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Neither. They pass almost all of their surplus to customers. They're a model corporation as far as I'm concerned, the anti-Apple. Amazon, as best I can tell, i

Neither. They pass almost all of their surplus to customers. They're a model corporation as far as I'm concerned, the anti-Apple. Amazon, as best I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers -- Matthew Yglesias In this case they are a middleman replacing another middleman. That's just capitalism. Publishers had a good run. Can Amazon turn evil? Sure. But it will be 20 years this year and they still haven't. If they do, you can replace them tomorrow. You can even read a book bought anywhere else on your Kindle. EPUB converts to MOBI just like that ebook-convert book.epub book.mobi But that won't be necessary since another book store will happily give you .mobi files. That's some monopoly they have. As to the point that somehow we will run out of books to read, there is not even the slightest chance that I will read the best 1% of the books published until today in my entire lifetime. That's assuming everyone stops writing now. And statistically I'm a heavy reader, I'm up to 2-3 not-strictly-technical books a month.

anon1385 12y ago
>They're a model corporation as far as I'm concerned I think we must have a very different idea of 'model corporation' http://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mart_amazons_sick_brutality_and_secret_history_of_ruthlessly_intimidating_workers/ http://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mart_amazons_... >The series revealed the lengths Amazon was prepared to go to keep costs down and output high and yielded a singular image of Amazon’s ruthlessness—ambulances stationed on hot days at the Amazon center to take employees suffering from heat stroke to the hospital. Despite the summer weather, there was no air-conditioning in the depot, and Amazon refused to let fresh air circulate by opening loading doors at either end of the depot—for fear of theft >On June 2, 2011, a warehouse employee contacted the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration to report that the heat index had reached 102 degrees in the warehouse and that fifteen workers had collapsed. >On July 25, with temperatures in the depot reaching 110 degrees, a security guard reported to OSHA that Amazon was refusing to open garage doors to help air circulate and that he had seen two pregnant women taken to a nursing station. Calls to the local ambulance service became so frequent that for five hot days in June and July, ambulances and paramedics were stationed all day at the depot
- res0nat0r 12y ago
  Factory warehouse jobs suck. I used to work in one myself before college. Those stores are not the everyday in and out working environment, nor is a factory job any way comparable to a 100k salary position. You definitely are not going to have as cushy a work environment no matter what factory you work in.
  - adwn 12y ago
    > [...] nor is a factory job any way comparable to a 100k salary position [...] So what you're saying is that since their salary is low, they don't deserve humane working conditions?! The fact that they just accepted the health risks for their employees out of "fear of theft" (why couldn't they put a security guard there?) makes them evil.
    - res0nat0r 12y ago
      I'd say factory working conditions at amazon are humane. Working in a factory just sucks.
      - adwn 12y ago
        There was a way to make it suck less, which Amazon didn't do for stupid reasons.
- crazy1van 12y ago
  Interesting to compare Amazon to Walmart. Frankly I never got my head around the Walmart hate. A far greater number of poor people shop at Walmart than work at Walmart. Their low wages might be bad for their particular employees, but their low prices are good for every poor consumer no matter where they are employed.
AnthonyMouse 12y ago
> As to the point that somehow we will run out of books to read, there is not even the slightest chance that I will read the best 1% of the books published until today in my entire lifetime. That's assuming everyone stops writing now. That's giving far too much credit to the argument that Amazon will put authors out of business. Amazon may very well put publishers out of business (and replace them). They have no incentive to put authors out of business, because without authors Amazon would have no new books to sell.
Osmium 12y ago
> Can Amazon turn evil? Sure. ... If they do, you can replace them tomorrow. That's precisely the concern though. That, if one day Amazon were to turn evil, the landscape will be so radically changed that no viable competitor would be able to emerge, and there'll be no one to replace them with.
Anderkent 12y ago
This is missing the point completely. Stross doesn't claim amazon is a monopoly (well, other than in the title, but titles necessarily need to simplify to catch attention) - he calls them a monopsomy. Yes, you can if you really try grab the book from a different publisher and copy it to your kindle. 90% of readers won't bother though.
chrismcb 12y ago
"they are a middleman replacing another middleman" True, except the two middleman aren't equivalent. Amazon sales books. Period, end of story. The publisher offers a lot of value, editing, marketing, research, among other things. Perhaps the model will change where the publishers offer the things that Amazon doesn't. But as the Author points out, Amazon wants more of the pie than they are giving back, and as a single author you have less recourse than as a publisher.

anon1385 12y ago

>They're a model corporation as far as I'm concerned I think we must have a very different idea of 'model corporation' http://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mart_amazons_sick_brutality_and_secret_history_of_ruthlessly_intimidating_workers/ http://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mart_amazons_... >The series revealed the lengths Amazon was prepared to go to keep costs down and output high and yielded a singular image of Amazon’s ruthlessness—ambulances stationed on hot days at the Amazon center to take employees suffering from heat stroke to the hospital. Despite the summer weather, there was no air-conditioning in the depot, and Amazon refused to let fresh air circulate by opening loading doors at either end of the depot—for fear of theft >On June 2, 2011, a warehouse employee contacted the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration to report that the heat index had reached 102 degrees in the warehouse and that fifteen workers had collapsed. >On July 25, with temperatures in the depot reaching 110 degrees, a security guard reported to OSHA that Amazon was refusing to open garage doors to help air circulate and that he had seen two pregnant women taken to a nursing station. Calls to the local ambulance service became so frequent that for five hot days in June and July, ambulances and paramedics were stationed all day at the depot

res0nat0r 12y ago
Factory warehouse jobs suck. I used to work in one myself before college. Those stores are not the everyday in and out working environment, nor is a factory job any way comparable to a 100k salary position. You definitely are not going to have as cushy a work environment no matter what factory you work in.
- adwn 12y ago
  > [...] nor is a factory job any way comparable to a 100k salary position [...] So what you're saying is that since their salary is low, they don't deserve humane working conditions?! The fact that they just accepted the health risks for their employees out of "fear of theft" (why couldn't they put a security guard there?) makes them evil.
  - res0nat0r 12y ago
    I'd say factory working conditions at amazon are humane. Working in a factory just sucks.
    - adwn 12y ago
      There was a way to make it suck less, which Amazon didn't do for stupid reasons.
crazy1van 12y ago
Interesting to compare Amazon to Walmart. Frankly I never got my head around the Walmart hate. A far greater number of poor people shop at Walmart than work at Walmart. Their low wages might be bad for their particular employees, but their low prices are good for every poor consumer no matter where they are employed.

AnthonyMouse 12y ago

> As to the point that somehow we will run out of books to read, there is not even the slightest chance that I will read the best 1% of the books published until today in my entire lifetime. That's assuming everyone stops writing now. That's giving far too much credit to the argument that Amazon will put authors out of business. Amazon may very well put publishers out of business (and replace them). They have no incentive to put authors out of business, because without authors Amazon would have no new books to sell.

Osmium 12y ago

> Can Amazon turn evil? Sure. ... If they do, you can replace them tomorrow. That's precisely the concern though. That, if one day Amazon were to turn evil, the landscape will be so radically changed that no viable competitor would be able to emerge, and there'll be no one to replace them with.

Anderkent 12y ago

This is missing the point completely. Stross doesn't claim amazon is a monopoly (well, other than in the title, but titles necessarily need to simplify to catch attention) - he calls them a monopsomy. Yes, you can if you really try grab the book from a different publisher and copy it to your kindle. 90% of readers won't bother though.

chrismcb 12y ago

"they are a middleman replacing another middleman" True, except the two middleman aren't equivalent. Amazon sales books. Period, end of story. The publisher offers a lot of value, editing, marketing, research, among other things. Perhaps the model will change where the publishers offer the things that Amazon doesn't. But as the Author points out, Amazon wants more of the pie than they are giving back, and as a single author you have less recourse than as a publisher.