No. I Say No to Amazon.

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Abstract

ill be taken.At every level, everyone is fiercely determined to let go of the least number of dollars as humanly possible. Cheat on taxes? Oh hell, yes. Buy online? You betcha, baby. Unions are on life support? So what? Lower my rent! I’ll shop somewhere else where I can get the same thing at two thirds the price! I want more! I won’t pay more!!Guess who else is saying that? Every CEO, every CFO, every consultant, every accountant, and every business owner in the known universe. And when costs get cut we’re always so surprised when it’s our job that goes away.I’m no economic whiz kid but I still could see decades ago that if people don’t have jobs or aren’t being paid a living wage they aren’t going to be buying all this stuff that our economy keeps generating. I guess it’s not really a problem when there’s 1% of the population ready to buy and buy and buy and buy some more. Except down here in the 99% things are getting hairy. And so we want to pay even less!I’m not in any position to go out and pay full retail on that new futon we kinda really need and there is any number of things t

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hat have to take a back seat to, oh I dunno, five-figure student loan debt.In the past six months or so I’ve discovered that many of my fellow Medium writers are building themselves a lucrative reading audience on Amazon and I have to admit that looks damned tempting. I write and publish nearly daily on Medium and the very best I’ve done in a year of that work is to have earned $118 in April 2018. So, yes, I guess it would be in my own self-interest as a self-publishing, self-promoting writer to jump on the Amazon gravy train.But I will not contribute to this obscene cycle of insisting on paying the absolute least amount possible so that a pig like Amazon can set up sweatshops all over the world to feed this insane frenzy of consumerism. I consume. Sure I do. And what I consume ain’t coming from Amazon if I can help it. Moreover, what I produce isn’t going to get sold through Amazon, either. At least until I’m unable to find work and don’t have the luxury of all this moral outrage.Help me put this soapbox away, would you?© Remington Write 2019. All Rights Reserved.</article></body>

“Saving money” is killing us

None of this is new nor is this a howl into the wilderness. Moreover, it’s not going to make even the tiniest dent in the juggernaut that is eating the economy.

But I’m going to say it anyway.

Whatever it is I need or want I will not buy it through Amazon. In fact, as long as I’ve got working legs and the subway is running, I’ll go buy whatever it is from a store (remember those?).

For an eyeblink there I had a very well paying job with great benefits and that position got “eliminated” and it wasn’t the first time that has happened to me. Budgetary considerations, mmmm? Because the holiest of holy grails in our time is sustained quarterly growth No Matter What. And even scientific journals had damned well better be showing a profit or actions will be taken.

At every level, everyone is fiercely determined to let go of the least number of dollars as humanly possible. Cheat on taxes? Oh hell, yes. Buy online? You betcha, baby. Unions are on life support? So what? Lower my rent! I’ll shop somewhere else where I can get the same thing at two thirds the price! I want more! I won’t pay more!!

Guess who else is saying that? Every CEO, every CFO, every consultant, every accountant, and every business owner in the known universe. And when costs get cut we’re always so surprised when it’s our job that goes away.

I’m no economic whiz kid but I still could see decades ago that if people don’t have jobs or aren’t being paid a living wage they aren’t going to be buying all this stuff that our economy keeps generating. I guess it’s not really a problem when there’s 1% of the population ready to buy and buy and buy and buy some more. Except down here in the 99% things are getting hairy. And so we want to pay even less!

I’m not in any position to go out and pay full retail on that new futon we kinda really need and there is any number of things that have to take a back seat to, oh I dunno, five-figure student loan debt.

In the past six months or so I’ve discovered that many of my fellow Medium writers are building themselves a lucrative reading audience on Amazon and I have to admit that looks damned tempting. I write and publish nearly daily on Medium and the very best I’ve done in a year of that work is to have earned $118 in April 2018. So, yes, I guess it would be in my own self-interest as a self-publishing, self-promoting writer to jump on the Amazon gravy train.

But I will not contribute to this obscene cycle of insisting on paying the absolute least amount possible so that a pig like Amazon can set up sweatshops all over the world to feed this insane frenzy of consumerism. I consume. Sure I do. And what I consume ain’t coming from Amazon if I can help it. Moreover, what I produce isn’t going to get sold through Amazon, either. At least until I’m unable to find work and don’t have the luxury of all this moral outrage.

Help me put this soapbox away, would you?