So you're saying that this company, which is playing by the rules (in that they aren't breaking any laws with their hiring practices), ought to make a move away from the practices that made them a hundred-billion dollar company because you feel that it's immoral. Do you see how that might look somewhat idealistic and, dare I say, foolish?
I never supported the 'Occupy' protests mainly because you can't influence a corporation by yelling at it. Sitting in front of those banks in NYC or wherever didn't actually change shit. You know why? Because businesses are not in the business of making people happy. Shocking, but true. Businesses are in the business of business, which is to say they make money. Some day I'll write down something that I hope will illustrate in simple terms how huge corporations operate, but today is not that day.
My point is that successful corporations, a group to which Amazon.com obviously belongs, are motivated first, foremost, and entirely by the almighty dollar. I'm not going to argue about whether or not that should be the case, but you are an idiot if you don't believe that that is the case. So if you want to alter the way that big corporations work, you need to either change the rules to make it more profitable to support what you feel are moral hiring practices, or you make it actually profitable to retain these sorts of temporary workers for the long term.
Jormundir didn't say Amazon "ought to" do anything, but his comment seemed to generally support pasbesoin's comment, which was not (only) a fist-shakin' comment, but a rule-changin' one:
> If you don't like it, vote with your dollars (or whatever currency).
But, do you really believe that successful corporations "are motivated first, foremost, and entirely by the almighty dollar?" I know only a handful of people running successful corporations (much smaller than Amazon!), but I believe this to be true of none of them.
I agree in general, particularly about the appropriate response being to change the rules. However:
the practices that made them a hundred-billion dollar company
Doesn't make sense to me. I don't think Amazon got to be big by avoiding long-term relationships with low-level employees, although it may have helped them to get bigger, faster (depending on the actual costs of contractors vs. full-time employees). My understanding of how Amazon got to be a huge company was by building large warehouses and powerful cataloging systems, and then have first a copy of any book, and later a copy of just about any thing for sale. Pricing is part of that and historically the firm has been competitive but not that great. To me the major plus has been convenience, quality of selection, good return policy etc. I can often do better if I shop around, but that has to be offset against the cost of dealing with multiple suppliers, time spent searching out better prices etc. - if Amazon is only 5% more than competitors it might not be worth my while chasing that 5% for most items.
Having said that, I'm more motivated to deal with other suppliers now because I don't want to support such zero-sum hiring policies with my trade $.
Off-topic, but
> I never supported the 'Occupy' protests mainly because you can't influence a corporation by yelling at it. Sitting in front of those banks in NYC or wherever didn't actually change shit. You know why? Because businesses are not in the business of making people happy.
I don't think a single Occupy protester on Wall Street believed that they would get one of these too-big-to-fail financial institutions to change voluntarily by them "yelling at it." They were trying to shine the spotlight on what they felt the real problem was, and change the national discourse, probably with the long term political goal of changing the laws to change the incentive structures of those businesses.
I never supported the 'Occupy' protests mainly because you can't influence a corporation by yelling at it. Sitting in front of those banks in NYC or wherever didn't actually change shit. You know why? Because businesses are not in the business of making people happy. Shocking, but true. Businesses are in the business of business, which is to say they make money. Some day I'll write down something that I hope will illustrate in simple terms how huge corporations operate, but today is not that day.
My point is that successful corporations, a group to which Amazon.com obviously belongs, are motivated first, foremost, and entirely by the almighty dollar. I'm not going to argue about whether or not that should be the case, but you are an idiot if you don't believe that that is the case. So if you want to alter the way that big corporations work, you need to either change the rules to make it more profitable to support what you feel are moral hiring practices, or you make it actually profitable to retain these sorts of temporary workers for the long term.
But shakin' your fists ain't gonna work.