Dear President Obama - Amazon cost the US economy 42,000 jobs last year

[PETRUS]

In an open letter, the American Booksellers Association criticizes President Obama’s decision to hold his jobs speech this week at an Amazon facility in Tennessee.

Click here to read it: http://www.bookweb.org/news/aba-criticizes-president%E2%80%99s-choice-venue-jobs-speech

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Related thread from Saturday: Amazon's 'Declaration of War'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023353428

[onethatcares]

1. I didn't know this.

there will be no more amazon in my home, ever.

Thanks for the heads up.

[rurallib]

2. and much like Wally world, they treat their employees like shit

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor

[Godhumor]

3. Amazon dropped prices in response to Overstock.com saying it would beat any Amazon book price

The price cutting is temporary due to the discount war and had nothing to do with the e-book lawsuit.

[FreeJoe]

4. Henry Ford

And curse that Henry Ford for putting all of those saddle makers, stable cleaners, and horse trainers out of work. And don't get me started on that Eli Whitney jerk and his interchangeable parts.

[RainDog]

6. This is a far different issue

which you would know if you actually read about it.

it's not about format.

it's about creating a monopoly.

but please, carry on with your enlightened remarks.

[Cal Carpenter]

7. Well put n/t

[RainDog]

5. k&r n/t

[GreenStormCloud]

8. Amazon saves lots of people money and time.

Amazon is far more than books. One can order almost anything from them, including many very hard to find items. And I don't have to drive around from store to store looking for it.

Amazon is more than just Amazon. It is also thousands of small Mom & Pop stores, all over the country, that have contracted with them. The small store lists what they have and the price. If someone selects to buy that item from them, then the contractor gets a shipping address and the money when they ship.

Amazon stands behind every purchase. Recently I bought some blood sugar test strips from a new store and didn't get the product. Neither did anyone else. Amazon refunded the money to us, no questions asked.

Without Amazon, I would have to deal with many different internet shippers, share my payment information with all those different places. Or I would have to search all over Dallas to find some hard to locate item, costing gasoline and time. Instead, with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks I can find what I need and have it shipped to me.

Yes, anytime that a business is able to do something more efficiently than the competition then the competition is going to get hurt. Any time that there is any kind of change, somebody will suffer. That's life. The alternative is he have a completely static culture with no changes of any kind permitted. No advancement at all. No new inventions - period.

Self-service gas pumps killed the job of pumping gas. Stores are introducing self-service check outs, reducing the need for cashiers. Electronic card readers killed the old job of reading and entering credit card slips. Online banking reduced the need for bank staff people. Email, ebilling, and online payment have greatly reduced the volume of mail the Post Office has to move, and has reduced its income. Digital cameras killed the photo processing industry. Who still uses Polaroid cameras? Whatever happened to TV repair shops? (Those were a booming industry in the 1950s.) Nobody makes vacumm tubes anymore, so that is a lot of jobs gone.

Most of those 42,000 jobs were cashiers and other in-store help. Their skills will easily transfer to another store. It sounds harsh, but progess does mean that the old ways are done away with.

[Safetykitten]

15. What a pile of shit you just wrote.

[GreenStormCloud]

16. You can't argue with facts so you throw insults. N/T

[Catherina]

9. 42,000? Ugh n/t

[PETRUS]

10. Ladies and gentlemen, step right up!

Get a glimpse of the "free market."

Listen to its "rational" tone.

Hear its defense of the system -

Recoil in shock at its oblique defense of a monopoly, which of course contradicts the internal logic of the system!

Note its soulless view of life...

[KoKo]

11. Thank you for This! Excellent Read...K&R!

[Safetykitten]

12. So Amazon and Costco, the security blanket of Democrats. Let's have EVERYONE work retail!

[Igel]

13. Systems.

Think of the economy as a system.

Analogical to his reasoning would be the following.

Every bit of evaporated water is water that isn't available for plants, animals--humans--to use. So when water evaporates from a stream, that helps kill plants and reduces wildlife. The millions of gallons of water that evaporate annually from the North American landmass would support untold plants and animals. It would be far better for us all if evaporation stopped. Then we would have water to irrigate, animals would be happier. Very simple.

Sounds wonderful. I mean, all the statements are true enough until the conclusion. No evaporation = no rain. Some of the rain resulting from the evaporation falls locally. Some moves elsewhere--making for a net loss locally (unless we also count the moisture that arrives from other areas). It gets very confusing and complicated, though, once you stand back and try to look at the system.

So last week i spent $100 on books from Amazon. Well, it was $200 worth of books. $10 is shipping. Actually, only $20 or so is buying a book from Amazon--the rest are used and coming from different places. I guess that took $100 out of the local economy, though.

Did I take $100 out of the local economy? Dunno. Had I been forced to buy local I'd only have gotten one book for $147. I'm guessing $90 or more of that goes to the publisher so only about $50 would actually stay local. Which is the amount that stayed local even though I bought more from Amazon. So while the state lost 8.25% in sales tax and I get more stuff, the local bookstore that would order the book loses money. But other local businesses get that particular amount of money.

But the USPS gets a bit of money for shipping the books. Somebody has to make the packaging. And I bought a new book with part of that $90, making some publisher happy. And the used books are coming from different stores--some large, some small--in different towns. Amazon makes some money, but so do the used book stores.

The real loser in this isthe textbook publisher because I'm buying used. Then the local bookstore--but you know, they don't carry that book usually, it would have been a special order. But winners are non-local bookstores, the USPS, Amazon, and probably the Italian restaurant that I'll be going to and spending the $50 I saved. I don't expect that the bookseller's main lobbyist would be defending the Italian restaurant.

Whenever you find an efficiency, you have to look at the system. That makes for nothing like a good soundbite. Then again, good soundbites make for nothing like a realistic appraisal of what's going on.

[Safetykitten]

14. The real loser? The poor people that work minimum wage part time running around a fucking warehouse.

so you can pontificate about..."systems".

[KentuckyWoman]

17. They CREATED 4 jobs where I work.

We sell our made in Kentucky goods on Amazon and created enough business to hire 4 full timers so far. It is a smallish family business with only 21 employees. In this town that means a lot.

Amazon warehouse does not stock us so that is not an issue.

I would guess though when it comes to books and music Amazon has indeed been tough on small local sellers.