{"id":24920,"date":"2021-02-03T11:59:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T11:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/02\/jeff-bezos-amazon-exploitation-ceo\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T12:01:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T12:01:22","slug":"jeff-bezos-your-legacy-is-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/03\/jeff-bezos-your-legacy-is-exploitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos: Your Legacy Is Exploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

Jeff Bezos is stepping aside as Amazon's CEO having made a fortune of almost $200 billion. It's an attempt at reputation rehabilitation \u2014 but he can't escape the legacy of exploitation he leaves behind.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Jeff Bezos on September 19, 2018 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Alex Wong \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Jeff Bezos, who you might also know as “the richest man in the world” or “that guy who ate a lizard<\/a> one time,” is stepping down as the CEO of Amazon after twenty-seven years at the helm \u2014 or maybe it\u2019s better to say he\u2019s stepping to the side. Bezos will instead take on the title of executive chair, which means he\u2019ll still have an influential role in company decisions, but will no longer be the face of Amazon. Yet there\u2019s no reason to believe that means Amazon will become the friendly monopolist its smiling logo might suggest.<\/p>\n

With Bezos at the helm, Amazon grew from an online bookseller started from a garage in Bellevue, Washington to one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world that not only controls key e-commerce and cloud platforms, but has extended its reach into a growing number of sectors. However, it\u2019s important not to get distracted by the triumphalist historicizing of tech companies and their chief executives that\u2019s become far too common since internet businesses exploded in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often said that Amazon was started in Washington so it would be close to Microsoft and try to attract some of its talent, and while that\u2019s partly true, it was hardly the deciding factor. Before founding the company in 1994, Bezos was the senior vice president of a hedge fund, and it\u2019s said he made sure the first house he rented in Bellevue\u00a0had a garage<\/a> so he could spin the kind of founding story one would expect of a tech company. He was hardly poor, and he knew how to minimize his tax burden.<\/p>\n

The real reason Bezos was drawn to Washington was because the state had no personal income tax and no corporate income tax, and at the time, Amazon only had to charge sales tax on purchases made in whichever state the company was headquartered in. With a population of just over five million in 1994, Washington was the perfect base from which to ship the other 260 million Americans all the books they could buy \u2014 not because Bezos had a particular love of books, but because they could be bought wholesale, were easy to ship, and independent bookstores had been decimated, leaving a market to be captured.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Building a Monopoly<\/h2>\n \n

As Amazon began to attract customers and expand its product offerings, it took a different approach to growth. Instead of seeking to turn a profit as quickly as possible, Bezos played the long game, reinvesting Amazon\u2019s earnings in the business to such a degree that it didn\u2019t turn its first quarterly profit until 2001 and its first annual profit until 2003. For years to follow, Amazon\u2019s profit margins remained slim as it expanded its empire.<\/p>\n

This was undoubtedly a great business strategy, but it came with consequences. By operating at a loss for a decade, Amazon was able to provide goods and services below cost to drive out its competitors and dominate the markets it operated in. This only became easier as it grew, as the case of Diapers.com shows.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Bezos saw that Diapers.com was gaining popularity with parents, so Amazon set up a meeting with its founders. When they refused to sell, Amazon set its prices on diapers and other baby products 30 percent below those offered by its competitor, and when Diapers.com adjusted their prices, the ones on Amazon changed accordingly. Amazon was using the profits from its other products to sell baby products below cost so Diapers.com would have to sell itself to Amazon or go out of business. Amazon even launched a service called Amazon Mom to offer baby products at even steeper discounts until, on November 8, 2010, Diapers.com finally sold<\/a> to Amazon. Not long after, Amazon Mom was terminated, and prices returned to normal.<\/p>\n

The practice of offering products and services below cost to drive out competitors is called predatory pricing, and it\u2019s an anticompetitive tactic. Over the years, Bezos has repeatedly abused the power Amazon amassed from underpricing its offerings to drive competitors out of business, squeeze third-party sellers on its platform, and extract public subsidies from state governments across the United States. Amazon is already under investigation for anticompetitive practices in the United States<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0European Union<\/a>, but there\u2019s a much deeper consequence of its success.<\/p>\n

The model of underpricing a service to drive out competitors and establish a monopoly position has become a core business model in Silicon Valley \u2014 one that venture capitalists will burn billions upon billions of dollars in bids to see to fruition. While consumers may see benefits in the period the company is driving out its competitors, like parents did for the brief period Amazon was trying to undercut Dispers.com, monopolists don\u2019t tend to have much regard for their workers.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Exploiting a Growing Workforce<\/h2>\n \n

In Bezos\u2019s letter<\/a> announcing his new position, he asserted that “invention is the root of our success,” but some people might dispute that claim. It\u2019s common to ascribe the growth of a company, especially in the tech sector, to its visionary leader and seeming technological prowess, but Amazon would be nothing without its 1.3 million workers, most of whom organize, fulfill, and even deliver the packages that are the company\u2019s core business.<\/p>\n

The stories of terrible working conditions at Amazon are nothing new. Back in 2011, workers\u00a0exposed<\/a>\u00a0the company for failing to install air conditioning at many of its warehouses, causing workers to overheat and faint on the job. In recent years, it\u2019s also become clear that Amazon workers are expected to meet\u00a0almost impossible production targets<\/a>, feel pressured to\u00a0skip bathroom breaks<\/a>, and are overworked to the point that worker injuries are\u00a0nearly double the industry standard<\/a>\u00a0in the United States. Whenever workers tried to push back, Amazon fought them vigorously. The company is known for\u00a0its union-busting tactics<\/a>, and during the pandemic, it was exposed for hiring operatives from the notorious Pinkerton agency<\/a> to spy on workers, environmental groups, and labor unions. It was also found to track internal listservs<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0private Facebook groups<\/a> for worker organizing.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, Amazon has also built out one of the\u00a0most expansive shipping networks<\/a> in the United States, but unlike the United States Postal Service (USPS), it relies on nonunionized labor and even a series of subcontractors<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0independent contractors<\/a>\u00a0to make deliveries. Amazon already\u00a0drags down wages<\/a><\/span><\/span> in communities where it sets up fulfillment centers, and shifting more delivery jobs to its nonunionized delivery network not only lowers wages in that sector, it also threatens a public institution that\u2019s been <\/span>a stable source of employment<\/a><\/span><\/span> for black Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bezos presents himself as someone who cares about workers, writing in his letter that Amazon used its “scale and scope to lead on important social issues,” including “our $15 minimum wage and the Climate Pledge,” yet that\u2019s nothing but corporate spin. The $15 minimum wage was a response to <\/span>concerted pressure<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0from workers and lawmakers over the fact many of its employees relied on food stamps. Raising wages took some negative attention off the company, even as some workers said they were actually worse off as Amazon\u00a0<\/span>rolled back other benefits<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The growing worker organizing at Amazon is all the evidence one should need to see Bezos wasn\u2019t a good boss. The company has <\/span>failed to live up<\/a><\/span><\/span> to its climate goals and even fired\u00a0<\/span>outspoken white-collar activists<\/a><\/span><\/span>. During the pandemic, it failed to keep workers safe to such a degree that workers took action\u00a0<\/span>across<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0the<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0United<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0States<\/a><\/span><\/span>. It even tried to smear one worker who was fired for organizing, but it <\/span>blew up in executives\u2019 faces<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0when their meeting notes leaked. Workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama will even begin\u00a0<\/span>voting on whether to unionize<\/a><\/span><\/span> later this month \u2014 and the company is fighting it tooth and nail.<\/span><\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Rehabilitating a Tarnished Image<\/h2>\n \n

In the next few years, Amazon will likely face more challenges than it ever has. Worker militancy across the tech sector is increasing, and there will surely be more attempts to unionize its warehouses in the future, especially if the workers in Bessemer are successful. The company will also likely face anti-monopoly lawsuits in the United States, if not in the European Union as well, and Bezos is getting out of the spotlight before that happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Near the end of his letter, Bezos explained that taking the executive chair position will give him “the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.” As Amazon continues with the relentless ethos imbued in it by Bezos, he may now bring it to other ventures while trying to soften his image.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, Bezos was asked what he\u2019d do with his billions, and\u00a0<\/span>his response was telling<\/a><\/span><\/span>: \u2018The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it.” With a net worth of $130 billion, which dropped after his <\/span>divorce from MacKenzie Scott<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0in 2019 and soared through the pandemic to close to $200 billion, his eyes were trained not on the escalating climate crisis, the growing crisis of inequality, or the homelessness crisis gripping Amazon\u2019s home city of Seattle, but on the stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

This shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise. Amazon was established in Washington to reduce its tax burden and has been deemed the\u00a0<\/span>worst major tech firm<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0for its tax avoidance strategies. It vigorously fought attempts to make it\u00a0<\/span>charge sales tax<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0on purchases outside Washington, only\u00a0<\/span>relenting in 2017<\/a><\/span><\/span>, and more recently\u00a0<\/span>fought a small tax<\/a><\/span><\/span> in Seattle to fund programs to help the homeless, even as it frequently pays\u00a0<\/span>no federal income tax<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bezos seems to have learned a lesson from Bill Gates after having his name dragged through the mud in recent years. Gates was\u00a0<\/span>reviled<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0after the Microsoft antitrust case and took to philanthropy to\u00a0<\/span>rehabilitate his image<\/a><\/span><\/span>. Years later, and after giving millions to media companies, Gates is\u00a0<\/span>showered with positive press<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0about how he\u2019s saving the world by giving away his money, distorting\u00a0<\/span>the real impact<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0of how he deploys his vast wealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bezos seems likely to follow a similar playbook. He\u2019s already distributed money to <\/span>homeless groups<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0through his Day 1 Fund and\u00a0<\/span>climate organizations<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0through his Earth Fund. But this giving hides the fundamental problem.<\/span><\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Fighting for the Future<\/h2>\n \n

As the richest man in the world, Bezos has immense power, and ultimately he is going to use his wealth to defend and advance his interests, as his comments about space suggested. After decades of tax cuts, governments around the world have been starved of the revenue required to address the cascading crises of the twenty-first century, and billionaires cannot fill the gap<\/a>\u00a0no matter how much their public relations teams and a sycophantic corporate media system tell us otherwise.<\/p>\n

The power and wealth that Bezos wields is the direct product of the brutal exploitation of more than a million workers that are treated not like human beings, but cogs in a great machine that will not stop until there\u2019s no escape from its all-encompassing network of platforms and services. We must reject not only his attempts to use his ill-gotten gains to rewrite his personal story, but also his inevitable desire to\u00a0set our horizons on a future<\/a>\u00a0that puts the interests of billionaires before those of the rest of humanity.<\/p>\n

As he steps away from the position of CEO, we should recognize just how obscene it is for one man to have gained an <\/span>estimated $90 billion<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0during a global health crisis where US unemployment soared to\u00a0<\/span>levels not seen since the Great Depression<\/a>, and more than fifty million Americans were going hungry<\/a>. His name should be synonymous with the cruelty of the system he contributed to and benefited from, and his very existence is proof of the need to dismantle the capitalist structures that allow such extreme inequality to exist in the first place. Jeff Bezos deserves no redemption.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Bezos, who you might also know as \u201cthe richest man in the world\u201d or \u201cthat guy who ate a lizard one time,\u201d is stepping down as the CEO of Amazon after twenty-seven years at the helm \u2014 or maybe it\u2019s better to say he\u2019s stepping to the side. Bezos will instead take on the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1729,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24921,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920\/revisions\/24921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}