Trump is wrong to criticize Amazon

originally posted by: notsure1
How much money do you effing need? If Bezos or any of these rich greedy bastards would just every now and then say .

"you know I made a billion this month I think next months billion will go to my employees because they are the real reason I am so successful on such a massive scale.."

Then people would love them.

But nope they only want to invest in other businesses to make themselves richer..

How much money do these greedy bastards need?

That is an ethical question, not a legal one.

You have every right to think he is greedy and immoral.

You dont have the right to say the government should limit how much money he can make.

Once you cross that threshold, its only a matter of time before someone claims you too, who admitedly have more than just the bare neccessities in a world where there are people struggling to eat and find shelter, have too much, and should have your resources capped and the excess taken away.

originally posted by: notsure1
My point is another brick and mortar store gone... Where are the Netflix Brick and mortar stores?

Oh well, and the mail doesn't get delivered by horsies and freight by choo-choos, such is the way of progress. Eventually someone else will come along and eat Amazon's lunch and they will have been the ones who missed the boat.

originally posted by: notsure1
How much money do you effing need? If Bezos or any of these rich greedy bastards would just every now and then say .

"you know I made a billion this month I think next months billion will go to my employees because they are the real reason I am so successful on such a massive scale.."

Then people would love them.

But nope they only want to invest in other businesses to make themselves richer..

How much money do these greedy bastards need?

Are you kidding, that 'extra' billion goes to more robots to replace all the workers with.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Trump says not paying taxes is smart.

If it's ok for him it's ok for the rest of us right?

Just because I am for closing the loopholes doesn't mean I'm saying Bezos is dumb, nor does my disdain for the guy have anything to do with Amazon making bog bucks. I despise Bezos for political and media reasons, pure and simple. The monopoly which needs to be broken is the monopoly of the media by the 5 multinationals which control 90% of it. That said, if Amazon has figured out loopholes, is it wrong or even "punishment" to them to close those loopholes for the future?

a reply to: Grambler

The same will be true of amazon. Other companies will innovate and beat them in small areas at fisrt, and in ways we havent even thought of.

And that's just it. People keep lamenting the death of the mom & pop store but the only thing Amazon did was force the market to change. It was those mom & pop stores that thought they wouldn't have to change with the market. Just because something worked 50/10/5/or even 2 years ago doesn't mean it will continue to work. You have to be prepared to evolve and innovate.

Look at the pharmacy industry. Companies like CVS have made the local independent pharmacy an endangered species. But those local pharmacies that still exist continue to thrive because they changed with the market. Now instead of making their money primarily off filling scripts they make it by offering services CVS doesn't, like compounding and medical supplies.

Pretty much no company starts as a multi-national corporation. Amazon started as a regional company selling only books. Facebook was originally a platform only offered on the Harvard campus. If we start punishing companies for being too successful we also start killing innovation. Not only will people be reticent of staring a new company with fear of being swatted down by the government, but if a successful company does rise up the smaller companies will have no motivation to innovate. They'll know that they just have to hang on long enough and then they can continue on with business as usual.

a reply to: Grambler

You dont have the right to say the government should limit how much money he can make.

I can say whatever the hell I want.. Unless we changed that?

originally posted by: Grambler
Wal mart was crushing everything, and was going to have skynet type control over the world.

I had no idea that Walmart had billions invested in robotics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence platforms as well as had little surveillance bots in everyones homes.

Wowzers.

[/sarcasm]

When i said "Skynet" about Amazon I meant that literally. Because its true.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: Grambler

Are you kidding me?

Amazon is an absolute JUGGERNAUT that gets such preferential treatment from government its as if its getting paid subsidies.

Their cozy relationship with USPS in particular, its not just poised to absolutely crush what remains of brick & mortar following Walmart, but to do the same thing to online retailers especially all the little people (regular folks trying to get their own little online business thing going).

What Amazon is hellbent on doing to ALL other retailers.... Walmart eat your heart out.

Its even beyond the equivalence of comparing 'all other countries' to China in terms of output dominance sort of thing. China eat you heart out, but luckily for you every single item you'll ever offer will be availble at the absolutel lowest rate in Amazon Prime. Hell even the little vendors in AliExpress face the same kind of de facto extinction on this trajectory.

And then the part its building up towards its own 'Skynet' sort of aspirations on the back of all that...

Seriously dude! I don't get it. I even admitted my addiction due to my status, but yet those who seem to promote how much they hate Capitalism are the ones supporting how Amazon is getting over other businesses....

I don't get it.......

You know what you're right. They should bring back Standard Oil, Carnegie Steel Company, Vanderbilt Railroad and the Bell System.

The Big 6 Media, well ther'es more than one of them so nope no "monopoly' there. F it let there be only 2 media companies that absolutely dominate all tv channels / shows, news outlets, newspapers, book/magazine publishing AND radio stations.

There are only "Two" Party's after all. Lets model the whole world on that woohoo!

And the banks, same thing as above.

How dare anyone hate "Capitalism" (ahem Robberbarronism).

This attitude makes no sense to me.

Fisrt, I am just about libertarian, not a person who hates capitlaism.

I would turn ity and say that some people here compaling are ones that claim to love capitalism and hate government intervention are cheering for government intervention and agianst free markets.

Yes, you can take the argument to the extreme, and say that I am saying as long as there are two companies, its not a monopoly.

I can do the same; I guess you all want all the automobile comapnies broken up.

After all, there are far more retailers, even online retailers, than there are auto comapnies.

So when dfo we break up GM< ford, and the rest?

I mean, who cares if that crushes the industry.

And should we have Trump specifically point out which ones he hates, while allowing others to go unimpeded?

SOunds good, right?

In fact why stoip there?

Everyone desrves $30 bucks an hour, I mean all of these greedy companies make so much money, so time to make them paty up.

Oh, and lets massively increase the taxes on them, because they shouldnt have so much wealth.

In fact we should have massive government control over all economic things, like a living wage, health care, free college.
Thats the platform trump ran on, right?

Oh wait, that was Jill stein and bernie.

originally posted by: notsure1

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: notsure1
Mailing movies didnt kill blockbuster.. Streaming them did.. how many movies odes netflix mail out now.?

The point is that's how they started. Blockbuster could have gone from walk-in to mailing to streaming just as easily but they missed the boat.

My point is another brick and mortar store gone... Where are the Netflix Brick and mortar stores?

Won’t somebody think of the Brick and Mortar factories?!

originally posted by: eNumbra
Won’t somebody think of the Brick and Mortar factories?!

Only if they were filled with children like in the good old days.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I was referring to major tax breaks paid to organizations to move there. In the case you state someones palms were greased but it is good for the local economy so I say go for it.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

originally posted by: Grambler
Wal mart was crushing everything, and was going to have skynet type control over the world.

I had no idea that Walmart had billions invested in robotics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence platforms as well as had little surveillance bots in everyones homes.

Wowzers.

[/sarcasm]

When i said "Skynet" about Amazon I meant that literally. Because its true.

No its not true.

Its ludditism.

So whats your suggestion, we outlaw research into AI, robotics, cloud computing, and surveillance?

Or is it just amazon thats not allowed to do that?

originally posted by: matafuchs
I was referring to major tax breaks paid to organizations to move there.

It was major enough for our town for this to happen.

In the case you state someones palms were greased but it is good for the local economy so I say go for it.

I think, if you are referring to it as a palm greasing, my point is going over your head.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Guess I did misunderstand you.

a reply to: Grambler

It has become a federal issue with Congress looking at setting laws related to uniform enforcement of sales tax collection from third party sellers mainly because the practice has opened up a huge issue with regards to competition. Taxes are about the only theater out there in which yes, the government needs to ensure a level playing field to actually protect the free market. This isn't a case of "I can manufacture this product for less" or "I can trim my overhead expenses to afford selling this for less" it is "The government is handcuffing this company while letting this other one walk through unabated" which is absolutely government malfeasance and unfair as all hell. Zero sales taxes across the board would be a free market, tax some but not others is closing markets for those who must pay the tax while blowing the doors off for the ones who don't.

The SCOTUS will likely settle this once and for all.

a reply to: Grambler

Try this: Ebay and everyone in it doesnt hold a candle to Amazon. And on this current trajectory, aside from hand made items, live plants, and old used 'junk', only Amazon will remain.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Geez, you sound like a capitalist!

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

As further example, the small general store in my town recently had a dollar general put in right beside them.

The dollar general was able to charge much lower prices for basically the same thing the mom and pop store did.

Instead of crying unfair, that small store switched their model; they now specialize in produce, meat processing, and deli products, and are doing as good as ever.

Now the town, which has many poor people, can by day to day necessities at much cheaper prices, and has a great new way to get produce.

Now some would have said the town should have kept dollar general out of here, prices would have stayed up do to the fact the mom and pop store couldnt offer the cheaper prices, and so on. This would have meant less money for people to spend on other goods or services, probably also in the town.

And again, we are talking about Trump only calling out a company he doesnt like; where is his bluster on tax breaks and so forth for the companies he has praised?

I dont want a presidents personal feuds being used as a reason to interfere with the free market.

originally posted by: Grambler
a reply to: rickymouse

You are only looking at one side of the issue.

Yes these stores take out others, and yes they sell cheap products. So as bad as that is for the laborer, its good for the consumer.

Look I lean libertaraian. I want as little government interfence as possible.

If you think the government will do a good, fair job of picking winners and loser in business, thats your right.

I think that history has shown over and over again that they almost always fail.

Consumers need to have money to buy things. I know some people who work at places they cannot afford to shop at. I have been around for many years, I have seen a degredation in the value of the buying power of an income. The income has not gone up as much as it should have gone up. I know that most of this is because of raising healthcare expenses to employers, but part of it is because people are not buying locally. If a store has to sell their inventory for a thirty percent markup at a million sales a year to pay bills and pay help. What happens if they do not sell even seven hundred thousand worth of product, first thing first, no raises, less employee hours, and each worker needs to work harder to replace someone who got canned. That was not a problem years ago around here, people made a living wage, they could afford to go out to a restaurant other than McDs for the ninety nine cent specials.

I am looking at the whole picture, right now money is flowing to the top. Yeah, if you are a person who makes megabucks at Amazon, surely not a warehouse employee, than that is good for you. When people come to realize our whole economy is a big scam, it will crash down on everyone.

a reply to: Grambler

So now you're a transhumanist? Good to know.



That list should be used to gauge the threat a company is to society at large.

Actually regulating those things now thats a extremely tricky thing to sort out. Especially since everyone is usually 1000x times more invested in left/right BS to actually contribute to the discussion.

Meanwhile the companies at the forefront, Google in particular, but that includes Facebook and Amazon, have nothing to do with the publics interest at heart. And especially regarding 'FaceGoogle' have absolute contempt for free society and the human species for that matter. But that's all a discussion far beyond this thread here.

Alexa in peoples homes, not morely monitoring people but increasingly sophisticated AI's studying all the data, our behaviors, OUR WORDS, learning algorithms trying to grow infantile AI's into a full blown AGI, this sort of thing is the greatest threat to the survival of not only homo sapiens, but every living species on earth.

Oh, and by the way, its Neo-Ludditism.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

You keep bringing up the fact of third party sellers not paying sales tax. What does that actually have to do with Amazon though? They wouldn't be the ones paying the sales tax anyway. It's the third party, which is generally a small business, that is getting away with not paying sales tax. The cut Amazon gets from the sale is going to be the same whether or not sales tax is tacked on.

So doesn't this policy actually benefit small business owners that choose to use the Amazon platform?