Capitalism is Killing Us — Let’s Start with Amazon

Amazon is leading the path to Corporate Planetary Suicide

by Andrea O’Ferrall

Lots of people order from Amazon regularly and don’t see a problem with it, or don’t want to see the dirty underside of this behemoth company. But just because many folks don’t yet see the problem, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Here are just a few examples of why Amazon is a huge problem. I can’t prioritize them, because they are equally important for different reasons. They are big and they are bad.

Amazon is a Monopoly

I’ll start here — Amazon is the marketplace and also a seller in its own marketplace. It is a monopoly. The problems with this continue to grow. From making knockoff products from products sold on the marketplace to increasing seller fees, Amazon has a host of problematic issues.

And from Faiz Shakir, Co-Founder of A More Perfect Union:

It comes down to a whole host of exploitative practices that are degrading the user experience, raising prices across the internet, and crushing competition. All of it geared to make Amazon the only game in town.

Here’s the bottom line: Amazon uses its market power to keep prices high, even when you’re shopping on other websites. Amazon works hard to hide their pricing interference across the web, which is why it’s so important to share this message on a day like today.

In our exclusive report, Meagan Day’s investigation exposes why Amazon is now charged with running an illegal monopoly in a landmark FTC suit. Check it out now.

The 12-minute video really helped me understand the extent of the ‘Amazon problem’ when it comes to ordering online.

Thankfully, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a suit alleging that Amazon is ‘illegally maintaining monopoly power.’ The suit begins,

Amazon’s ongoing pattern of illegal conduct blocks competition, allowing it to wield monopoly power to inflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation for consumers and businesses. The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general today sued Amazon.com, Inc. alleging that the online retail and technology company is a monopolist that uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power. The FTC and its state partners say Amazon’s actions allow it to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon.

For more details on the FTC suit click here.

Then there’s shipping —

Amazon is a large company with a huge carbon footprint.

According to the Ship it Zero report Card Amazon received a D grade for it’s attempts to lower shipping emissions. The Ship it Zero Report Card grades companies based on the Ship it Zero campaign’s three campaign demands, which are End Port Pollution Now, Abandon Dirty Ships, and Put Zero at the Helm. Amazon earned an F in the ending port pollution category; a D in abandoning dirty ships; and a B in putting zero at the helm. Overall, Amazon earned 54.75 / 100 available points, or a D grade, on the Ship it Zero 2023 Report Card for the company’s actions to date to end its ocean shipping pollution.

Amazon’s practices cover a wide range of ills. Here’s a list from a fact sheet we, at Extinction Rebellion Seattle, created last year:

• Amazon is a giant bureaucratic state that governs itself– It had a ‘competition’ for the location of its second headquarters with cities across the country vying for the honor by offering tax/land incentives. The company had its sights on DC where Bezos now has the largest home in the capital. To quote the company– Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer, and Earth’s safest place to work.
• Politicians are afraid to tax or put restrictions on Amazon because the corporation has so much influence. Amazon is not paying its fair share of taxes.
• Amazon uses artificial intelligence to push its human employees to their limits. It provides low-wage work that doesn’t pay the bills while making those at the top very rich. The company is worth over 1 Trillion and Jeff Besos is one of the world’s wealthiest men.
• Amazon sees worker organizing, environmental advocacy, and social justice work as threats to be closely monitored and eventually crushed.
• Even if you think you are boycotting Amazon to protest its Amazonian size, you are probably not. Amazon Web Services provides the data infrastructure for much of the internet from government servers to Netflix.
• Amazon is the marketplace and also a competitor on its own market platform. It uses its data advantage to crowd out sellers and sell items directly. Either way, third-party vendors are contributing to Amazon’s record profits. The marketplace is so large, that anyone wanting to sell online must go through Amazon.
• The Climate Pledge is greenwashing to sell products rather than protect our planet, Amazon’s profits and CO2 emissions soared immediately after signing the pledge in 2018. Amazon’s ‘Net Zero by 2040’ plan is not soon enough for a livable planet according to climate scientists and the most recent IPCC reports.
• Amazon’s policies drive overconsumption at a time when society needs to transition into a lower-consuming, more localized way of life. One-click shopping and the push for lower prices feed consumer frenzy.
• There has never been a company as big, powerful, and pervasive as Amazon as seen in its offering of 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, Amazon Web Services, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Ring, Just Walk Out technology, and Amazon Studios.
• The company does not pay the cost of damage to the planet– paving over farmland for warehouses, the transportation emissions for all its products, and the ecological costs of manufacturing the products themselves. In 2020, on average, approximately 1 Amazon warehouse opened each day (300 total).
• Amazon is disruptive to the ability of small businesses to stay afloat. First, it put local bookshops out of business, then even the large booksellers like Borders and Barnes and Noble. Now, it is disrupting small businesses across the US.

Currently, whether its union busting at its Kentucky plant or its Climate Pledge for emissions reduction is a total sham, Amazon continues to demonstrate it is a monster corporation that must be stopped.

Thankfully workers around the world are fighting back.

I just read today about Bezos’s megayacht Koru being too big to dock with the other megayachts in Port Everglades, Florida. Bezos isn’t trying to hide his wealth. Amazon’s giant size is not up for debate. What will it take for the will of the people to reign in massive corporations and the obscenely rich?

Andrea

December 2023