Comments on: Jeff Bezos’s fortune has come at the expense of workers and society not receiving their fair share

By: jobardu

jobardu — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 14:04:00 +0000

Perhaps the key issue is who owns personal data. Obviously our data has value. Amazon, Google, Facebook etc mine (interesting descriptor) this data and make huge fortunes selling it. Should the global data oligarchy get to keep it all and own what is a part of us? Not only that, but we can’t control the permanence, storage and use of this data. Things said decades ago can and are being used to damage or degrade our lives. We can’t remove or alter it. As always, some good comes of this, otherwise it wouldn’t be so hard to unwind. Yet if you substitute the words oil or minerals for data you start to get the idea.

While we are on it, the ownership and use of intellectual property is another key pillar of social control. It helps define and limit what gets into the marketplace and who owns it. But that needs be a subject of another discussion.

By: Red Robbo

Red Robbo — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:49:00 +0000

1865: ‘Instead of the conservative motto, A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, Abolition of the wage system’ (Marx, Value, Price, and Profit).
1928: ‘Earning a wage is a prison occupation’ (Wages, DH Lawrence).
1965: Workers still ‘don’t realise that they can abolish the wages system’ (Socialist Standard).
2018: Still chasing the ever-elusive ‘fair’ wage.

By: Alasdair Macdonald

Alasdair Macdonald — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 18:53:00 +0000

You are probably right.

I felt that the author was spending a lot of words describing something which could be summed up in two.

By: ANGRY_MODERATE

ANGRY_MODERATE — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 13:04:00 +0000

No, it is far worse. The appropriate comparison is with pre-capitalist control of land, and the violent oppression of smallholders and those without land.

By: ANGRY_MODERATE

ANGRY_MODERATE — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 13:03:00 +0000

The treatment of Amazon workers is obscene and should have been outlawed a long time ago. Similarly, for anyone with experience of Amazon marketplace, the treatment of private sellers is also quite poor, with the clear priority being to promote large companies and damage the interests of individuals and small businesses.

This article goes nowhere near far enough to describe the disgusting behaviour of Bezos and how he acquired his dirty wealth — probably because the author is afraid of possible legal action. This is the abusive situation that now prevails across global capitalism — and openly supported by all our governments.

By: Alasdair Macdonald

Alasdair Macdonald — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 08:07:00 +0000

There is a term for Mr Bezos’ conduct – “rent-seeking”. The economic analyses associated with it go back more than 150 years.