My Amazon rant

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Phishfry

Phishfry

It was nice to see I am not the only one who thinks poorly of Bezos.
Several walkouts today and I spotted this in an article:
"What we’re saying is Jeff Bezos, you’re the richest man in the world, you have the wealth and ability to make sure your workers are treated with respect and dignity," Rix said. "You as the wealthiest man in the world would prefer to spend your wealth on space travel rather than on the people who create your wealth.
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Note: I moved some threads of mine to this thread. I didn't want to impose on another technical minded thread.
 
How about this stark truth:

In my hometown the police + IP lawyers do SWAT raids on poor little Pakistani convenient markets.
The are SWAT RAIDED for counterfeit products like NFL caps. Splashed on the news like real criminals.

Now compare that with the treatment of Amazon fake products.
No splashy SWAT raids for them. Warehouses in every state containing counterfit product.
Amazon seems to have a free pass to sell anything counterfeit they like.

What about the sales tax exemption. It all came about by small mom and pop catalog firms, Like Lillian Vernon.
Now we have a major counterfeiter shuttering many local businesses and our state sales taxes really are taking a hit.
Totally unfair.

https://www.retaildive.com/news/app...s-listed-as-notorious-counterfeit-mar/538731/
https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/31/fulfilled-by-amazon-counterfeit-fake/
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/amazon-may-have-a-counterfeit-problem/558482/
 
You will not find someone filthy rich or powerful who is not, in some part, a psychopath or worse. They had to reach their position somehow or at least stay there for the time being. So nothing to be surprised about.
 
My questions are: Are rich people buying on Amazon? Are rich people loosing money? Why local people don't support local businesses?
 
Yes but look back at the history of Anti-Trust in the US.
We broke up Standard Oil because they got too big.
Now we have a monopolist trying to corner many markets and you can forget any regulatory worries.
In only 100 years time our whole business regulation system has been corrupted.

My state bribed Amazon $1 Billion+ dollars in incentives to locate half their HQ2 here.
Really shady deal that must be kept secret.

Yes Virginia, this is still America. Bribes and secret deals. That is what 2018 looks like.
To think we talk about corrupt regimes like we are holier than thou. Business as normal here in hypocritical America.
Cloaked in the esteemed "economic development" vehicle.
They are literally going to take money from the poor to give to the richest man in America.
Giving a "subsidy" of $22,000 per job of the taxpayers money in a secret deal. Quite literally corporate welfare.

God forbid Amazon has to answer to someone. No FOIA for you. We will squash you.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/38396/virginia-wooed-amazon-state-incredibly-absurd-ashe-schow
Sorry -very partisan site here- The full details are not widely being reported.
 
Reading about Amazon and Anti-Trust
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-antitrust-crackdown-amazon.html

This line of argument baffles me:
"It's not an antitrust violation just to be dominant. You have to perpetuate or attain your dominance through anticompetitive means," said Daniel Crane, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School specializing in antitrust.
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I think the first 3 articles I posted above prove that.
They are being anti-competitive by allowing fakes (or third party sales if you will), that drive out legitimate sellers selling REAL products. One article said GAO investigation found that 43% of the products are fake there. What more needs to be said.
Send in the SWAT team.
 
fernandel said:
Why local people don't support local businesses?
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That could be a whole rant in itself.

That one starts in the 1950's when we mastered mass production of high quality goods.
Joe McCarthy was holding hearings on Un-American activities like being left leaning or worse yet, Communist.

Fast forward to today and we import a large quantity of our goods from Communist China.
They are also a large holder of our national debt.
McCarthy is spinning in his grave.

"Why" though was the question. I guess it is because we are cheap.
We would rather have a cheap China-Made plastic chair then a quality wooden chair that is locally produced.
Loss of values is what I would call it. Rome didn't fall in a day. Many small cuts.
 
My whole field of machining and repairing goods is also going away. Not totally but more in some areas than others.
Why pay to repair a part when you can buy a new one for not much more.
So to amend my answer.
"Why" - It is our disposable society which values low cost over quality.
 
Phishfry said:
Why pay to repair a part when you can buy a new one for not much more.
So to amend my answer.
"Why" - It is our disposable society which values low cost over quality.
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I've never done business on Amazon. They want me to jump through too many hoops to buy from them and prefer ebay.

I go for quality and if I can get it cheap so much the better. I love a good deal. New and shiny things don't necessarily attract my attention but if you can get a new one for the price of a repair, I can see the logic in that.

I bought my Pioneer SA-520 amp in the early 1980's, my Optimus Equalizer in the mid 90's and got my Jensen Model 4 speakers as a present for my 15th birthday. The only computer of the 9 I own that I bought new is my Sony from 2007 and they're all from that timeline. So if something works the way I like it, it's probably still good enough for me.
 
I remember a friend saying, Amazon's evil but they're just so convenient, which is true. I'm pretty old, and I remember Staples wiping out all the small business office supply store, Barnes and Noble wiping out the small booksellers, and so on. Now, Amazon is doing to them what they did to their competitors. Though I don't think any of them were as evil to their own employees as Amazon, although Walmart seems just as bad. Like Crivens said, to reach that level of wealth you have to be a bit of a psychopath. Gates seems to be trying to make up for some of his evil now with his philanthropy, maybe Bezos will as well one day.
 
Phishfry said:
Joe McCarthy was holding hearings on Un-American activities like being left leaning or worse yet, Communist.

Fast forward to today and we import a large quantity of our goods from Communist China.
They are also a large holder of our national debt.
McCarthy is spinning in his grave.

"Why" though was the question.
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Phishfry
Getting applause from the wrong side is sheer mockery. So trying to prevent you becoming a laughing stock I'd like to know what made you referring to "Joe" McCarthy and whether he is spinning in his grave?

So why does it even need to think about McCarthy. Why?
 
Well put scottro - I've never liked Walmart but the fact is people will shop there to save $. You can take a stand and say "I am not going to shop at Walmart, Amazon, etc", and if you can buy elsewhere and afford it, fine, but many people are not going to spend extra $ to make a statement. I for one am a huge Amazon shopper, for convenience mainly, although I do compare prices before I buy. I work at home and am a bit of a hermit (read that as lazy and hate shopping), so having everything delivered to my door is perfect for me.

I support small businesses whenever possible and always shop around first - big conglomerates are certainly taking over the retail market but that's the way capitalism works, good or bad.
 
I wasn't going to mention Walmart but I don't care for them either. They ran Krogers and the other stores I used to shop at out of town. Even K-Mart and their bawdy Blue Light Specials couldn't compete with the stupendous StuporStore in selection or savings.

I live within walking distance from a discount grocery store where they have a butcher on the premises and a dollar type store where I can go for other stuff. It's not bad if you know what to look for.

Sometimes it's a necessary evil to make the trip to WallyWorld and I try to go in the middle of the night when it's least busy. Now you can check yourself out (how convenient of them) so I can usually make the trip without interaction on a personal level from frenzied shoppers or staff.

And hopefully not encounter an egregious ex-wife.
 
Phishfry, today china is about as communist as todays US (and most other western states for that matter) are free or democratic.

And the Gates foundation, hell bent to save africa (applause from me here) has heavily invested in oil companies poisioning the niger delta and bringing much suffering over small folks there. Booo. It's not all easy or bad/good.
 
scottro said:
I remember a friend saying, Amazon's evil but they're just so convenient, which is true. I'm pretty old, and I remember Staples wiping out all the small business office supply store, Barnes and Noble wiping out the small booksellers, and so on. Now, Amazon is doing to them what they did to their competitors.
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Yeah - what comes around goes around. But, the tendency of capitalism is for one entity to eventually own everything. What always happens when you play monopoly? At the end of the game, you know who's going to win, and it isn't much fun anymore (unless you're the winner). There is a certain tripping point, at which time capitalism hits the end-game phase that is in the experience of every schoolkid monopoly player. Communism isn't the answer, but at the extremes of capitalism it isn't much different.

The problem is that one company can get so much bigger and better than other companies simply by having too much capital advantage. So, the barrier to entry, or the barrier to staying alive, is pushed up to a level where all the other players cannot compete. This is why our laws are lacking. Simply being too much bigger than others is an "anti competitive" factor. But, the law currently doesn't accept that very obvious fact. Maybe the people who make the laws should get together with their legislative chums and play some monopoly.
 
getopt said:
So why does it even need to think about McCarthy. Why?
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Those that ignore history are bound to repeat it.
The reason I used that topic is to show how extreme my country can be. In only 70 years we went from Communist witch-hunt to the extreme of a Communist country buying our debt and supplying most all our retail goods.
In only 70 years we flip-flopped from one extreme to another.

The same reason I used Standard Oil. They were not the first big breakup, but in my mind it was not really needed.
Rockefeller was not hurt in the long run. He reconstituted into Esso and ExxonMobil is still a major player.
Xerox breakup in 1980 was one of the last big Anti-Trust actions. So perhaps for 40 years since we have acted on the problem would be more accurate. Once again I was contrasting the extremes.

Think about AIG being too big to fail compared to Standard Oil case.
The fact that we allowed these mega-banks to become too big to fail is a scathing indictment on the lack of anti-trust enforcement.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-good-reasons-why-lehman-failed/
 
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In the US, at least, the rich make the laws, and only rarely is there a president or other politician, with enough power and/or charisma and inclination to actually try to help those they're supposed to help. (Such as Teddy Roosevelt, who, while not perfect, was pretty awesome.)
 
scottro said:
In the US, at least, the rich make the laws, and only rarely is there a president or other politician, with enough power and/or charisma and inclination to actually try to help those they're supposed to help. (Such as Teddy Roosevelt, who, while not perfect, was pretty awesome.)
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Not to mention big business, who are by definition, rich :). Big business has an incredible amount of influence in the US government.
 
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