sociopolitical meh

[psocoptera]

Conditions suck for workers in Amazon warehouses (and other online retailers). Link to a Mother Jones article, 2012 March/April issue.

Sooo... I feel feelings about this, and I'm going to take advantage of being in my own journal to be incoherent about them.

1) Those conditions undeniably suck, man. Ugh.

2) But does that affect my patronage of Amazon? I'm pretty sure agricultural work sucks and I still eat vegetables.

3) If I go to a physical store to "buy local", I suspect the things on their shelves showed up in some kind of box and someone still had to put them in there, unless I'm at like a local artisans' cooperative or something. But you can't buy everything at a local artisans' cooperative, or at least, I would find it awfully limiting to try.

4) Plus I hate "buying local", you never have any idea if a physical store is actually going to have the things you're looking for, and now you're running around burning time and gas (and in my present case, limited mobility) with no guarantee of success.

5) I would kind of like to be part of a society that is accelerating as fast as possible towards things not sucking so much for people. I mean, as grand goals for humanity go, trying to get as many people as much dignity and bodily comfort as possible seems like an appealing one. I guess this makes me a crazy socialist. But, like, hey, we've got all this prosperity, we could *do* this!

6) Except I'm skeptical about the efficacy and legitimacy of regulatory solutions. For one thing, leaving aside whether the government should be empowered to make you put anti-static mats in your warehouse, the industry might be changing quickly enough that by the time some sort of rule can be formulated, it's obsolete, or codifies something that isn't the best practice any more for the new situation.

7) I would love to be able to tip my Amazon box packer. Like, "ding! the order you just fulfilled comes with this little bonus!". Not that I think that would solve the underlying problem, it would just be a nice gesture and maybe give someone a brief moment of something not-awful happening. Although I suppose they'd just lower average wages to compensate if it caught on.

8) So... meh.

Comments

[glassonion]

Yeah... like you, i feel that what i really want is a way to click the "yes, i would love to pay an extra $2 for shipping when i order things, to offset the cost of humane working conditions" button when i place an order. Maybe something as simple as providing that as feedback, would be better than doing nothing?

[eastgategirl.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with being a crazy socialist. : ) Most days, there isn't anything much that you can do, but every so often, you can make a difference, so be attuned to those times. If you have to order from Amazon, do it through your local library, or if your library doesn't have that option, do it through the Brewster Ladies' Library (http://www.brewsterladieslibrary.org/get/amazon.php#sisters)--that way you'll be doing some good.

> you never have any idea if a physical store is actually going to have the things you're looking for

I know that I'm a dinosaur, but that's what the telephone is for. : ) And sometimes, you can even check local store inventory on line.

[mst3kforall.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is inhuman. I had naively thought that we didn't do things like this in industrialized nations any more; and it is rampant and growing.

Very well-written article. The one minor sour note in it for me is that there are a couple of places where sarcastic statements by the author solely blame the customers as if it had been customer greed that had created the system -- it's the companies as much as the customers; the companies came up with the schemes and invent new ways to use up people in the name of greater profits. It's we customers who let them get away with it.

I like #7 but I fear that you predict correctly. It seems similar to what happened with restaurant servers; according to people I have read, restaurant servers don't even have to be paid minimum wage because of the excuse of tips.

[ursula]

What about "buy from smaller online retailers that are less obsessed with super-fast shipping" as an option? I try to at least look at Powell's when I'm buying books online, for instance.

[antimony.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to spread my online shipping around -- even if I find what I need on amazon, as long as it isn't substantially more expensive elsewhere, I buy it from somewhere smaller. Camping gear from camping stores. Cooking stuff from cooking stores. Etc. I don't know, for sure, whether any of them are better, at least not in most cases, but I am fairly sure they aren't worse. I will also look and see if there are local (or at least made-in-the-US-or-Canada) options, but there rarely are.

I'm not fond of tipping solutions, and I do prefer regulatory solutions (though rather than nitpicking regulations about floor mats, I prefer government policies that encourage unionization/outlaw unionbusting and let the unions do the heavy lifting on details), but in the absence of either, the best thing I can do is move my money in a fashion that is actually sustainable going forward (i.e. not "you should always buy it locally" because, no, it's not all available locally any more).

[belecrivain.livejournal.com]

Specifically about Amazon.

Agricultural work does suck immensely, probably even worse than the warehouse jobs described, but you can buy tomatoes at TJ's with a slightly clearer conscience.