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RE: Amazon Destroys Jobs? Really?

in #trump7 years ago

I don't think that in the long run that it is necessarily true that Amazon has a net negative impact on jobs. How many people does Amazon employee? They are also planning to hire another 100,000 in the not too distant future. Also, complaining that Amazon kills jobs is a little like complaining that the bulldozer killed jobs or that the automobile killed the carriage industry. The nature of jobs available is certainly changing, has been changing for a while now and will continue to change. Online sales and automation are a big part of this. But Amazon certainly hasn't done anything that warrants threats from the President of the United States.

One thing Amazon has been able to do is to provide products cheaper. This presumably leaves people more money to spend on other things which is good for the economy and can improve quality of life. Their sales success has also enabled them to develop their own products (kindles, Echo, FireTV, etc.) which no doubt put a number of people to work. Higher quality jobs than sales jobs too in my opinion. There are a whole host of intricate economic impacts other than the displacement of purchases. You can certainly look at just one aspect, like the number of people locally selling phone cases, and say that Amazon is a job killer but if you look at the big picture I just don't think that is the case. Either way, you can't penalize a company for developing more efficient processes or products. If Amazon is putting someone out of business then it is only because they are better at what they do. They won't dominate forever...no one ever does.

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I agree with your point of view. It still represents a huge danger to Trumps agenda in protecting 'American' jobs. Amazon delocalizes jobs and creates new ones that can work remotely.These jobs can easily be sent overseas. I don't know how Trump plans to handle it since you cannot put a tarrif on customer service.

I don't see why you couldn't put a tariff or some equivalent on customer service but tariffs only hurt in the long run.