I’ve delivered packages for Amazon for approximately 1.5 years now.
I broke down in tears after reading this.
1 Like
I’m not directing it at you man. I’m sorry. I’m speaking of the company and their business practices. I just couldnt do it. I work in tech and i’d be propagating these business practices.
Yeah it’s pretty different working a low level job for Amazon vs working a high level job from a morality perspective… I would feel zero guilt were I you.
On the other hand jmakin is a software engineer who I would judge a bit if he went to work for Amazon or FB lol.
That being said we need to figure out how to get you a better job just for financial and quality of life reasons.
Yeah I have nothing against the drivers and warehouse workers who are trying to make a living but man this unionization thing sucks. Must feel nice to vote against it and then see “huge win for Amazon” plastered everywhere.
I’ve basically stopped using Amazon personally but my wife and our parents both order things from it as if it’s on perpetual clearance. I’ve at least gotten my wife to think whether she can get the items from someplace else before she clicks the buy button but working from home has basically trained her to favor the convenience over all else. On the bright side she realized that a lot of things weren’t even worth buying from Amazon and will get them from Target or Costco instead.
Curious
Not trying to pile on or single you out, but takes like this come from a place of incredible privilege. For those workers in Bessemer, AL, where else can a high school graduate make $15 an hour? A poultry / meat packing facility that is essentially a sweat shop?
I’ve worked in oil & gas on and off for a decade, and I don’t think that decision is some black mark on my soul. Yea, if I had made some different choices in my 20s (when I was a raging alcoholic) I could probably have some sick WFH gig writing code for a company that is wholly ethical and moral and makes all the right choices. But that’s not how it played out. And that’s not the reality for a vast majority of the working class.
Who are the biggest employers in the US?
Walmart, Raytheon, JP Morgan Chase, McDonalds, Coca Cola, etc. Our brand of capitalism is a fucking cancer. Unless someone is voluntarily signing up to murder poor people domestically or abroad, I grant them some leeway on their employment choices.
1 Like
Again, I’m not implying if you work there or for any similar shitty company that you are some kind of bad person. i’m saying for me, I’d be doing things that would enable them to keep doing the shitty things and for me I couldn’t do it.
1 Like
I think jwax was talking about being more lenient in judging working class people’s job choices. People with limited means and options:
On the other hand, Neal Katyal is a $1000+/hr mercenary attorney, with at least a 7, maybe 8 figure net worth. So, probably not grading him on the same curve.
3 Likes
who is judging the working class? holy shit it’s like you guys can’t read what I’m saying.
with my skillset and experience I could go get a job at amazon making 2x more. I don’t. I couldn’t do it. That is not a judgment on any working class person, nothing I said seems like it could be even remotely construed as such. Please do not keep mischaracterizing what I actually said. I worked min wage for a decade and then at $30k/year for several more. I know what it is like. I have done some things I rather wouldn’t because it was either that or starve.
Jmakin’s post is perfectly reasonable. I don’t sleep at night.
I I didn’t take care of myself mentally which is why I’m in the position I am in. His post was a blessing.
1 Like
I wasn’t responding to you or the point that you were making. So, no need to accuse me of not being able to read what you’re saying. 
I understood what you were saying, but I think if you had explicitly stated this in your first post about this, it would have made it a whole lot clearer.
1 Like
I watch some van life YT channels of people who are nomads mostly because of money. A lot of them take seasonal jobs at Amazon and they are pretty uniformly happy with the high pay. The don’t say “the pay is ok” or “pretty good”, they consider $15 (and overtime) really high pay.
Amazon is easily the best place on the internet to buy books. Sucks. It’s easy to avoid Walmart, Coke, MsDonalds, etc because their products are trash. The thing about Amazon is that it’s a great product.
I will try harder to buy elsewhere. Thanks, thread, for the reminder.
The library is the thing I miss most during closed for business.
Same.
1 Like
last books i bought was at barnes and noble but I do have a list of local bookstores that I go to, worth a little car ride
Yeah. You really gotta move to a place where Amazon isn’t quite as popular.
There’s one Amazon warehouse in the Czech Republic and the working conditions are actually better in that the people are paid a living wage rather than straight-up minimum wage and of course they have universal health care and benefits. Granted it’s still an hourly wage below the country’s average but if you live in a poor area of the Czech Republic, it is not a bad wage for manual laborers.
In the CR, Amazon is used through the German website and shipping deals are very limited because a lot of the products end up being shipped from Germany. I’ve used Amazon once since living here and I really haven’t missed it. The country is small enough that I basically get everything I need in two days by using Czech websites.
I either get my books from the library or a local resale store but Amazon is tough to beat unless you have a local place you like. We had a gift card to B&N and my kid mostly bought toys with it.