My tl;dr:
-Mine went under in mining town
-High unemployment
-Amazon came in and offered jobs
-Jobs paid minimum wage and 8 hour day
-This in practice puts workers in top 8% globally (http://www.givingwhatwecan.org)
-Jobs required moderate labor (~3-6x office work)
-UK's version of OSHA required safety boots which suck
-Amazon uses objective performance measures
Realistically, most of these low skill jobs will not exist in 20 years. So the message of the piece was unjustifiably: "Amazon is evil." In reality, the message should have been: "What will the world look like when even these good jobs are gone?"
>>Realistically, most of these low skill jobs will not exist in 20 years.
True. Amazon is already rolling out robots at select fulfillment centers.
But it still stinks that in 2013 so many people don't feel like they are in control of their livelihoods. Not everyone can pass the algorithm tests at Amazon to get one of the good jobs.
Realistically, most of these low skill jobs will not exist in 20 years. So the message of the piece was unjustifiably: "Amazon is evil." In reality, the message should have been: "What will the world look like when even these good jobs are gone?"