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Primary reason anyone invests in anything is to make a $. If an investment is not producing the desired ROI, investors will buy something else with greater potential for a ROI. Shareholders elect senior officers with the objective of increasing shareholder value. If this C- Suite can’t, it will be replaced with another who will.
Everything sold by Walmart can be bought eleswhere. Consumers vote with their wallets and don’t particularly care the source of goods.
There tends to be limited retail shopping in the wealthiest communities in the US. Walmart targets the middle economic class, whatever the middle is, in any given geographical location. There is an absence of retail in the poorest communities throughout the US.
Consumers increasingly prefer to shop online than in brick & mortar stores. Everything sold by Walmart can be bought online from other sources. Nearly half of units sold by Amazon are sold by independent businesses who use Amazon to advertise and fill orders. They would not be able to compete , if it was necessary to have a brick and mortar operation. They certainly could not reach a national audience of consumers with a single brick and mortar operation.
Amazon made the business decision to offer a starting wage more than 2x the Federal Minimum Wage. Reportedly, the average tenure of a warehouse employee is 9-12 months. As such, the majority of Amazon’s employees never vest. As such, the majority of Amazon’s warehouse employees are not eligible for performance incentive awards. Amazon determined employees value the certainty of a higher wage more so than the uncertainty of vesting and incentive awards.
Amazon employees become eligible for subsidized healthcare and medication coverage after working the hourly equivalent of 3 months. Amazon subsidizes 100% of the premium for the employee. Not going to find too many other employers who can match this.
As it relates to pensions.... at one time 88% of private sector employers who offered a retirement income benefit, offered a defined benefit pension. That number is now in the 18% range. Amazon, like most large scale employers, offers a 401k with matching.
Most corporations are not publicly- traded. There may be one or more shareholders and it’s all about maximizing shareholder value, no different than a publicly- traded corporation.
They employ few, if any people. Small employers are exempt from ACA and don’t necessarily offer benefits to employees.
Part time employees don't. Usually have benefits...
Amazon is also bad for retailers. Often times they find out their brick and mortar stores are being hurt because their own items are being sold for less on Amazon. Pricing controls can be difficult to maintain, and one seller might get into a price war with another Amazon seller, causing the prices to fall well below the price point the manufacturer wants. There are also unauthorized sellers on Amazon, as well as counterfeits. Lots of counterfeits.
So some gear retailers, especially of higher end camping gear for the serious and experienced outdoorsman, have refused to sell on Amazon. Here is an interesting article on the drawbacks to selling on Amazon for retailers:
Edit to add: This is clearly not the same version of the story I read in the magazine, this seems to be less than half as long and detailed. But its a primer, nonetheless.
All Jobs are IMPORTANT... If America could get from the grooming of what Slavery interjected into society, which denigrated certain work because it was considered as work only for slaves. Therefore, the 'insult to work" was put in place long ago... part to keep wages low, and part because of the lack of respect for the black worker.
Every Job that exist, is a Job that is needed to have the society we have.
China and other Asian nations understand this among their population, because even in fast food places its evident how proud the people are to have those jobs.
I have great respect for people in Any Job Capacity, because it is work that is needed.
We need to re-adjust as a society and get over the madness that was groomed into our social structure by the history of slavery and the conduct and mentality that spread throughout segregation.
There is no job that should be denigrated, and no person who does any job should be looked down upon.
America has lowly paid people for jobs that are indispensable in our society. the challenge the skill level of the people who do those jobs, its an insult to the same humane social society we claim we love so much for its attributes and conveniences.
Imagine going to your office and no one cleaned the trash, the floors or bathrooms... Yet, people look at Custodial and Janitorial as being less than. It is honorable work, and people should look around and be thankful for the people who do those jobs.
I have and I show respect for and unto people in every job category!!!!!!
"Every Job that exist, is a Job that is needed to have the society we have."
Why don'T YOU open a business and hire 1,000 people the 1st day?
Americans vote with their wallets, and demand the cheapest cost of products. This often results in workers that have to rely on public assistance to make ends meet. The public had a choice between the unionized supermarkets with bow tied clerks earning a livable wage, or Walmart. They chose the latter.
Americans vote with their wallets, and demand the cheapest cost of products. This often results in workers that have to rely on public assistance to make ends meet.
No, thats not different than any other country in the world. The real reason for the 18th century working conditions is the near total destruction of the labor union movement in America compared to other countries. The war against unions in the last 40 years has been a huge success in the eyes of the ruling class. When employers are given free reign to abuse workers as much as they want and labor unions and the elected representatives are absent, naturally this leads to appalling working conditions and poverty for workers.
This is what is going to Make America competitive in the world...not tariffs, bluster, war, etc...
Leading.
This is the guy who perhaps, of all men, Trump hates the most...(Bezos). Trump hates him and his corporation...because he made his money by actually working and succeeding, because he has 100X as much as Trump and because he believes in a Free Press.....
So, folks, this is opposite world again. When we finally see Wage Growth it is the Googles, Apples, Facebooks, Amazons and other "liberal" companies paving the way.
Let's see how well the Republicans in Congress take to Bezos pushing for a higher min. wage. We should be ashamed at that $7 and change. That's starvation wages.....
Lol....
If anything, all this demonstrates is that trickle down does work and that federal minimum wage laws are unnecessary.
When companies raise wages of their own accord due to markets and other factors, everyone wins.
When the government mandates that wages be set to an arbitrary minimum, some people win and some people lose.
They didnt have to. They took away stock options and gave everyone a raise
Quote:
Originally Posted by PCALMike
Nice propaganda trying to dupe people into not fighting for higher wages. In reality, Amazon can not simply jack up prices by 40% to cover increased wages. It doesnt work like that. Not even in a pure monopoly can it work like that.
There was a place/ time for unions. They lifted the masses onto the lower rungs of the middle economic class for a blip in time.
Private sector unions peaked 60+ years ago. There’s a reason for that.
Since the 70’s, more jobs have been eliminated by custom industrial robotics and technology substitution than were offshored. There’s a reason for that.
More than half the states are now Right to Work states. There’s a reason for that.
That sounds like Communist Propaganda.
As long as Capitalism exists, then workers are allowed to organize and have the same power as others.
We should also be encouraging workers across the globe to organize and fight rather than let the elite have all the power.
In Communist China and the Soviet Union, it was not allowed for workers to organize and as a consequence, everyone was dirt poor except for the elite connected to the state.
That is the direction we are headed now where wages are stagnant and the middle class is disappearing.
The only ones butthurt about Amazon raising wages are the leeches in the finance sector that want that money redistributed to themselves while the workers do all the work.
Capitalism can exist just fine without shareholders.
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