[HN Gopher] Amazon's New 'Factory Towns' Will Lift the Working C...
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Amazon's New 'Factory Towns' Will Lift the Working Class
Author : cratermoon
Score : 19 points
Date : 2021-09-16 20:24 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
| wcarron wrote:
| This is fucking insanity.
| qwert-e wrote:
| "Sorry To Bother You" wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual
| JohnHaugeland wrote:
| ... wow, Bloomberg ...
| [deleted]
| literallyaduck wrote:
| Busting up Amazon, Walmart, and big tech will uplift the working
| class. Company towns do not.
| rkk3 wrote:
| You load sixteen tons, what do you get
|
| Another day older and deeper in debt
|
| Saint Peter don't you call me cause I can't go
|
| I owe my soul to the company store
| cratermoon wrote:
| South Park did it https://youtu.be/QNZupUTwOaw
| Barrin92 wrote:
| can't wait to go get my Bezos bucks after a hard days work at the
| warehouse, watch some prime, play some games on twitch, read some
| amazon store approved books on my kindle.
|
| Are there any theatres, museums or bars or political
| organizations in my company town? Probably not, that might give
| people bad ideas, and the booze is bad for productivity
|
| Turns out the 21st century looks like the 1890s, there is no new
| thing under the sun
| taurath wrote:
| We optimize for 2 things politically, one being jobs (which we
| have enough of right now), and a far second being wages.
|
| Livability, affordability, social cohesion, work life balance,
| cost of living relative to wages, and a safety net are all not
| even on the list. That $18 an hour you can earn probably doesn't
| get you a 1 bedroom rental apartment unless it's in the middle of
| nowhere. 6 figure incomes are priced out of housing markets,
| outbid by corporate cash offers from the likes of Zillow, Bain,
| and private equity who are flipping entire neighborhoods. It
| feels like the basis of society has fallen by the wayside in
| order to give nation state money and power to a few individuals.
| Only when income inequality starts to go down will any of these
| trends reverse, and we're not near the peak yet. I really don't
| see any reason to believe that America will be a superpower in
| the next 30, let alone 100 years. And maybe that's what it needs
| to focus on the livelihoods of its citizens.
| cratermoon wrote:
| No doubt that, by the time all is accounted for, the employees
| will end up owing more than they make, and Amazon will offer
| low interest* payday advance loans.
|
| *Not actually low interest after the first month
| pinewurst wrote:
| Why stop with the factory town? Why not simply have workers live
| in a dormitory that's part of the "fulfillment center"?
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Warehouse-Novel-Rob-Hart/dp/198482380...
| cratermoon wrote:
| But, why link to Amazon for it?
| AustinDev wrote:
| I see we've come full circle and are bringing back the good old
| fashioned company town complete with a company store. It's only a
| matter of time before they start paying in company dollars. As a
| matter of fact I once did business with a company acquired by
| Amazon several years after that acquisition. They offered my
| struggling bootstraped company AWS credits in lieu of payment
| after payment in dollars had already been agreed to... and work
| had been performed.
|
| Maybe we're close to peak late-stage capitalism or maybe it can
| go further, only time will tell.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town
| MomoXenosaga wrote:
| I'm worried because we are now in a hyper individualistic
| society were everyone's living in their own bubble. Will we be
| able to form Unions like the last time and save ourselves from
| this slavery?
| taurath wrote:
| It'll take another generation to even be okay with the idea
| of unions. By then all the billionaires will be in New
| Zealand or elsewhere and their hoard will be untouchable.
| Arrath wrote:
| I'm quite worried as well. At this point I expect resistance
| to top out at the level of some social media protest.
| cratermoon wrote:
| Nah, instead of paying in company dollars they will offer
| payday advance loans at usurious rates.
| unclebucknasty wrote:
| This is what's I find bewildering about people who want to
| essentially dismantle government, because "freedom": where do
| they think the power goes?
|
| We'll be living in a company country.
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(page generated 2021-09-16 23:02 UTC)