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Cancel Amazon Prime [2021] (archive.ph)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Amazon Prime is a remarkable success but also dystopian. It has made convenience and speed the norm, habituating consumers to buy more products. Prime's flywheel effect - where more customers lead to more data and scale which attracts more customers - has fueled Amazon's dominance. Prime subscribers spend twice as much and Amazon's value has multiplied 97 times since 2005. While canceling Prime may not hurt Amazon, it can benefit local businesses by gaining a new customer. However, Prime has rewired how people think about what is possible to obtain and how fast, making a Prime-free life unimaginable for many.

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[–] 13 points 3 years ago (2 children)

Everyone who thinks people should cancel their prime account because of horrible working conditions should first look at their phone... then their tv... then any other random electronics they have... then look at their shoes and their clothes and everything else they have made cheaply in a factory that abuses human labor. Then find a dictionary and look up the word hypocrite.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Living under capitalism is living under the yoke of devils. You cannot escape them, and you sometimes make deals with them, whether because you have to, or you think the deal will work out for you. But that doesn't mean you should love the devils, and if you can get away from them you should.

    Yeah, most people's phones or shoes or whatever probably have some dirty pasts, but that doesn't mean we should just give up on making any kind of good or moral choices. We're locked into capitalism, and we will have blood on our hands whether we are aware or not, but using that as an excuse to give up on trying to do better is not a coherent moral position.

    I think there's a significant difference between "any shoe I try to buy is shady, and if a wholesome option even exists it is incredibly hard to find/buy/pricey", and "sure Amazon workers literally die in warehouses, but next day shipping on my random knickknacks is soooo convenient!"

    There exists real and valid use-cases for prime, as several other people in this thread have expressed. But just shrugging and saying "eg whatever" because you want to save $1 on random junk isn't one of them.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    You realize that the alternatives to Amazon all do the same thing, right? Working in a warehouse supplying brick-and-mortar shop isn't exactly a cushy or well-paid job, either.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    It isn't hard to be better than the worst. My SO worked in a non-amazon warehouse before moving in with me and it is no walk in the park but it is still far better than Amazon. They even started trying to recruit people from her warehouse and everyone who jumped ship to Amazon regretted it quickly.

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