They have below-average working conditions for average pay. I'm not sure how they are supposed to be the saviors of the uneducated workforce. I hear better things about the local meat packing plants than I hear about the Amazon warehouse. At least the meat packing plants don't blow smoke up your ass and then try to tell you they're doing you a favor paying the average market rate for your work.