I have long noted that we get the companies we deserve, in the same way that we get the politicians we deserve. In other words, as non-agentic entities, companies reflect the collective set of values (or votes) of all stakeholders, who make decisions based around perceived self-interest to advance their interests within the boundaries of what we call 'the firm.' The article in the url below makes the same point, arriving at its destination in a round-about way, perhaps without meaning to and definitely using different rhetoric, but the same point nonetheless. It begins with the usual pedestrian criticism of Amazon and how it operates:
"Here are some of the ways that people who have worked inside Amazon's warehouses describe the experience: 'The job crushed my spirit and crippled my body.' 'The lowest point in my life.' An 'isolating colony of hell.' 'They're killing people mentally and physically.' 'I began to hate my day-to-day life.' 'The way Amazon pushes people is not moral.' 'I had whole days where I didn't talk to anyone.' 'The systematic devaluing of human bodies.' Few of these accounts are new. But persistent horror stories have done nothing to diminish Amazon's geometric growth. In 2017, the company's head count surpassed 500,000 employees. In 2020, Amazon added that many new workers, very likely a record level of hiring for a company in a single year. Today, nearly 1.3 million people work at Amazon, making it the country's second-largest private employer, after Walmart. The majority toil in its sprawling fulfillment operations — they are the people who pick, pack, drive and deliver your stuff."
The author appears to be discovering his story as he writes it. These reports "persist," of course, because the majority of Amazon's stakeholders are completely fine with the current arrangement:
"Are these workers happy? Is this good work? Should we rejoice about a company that can hire so many people in the midst of pandemic-induced mass unemployment? And one that, in 2018, instituted a minimum hourly wage of $15, pushing Walmart, Target and other competing retailers to raise their pay, too? Or should we recoil at the way Amazon has swept the apparent brutality of its operations under a haze of public-relations opportunism — the way it paints itself as a high-minded savior of American labor while its workers are so pressed for time that they must urinate and defecate in bags and bottles?"
The key is to recognize that Amazon reflects the aggregated demands of its key stakeholders in the same way that all firms do. The explicit conclusion is that if the firm's stakeholders change what they see as being in their best interests, then Amazon will change to reflect that shift:
"The larger point is that Amazon is less the cause of American inequality than it is a consequence. Amazon is what you get when a country has systematically devalued workers and labor organizations to the benefit of billionaires. Amazon is what you get when a country has decided to import so many of its physical goods from abroad. And Amazon is what you get when states and cities compete with one another to lavish huge tax breaks upon corporations that pledge to create local jobs, without setting any requirements that they be good, safe, high-paying jobs."
The problem in this particular case, of course, is that Amazon's customers are perfectly happy with the current state of affairs, in which what they need and want is delivered to their door at the lowest possible price. As long as that is more important to Amazon's customers (and its other stakeholders) than the wellbeing of the firm's employees, then Amazon the company will continue to reflect those values. In short, 'Amazon' is not at fault – if there is any 'fault,' then the blame lies with us, all of us.
Take care
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2020
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The Force That Can Help Amazon's Workers? Amazon's Shoppers
By Farhad Manjoo
April 12, 2021
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
A19
