5 ms·

> In this terrible economy, I am grateful for the work Seattle's unemployment rate is 4%, which is basically optimal and near what it was before the recession.

> In this terrible economy, I am grateful for the work Seattle's unemployment rate is 4%, which is basically optimal and near what it was before the recession. https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+unemployment+rate https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+unemployment+rate Seattle real-estate has almost completely rebounded. http://www.zillow.com/local-info/WA-Seattle-home-value/r_16037/ http://www.zillow.com/local-info/WA-Seattle-home-value/r_160... People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. If Amazon values the work these people do, they shouldn't assume that there is an unending supply of people waiting to fill these positions.

sliverstorm 13y ago
People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. Nobody wants to "realize" it. It makes for a better narrative if we're still in the throes of depression. "In this tough economy..." It's easier to rationalize negative things in your life if you can attribute them to things outside your control, like the economy.
- fungi 13y ago
  http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1952/never-had-it-so-good http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1952/never-ha...
- rayiner 13y ago
  And LA used to be la la land.
zwily 13y ago
Amazon will realize there's not an unending supply when an unending supply stops showing up.
- WalterBright 13y ago
  A quadruple negative! My brain just assploded.
  - cjfont 13y ago
    Technically I think it's just two double negatives.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - StavrosK 13y ago
      I only see the one double negative, even.
wpietri 13y ago
if you're looking at how hard it is to exploit workers, I think U6 is a better measure than U3, the one you're referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#United_States_Bureau_of_Labor_statistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#United_States_Bure... Nationally, that measure is still quite a bit worse than it was in 2007, and is twice as bad as 2001: http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp
- ctdonath 13y ago
  There is a significant stratification of unemployment levels based on education. http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm shows last year's breakdown; how that interacts with U6 is not immediately available, but is worth considering. Just a thought.
barista 13y ago
Given the razor thin margins that Amazon runs with, I am not surprised. This is a company that is struggling to make any money even after people bought hundreds of Billions of dollars worth of stuff from them. They are bound to cut corners to stay alive.
- xyzzyz 13y ago
  Amazon works hard to have a minuscule profit. If they have no profit, they don't have any tax liability. The business they're in lets them adjust their profits in real time -- whenever they expect to have large profit, they just lower their prices to eat it. Consumers love this, so they have huge turnover, and thanks to this, small increase of prices earns them big profit, if they ever need cash to fund acquisition, or new warehouse, or whatever.
  - sopooneo 13y ago
    I don't understand why you'd want to minimize profit just because of tax liability. Even if I paid 60% in taxes, I'd still be better off keeping 40% of a higher salary. What's the rational?
    - xyzzyz 13y ago
      The reason is that it's not the money you actually want. You want the stuff that you can exchange money for -- you want food, shelter, entertainment etc. If you had a choice, get a $10k pay rise, or $10k reimbursement for shopping, you'd obviously go with the second option, since the first one would only give you a certain percentage of that $10k. There's no reason for a company to pay tax on money it does not need. If they need some money for some current expenses, they can obtain it any time and spend it as an operating expense, which gets them no tax liability. Think of Apple, which has a basically untaxed huge wad of cash outside of the US -- they will keep it there for as long as they don't need more money in the US, to avoid the tax liability. They only keep in the US the money they need, hoping that future changes in tax law will let them save on bringing that pile of cash home.
    - regal 13y ago
wdr1 13y ago
> People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. - Median wages are still down from 2009[1] - Compared to 2000, national unemployment is still up significantly. [2] The reason so many people may not realize it yet is for them, the recession is still a very real thing. [1]http://www.nelp.org/page/-/Job_Creation/NELP-Fact-Sheet-Inequality-Declining-Wages.pdf?nocdn=1 http://www.nelp.org/page/-/Job_Creation/NELP-Fact-Sheet-Ineq... [2] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&met_y=unemployment_rate&hl=en&dl=en&idim=country:US&fdim_y=seasonality:S#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=unemployment_rate&fdim_y=seasonality:S&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:US&ifdim=country&tstart=948787200000&tend=1369465200000&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_...
_pmf_ 13y ago
> People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. If Amazon values the work these people do, they shouldn't assume that there is an unending supply of people waiting to fill these positions. Your grasp on the theoretical situation is quite firm, as is your apparent ability to ignore reality.

sliverstorm 13y ago

People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. Nobody wants to "realize" it. It makes for a better narrative if we're still in the throes of depression. "In this tough economy..." It's easier to rationalize negative things in your life if you can attribute them to things outside your control, like the economy.

fungi 13y ago
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1952/never-had-it-so-good http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1952/never-ha...
rayiner 13y ago
And LA used to be la la land.

zwily 13y ago

Amazon will realize there's not an unending supply when an unending supply stops showing up.

WalterBright 13y ago
A quadruple negative! My brain just assploded.
- cjfont 13y ago
  Technically I think it's just two double negatives.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    I only see the one double negative, even.

wpietri 13y ago

if you're looking at how hard it is to exploit workers, I think U6 is a better measure than U3, the one you're referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#United_States_Bureau_of_Labor_statistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#United_States_Bure... Nationally, that measure is still quite a bit worse than it was in 2007, and is twice as bad as 2001: http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp

ctdonath 13y ago
There is a significant stratification of unemployment levels based on education. http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm shows last year's breakdown; how that interacts with U6 is not immediately available, but is worth considering. Just a thought.

barista 13y ago

Given the razor thin margins that Amazon runs with, I am not surprised. This is a company that is struggling to make any money even after people bought hundreds of Billions of dollars worth of stuff from them. They are bound to cut corners to stay alive.

xyzzyz 13y ago
Amazon works hard to have a minuscule profit. If they have no profit, they don't have any tax liability. The business they're in lets them adjust their profits in real time -- whenever they expect to have large profit, they just lower their prices to eat it. Consumers love this, so they have huge turnover, and thanks to this, small increase of prices earns them big profit, if they ever need cash to fund acquisition, or new warehouse, or whatever.
- sopooneo 13y ago
  I don't understand why you'd want to minimize profit just because of tax liability. Even if I paid 60% in taxes, I'd still be better off keeping 40% of a higher salary. What's the rational?
  - xyzzyz 13y ago
    The reason is that it's not the money you actually want. You want the stuff that you can exchange money for -- you want food, shelter, entertainment etc. If you had a choice, get a $10k pay rise, or $10k reimbursement for shopping, you'd obviously go with the second option, since the first one would only give you a certain percentage of that $10k. There's no reason for a company to pay tax on money it does not need. If they need some money for some current expenses, they can obtain it any time and spend it as an operating expense, which gets them no tax liability. Think of Apple, which has a basically untaxed huge wad of cash outside of the US -- they will keep it there for as long as they don't need more money in the US, to avoid the tax liability. They only keep in the US the money they need, hoping that future changes in tax law will let them save on bringing that pile of cash home.
  - regal 13y ago

wdr1 13y ago

> People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. - Median wages are still down from 2009[1] - Compared to 2000, national unemployment is still up significantly. [2] The reason so many people may not realize it yet is for them, the recession is still a very real thing. [1]http://www.nelp.org/page/-/Job_Creation/NELP-Fact-Sheet-Inequality-Declining-Wages.pdf?nocdn=1 http://www.nelp.org/page/-/Job_Creation/NELP-Fact-Sheet-Ineq... [2] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&met_y=unemployment_rate&hl=en&dl=en&idim=country:US&fdim_y=seasonality:S#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=unemployment_rate&fdim_y=seasonality:S&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:US&ifdim=country&tstart=948787200000&tend=1369465200000&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_...

_pmf_ 13y ago

> People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. If Amazon values the work these people do, they shouldn't assume that there is an unending supply of people waiting to fill these positions. Your grasp on the theoretical situation is quite firm, as is your apparent ability to ignore reality.