Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #MonopolyIsNoGame
Most recents (8)
The fight against monopoly is deeply tied to the fight against racism, Islamophobia and anti-semitism recently increasing across the US and here in NYC. 1/8
You can see anti-semitism (and racism) in that last Trump ad of the 2016 campaign, Argument for America - a hateful, simplistic, and conspiratorial explanation of society run by a cabal of rich, deceitful people. (No, of course I’m not linking to it. Look it up.) 2/8
Our society is not run by a cabal. It is, however, organized around the "needs" of corporations - not the same thing as a secret club of rich people. Still, the more massive corporations grow their power and control, the more antisemitic conspiracies spread. 3/8
Today, Jeff Bezos has decided to head for the exits rather than face the music.
A thread. (1/x)
A thread. (1/x)
In response to @JeffBezos stepping down as Amazon CEO for Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon Web Services, the @athenaforall coalition released the following statement from Maurice BP-Weeks @mo87mo87, an Athena leader and the Co-Exec Director of member group @ACREcampaigns. (2/x)
"The company Jeff Bezos started nearly three decades ago is under a cloud of scrutiny, with regulators from both sides of the aisle firing arrows from Washington, D.C. and lawmakers asking hard questions in states across the country." (3/x) #BreakUpAmazon #MonopolyIsNoGame
Today’s #MLK day converges with a lot.
1) Pandemic
2) Movement for Black lives
3) Anti-Democratic coup attempt
4) Unprecedented shuttering of small biz
5) Climate disaster at our door
All on the eve of the inauguration of Joe Biden, who must respond to all of it.
(1/)
1) Pandemic
2) Movement for Black lives
3) Anti-Democratic coup attempt
4) Unprecedented shuttering of small biz
5) Climate disaster at our door
All on the eve of the inauguration of Joe Biden, who must respond to all of it.
(1/)
Many players contributed to this, especially #BigTech. No player has more fingers in all of it than Jeff Bezos
@JoeBiden’s @Transition46 team considering Amazon insiders for positions designed to regulate Amazon is alarming
(2/) see @ddayen @ryangrim
prospect.org/cabinet-watch/…
@JoeBiden’s @Transition46 team considering Amazon insiders for positions designed to regulate Amazon is alarming
(2/) see @ddayen @ryangrim
prospect.org/cabinet-watch/…
How does @Amazon contribute to each of these?
Amazon played fast and loose with the lives of its workers through the pandemic.
Even prior to COVID19, its injury rate was 2X industry's.
see #ProtectAmazonWorkers (3/)
Amazon played fast and loose with the lives of its workers through the pandemic.
Even prior to COVID19, its injury rate was 2X industry's.
see #ProtectAmazonWorkers (3/)
So, if you're like most people, the primary way you interact directly with Amazon is buying things via their website. (More people than are customers subsidize them with our shared public dollars, but that's indirect, and also a different thread.) 1/x #MonopolyIsNoGame
So, people tend to think, Amazon is huge! So many people buy things! Selling things (ie, actual objects) must be how they make so much money. But that's not actually how they make *most* of the money. The biggest revenue driver is Amazon Web Services.
Or, as this report puts it, "Profits earned through its cloud services enable Amazon to invest heavily into expanding its cloud operation, as well as to support its other lines of business."
Everything in this report about the acquisition and integration of Ring by Amazon is horrible. 1/x
Reminder, Ring (on its own) doesn't just profit from our racism and mistrust, Ring makes it worse. (Again with the incentive problems.) vice.com/en/article/qvy…
So, it's no surprise that the report finds: "In an internal document, Amazon recognized that security could “feed our flywheels (Prime, Alexa) while being a large, profitable business in its own right.”" #MonopolyIsNoGame
Page 303 - logistics! AKA where most of the humans are - and where almost all of the Black and brown humans are, because racism.
#MonopolyIsNoGame From the report: "Amazon's ground shipping infrastructure consists of 'trucks, trailers, intermodal containers, and delivery vehicles.' Its truck fleet consists of more than 10,000 trailers." That is a lot - a lot a lot- of air pollution.
Oh, remember this, about non-essential products? "In March 2020, Amazon announced that it would begin temporarily delaying shipments of all non-essential products" #MonopolyIsNoGame
"...from its warehouses, regardless of whether they were sold by Amazon or by competing third-party sellers. The company claimed it was doing so to better serve customers in need while also helping to ensure the safety of warehouse workers."
Now, I know you remember this because courageous workers like @313Supa and his colleagues walked out, and Mario was on TV: thewrap.com/john-oliver-am…
At @athenaforall we often talk about how Amazon's sellers, customers, workers and neighbors have so much in common. This is why: “I don’t think they care about the third party seller . . . . They treat us as a commodity.” -3rd party seller. #MonopolyIsNoGame
I wonder how this is related to workers' stories about their inability to talk to am human about sick leave during a pandemic? "Internal Amazon documents suggest that the company’s hyper-focus on a cost-cutting strategy to adopt automated processes for nearly everything
—which Amazon refers to as “HOTW”or “Hands off the wheel”1684—combined with the platform’s monopoly power over sellers may be to blame for Amazon’s atrocious levels of customer service for sellers" #MonopolyIsNoGame
