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Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. Tech, community, video games, and whatever else is next.
Also available as an MP3 podcast.
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February 7, 2022: Alec MacGillis, author, "Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America"
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Today: Alec MacGillis, author, "Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America"
Links:
• Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America, by Alec MacGillis (hardcover on Indiebound)... or get the just-released paperback, Fulfillment: America in the Shadow of Amazon (paperback on Indiebound).
• @AlecMacGillis (Twitter)
• The true cost of Amazon’s low prices (by Sara Morrison, Vox, Jan 13, 2022): “Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly advocacy group, [says]: ‘Amazon leverages its power in one space to take over a new space, which is core to their business practice. They have the ability to combine the competitive advantages of different aspects of their business to take over new sectors of the economy.’”
• Amazon vs. N.Y.’s small businesses: The little guys need a 21st century antitrust act (Natasha Amott op-ed in N.Y. Daily News, Jan 31, 2022): “When monopolies like Amazon are allowed to dominate single marketplaces so fully, small businesses see the effect in what they can afford to pay their staff; in what rents they can afford to pay to property owners; and in how they fight to stay a part of the American middle class.”
• ‘Warehouses in their backyards’: when Amazon expands, these communities pay the price: (Guardian, Dec 9, 2021): “People of color and low-income residents are disproportionately affected by Amazon’s warehouses, a Consumer Reports investigation found.” (This piece includes the chart showing Amazon warehouse growth, included on the playlist.)
• An Ocean Away, I Found Some Common Sense on Mask Wearing (by Alec MacGillis, guest essay in the NYT, Oct 12, 2021): “The overall effect [of less polarization in German media] is of an environment set at a lower temperature, far closer to normalcy, where the public space is not forever on the verge of flaring into a divisive battleground of signaling, judgments and resistance.”
• Alec MacGillis on Honestly with Bari Weiss, Part 1, and Part 2 of the conversation.
• How I Quit Prime and Survived (by Shira Ovide, NYT, Jan 13, 2022). "Amazon said it was raising the annual price of its Prime shipping club to $139, from $119" (NYT, Feb 3, 2022). See also Mark Hurst's Good Reports: How to cancel your Amazon Prime membership.
• Amazon Breaks Record for One-Day Gain in Market Cap (WSJ, Feb 5, 2022): "Shares surged 14% Friday, their biggest one-day jump in almost seven years. The added $191 billion to Amazon’s market value, eclipsing the record Apple set just last week when it added $181 billion after posting quarterly results that shattered previous records."
• Lawmakers Press Amazon on Sales of Chemical Used in Suicides (NYT, Feb 4, 2022). As Vice's Maxwell Strachan put it:
Artist | Track | Comments | Images | Approx. start time | ||||||
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Alec MacGillis discusses his book "Fulfillment: America in the Shadow of Amazon." | ||||||||||
Tomaš Dvořák |
Game Boy Tune
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Mark's intro | ||||||||||
Interview with Alec MacGillis | 0:04:25 (MP3 | Pop‑up) | |||||||||
Mark's comments | 0:39:22 (MP3 | Pop‑up) | |||||||||
Mark Pritchard |
One Way Mirror
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https://markpritchard.bandcamp.com/track/one-way-mirror | 0:54:48 (MP3 | Pop‑up) |
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Listener comments!
Gotta chop the fragrants and feed the monsters, but I am listening!
Also, no Amazon here! The only time in the last ?? years anything has come to me from Amazon was when I had no choice: a recent set of government-supplied COVID home tests came via the dreaded A. Ugh.
isitonaws.com...
One thing I was thinking about when you guys touched upon the tax stuff was how these big-box stores, warehouses, etc. sometimes may do things like offer to build some of the infrastructure like the roads and parking lots or otherwise cut some deal where it would be "free," but the town eventually gets stuck with all of the maintenance costs when it comes time for that, and then those big companies also tend to try renegotiating once it comes time to start paying property taxes.
These places can especially be damaging because they drive tremendous sprawl and inefficient land use. It costs quite a lot of money to keep supporting all of the roads, water, electricity, etc. that goes out to serve these places, and all of that parking takes up so much valuable land and eventually needs to be maintained. Also leads to terrible rain drainage and flooding.
I recently bought something on eBay and it came from Amazon. I was mad!!
yeah, we can trust him...
Why did Jeff Bezos get divorced?
Because he learned marriage was a union.
Har har!
obliterate amazon.
atom-bomb amazon.
The people in Atlantic City have suffered for decades as it is, and the casinos certainly haven't fulfilled their promises. I can't imagine the damage Bass Pro Shops will probably do in the long run.
Most of the shoppers are probably people driving in from out of town, on very-cheap or free highways, parking for free or very cheap, and then immediately leaving. No real infusion into the local economy, and the city gives up an enormous amount for that "privilege" too.
I do what you recommend too, Mark. I don't have Prime and don't use Amazon unless I have to. Sometimes it's the only place to find something important, which is frustrating because I'd be willing to go out to an actual store to get it instead.
...somehow, i'm still alaive, and have whatever it is that i might've bought through it.
"YOU got pan-flutes and windchimes in my academic research!!"
Together... THEY FIGHT CRIME!!!
All hail KEN!
And his messenger Mark Hurst
Blessed be thy name
amazing show, Mark -- thanks so much!
Unions.
as i've never had it.