I'm pasting this letter to JB in its entirety, written by Michael Brownstein here.
Hey Jeff, Michael here. This is important, so listen up. You hit a monster home run with Amazon, there's no denying that, you're worth more than anyone else on the planet.
But there's one place you're impoverished, Jeff—your heart. You're keen to spend billions of dollars landing tourists on the moon instead of performing real service here on Earth. Like helping those humans living degraded lives under the boot heel of predatory capitalism.
It's time to stop skinflinting your Amazon workers while installing cameras to make sure they don't take too many minutes going to the bathroom. And firing them for speaking out about putting themselves in harm's way from Covid-19 by working in your warehouses without adequate protection.
That's bad enough, but something even bigger is missing in your life. Everything is not product, Jeff. I mean, it's great what you did with Amazon. We love the convenience but we do not love your robber-baron persona. Because without a connection to healing spirit you're sick no matter how much money you have.
Look in the mirror and you'll see someone preoccupied with shooting phallic rockets into the frigid reaches of space while your own world is burning up. It's time to give back, Jeff.
How should I do that, you ask. Good question! I'll tell you how. Turn Amazon into a co-op, let the workers own it. But above all, give back to the sacred rain forest in South America, the Amazon whose name you stole—just grab the name and run, right?
But there's more to life than scoring, Jeff. It's time for you to fly to the Amazon, get down on your knees and thank the rainforest for its gifts, its generation of endless life forms, sacred in nature, which puts to shame the sterile proliferation of items in Amazon's warehouses. It's time to drink jungle medicine and open your heart, wake up from your high-powered fantasies.
Understand that mass extinction of plants and animals is accelerating out of control. You have to work to rid us of the capitalist nightmare based on mindless greed which is raping the Earth.
It's time to help heal the lungs of the Earth that are being scorched. The Amazon is on fire, Jeff. The lungs of the Earth are saying "I can't breathe," just like George Floyd, just like the people dying from Covid-19.
It's time to swear you'll protect the indigenous people who've taken good care of the Amazon for thousands of years only to be murdered for the shortest of short term gains. You took that name without asking, Jeff. It's time to give back before it's too late.
Time to swear you'll protect the indigenous people who've taken good care of the Amazon for thousands of years only to be murdered for the shortest of short term gains. You took that name without asking, Jeff. It's time to give back before it's too late.
Yes, before it's too late and the only people left to watch your rockets zoom off into the ether will be a few fellow billionaires like Elon Musk and Bill Gates, your megalomaniacal competitors racing to see who can spoil the heavens sooner by launching low orbit satellites beaming down 5G radiation from above.
Elon has a head start, he's already put thousands of bright, large, reflective, radio-interfering satellites in orbit with hundreds more to follow every month. But you're planning to catch up to him by adding thousands of your own. If you and Elon and Bill have your way, looking through a pair of binoculars in 2030 will reveal more satellites than stars.
But it's not only our view of the night sky that will be ruined. Check out what EMF experts have to say about the health risks of 5G radiation. Switzerland has restricted 5G deployment in response to a nationwide call for real-world testing. Other countries and cities are having second thoughts too, despite the telecom industry pushing to install 5G everywhere as soon as possible, no questions asked.
Can't you see what you're doing by forging ahead regardless of the consequences of your actions, Jeff? Like the Amazon rain forest, the night sky belongs to all of humanity, not simply to operators like you hypnotized by the "business impact" of your actions.
Instead of sending up satellites to track us for a coming surveillance state, why don't you play your part as a citizen of the world and send up just one satellite to track global deforestation?
It's time to drop your daydream of being a very important explorer of the galaxy and work to save where you actually eat and sleep and make your moves. Time to help turn the global climate crisis around. Because unless you do, before long there will be no companies left for you to play with. Spend your billions saving the sacred Amazon. Spend them while there's still time.
I think the mistake here is that we have to beg someone to do the right thing. We can't rely on a corporate bigwig -- or anyone, for that matter -- to be generous, caring and concerned for others, especially when it's against their own best interests. But we have the tools to solve the problem, if we will just use them. Unions. Antitrust. Government regulation. Our state and federal representatives. Isn't that what they're there for, to keep things on a relatively even keel?
ReplyDeleteWell, it is his money and he can spend it how he wants to. I guess he does not have a conscience. Remember: he cheated on his wife.
ReplyDeleteIs it his money though Gigi? At what point does it become obscene?
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I agree, it is obscene. Just as what athletes make is obscene. At least some athletes do give back.
DeleteHe, and so many aspiring to be just like him, see themselves as above the law, and conscience, is only a burden. Sadly, cynically, government supports their view.
ReplyDeleteYes, EC, we have gone so far astray haven't we in tolerating such appalling narcissism and psychopathy and abuse of the least amongst us.
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I wasn't aware how bad working conditions at Amazon are. Aside from the 5G remarks, the open letter is very good.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to get the feelings out even though time has proven over and over again that it makes no difference. Bloody revolutions are the only cure.
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There are too many Jeff Bezos to address. My own government and its president are they own Jeff Bezos', destroying the country and its economy.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree Joanne, the illusion of democracy to placate the peasants while the emperors plunder at will.
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It's absolutely obscene, modern slavery, total narcissism, a complete waste of talent and privilege. These people are a scourge on humanity
ReplyDeleteThey truly are Kylie but they are so sick in their own ways, never recognising the extent of their oppression and cruelty.
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But will he read it and take the correct actions? I think not.......
ReplyDeleteOf course not. He sees something else entirely in his mirror.
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Jeff is like anyone else. Like anyone else - even a hobo, if he steps into eternity unredeemed by Christ (and only Christ) ... ouch!
ReplyDeleteWell if you believe in such things. He doesn't care. Greed for greed's sake.
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It's not just its own workers Amazon hurts. As it established itself as the world's bookstore, it put the squeeze on traditional publishers to set the prices it wanted. It has other practices that have hurt traditional publishers while establishing its own imprints. I'm not against progress: my hands no longer hold books open well, so e-books are a boon to me. So is shopping from home. But I am against policies that make sure that one entity controls a whole industry. We were promised digital prices would be so much lower than print books. I've begun to notice a few times lately when the digital books were priced higher than the paperbacks, in relatively new books. That makes absolutely no sense, except that it can be done, so it is done.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add that Amazon advertises used books right alongside new ones when readers search for a title. That's convenient for those who might want to buy used books, but they may not realize that the author gets nothing, not a penny, from the sale of those used books.
DeleteYes, the pirating of resale is done with conscience and obligation. Artists struggle so much to begin with it, it is criminal. Small publishers are the way to fly if one can.
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I wonder how many commenters have used Amazon for purchasing an item? I have thought about this post for a couple of days before I commented. To me the letter is just more talk and full of the author's ego. Amazon is not interested in making money off a product. They are interested in the data information they getting from the people who use it. That is where the real power lies in this day.
ReplyDeleteI agree Ain't but he makes money and harvests data on everyone also and has digitized just about every book in the world. It's deeper than what appears. Like most political strategies and maneuvers. Lifeblood sucking of humanity.
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Clearly we’re on a very self-destructive path those with all the money could make more of an effort to alter — but will they, and how to reach them to get them to even try.
ReplyDeleteNo, it won't happen, Joared. They're busy trying to find another planet to destroy and not fixing this one. The sheer waste of money on space exploration is staggering. We are a foolish species.
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Well, I thoroughly agree that Bezos should give something back to the world after exploiting it for his own personal gain - and exploiting all his long-suffering employees. But as for 5G, I haven't yet seen any hard evidence that 5G is genuinely dangerous and not just the focus of yet another conspiracy theory.
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