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The New York Times' article on Amazon business practices: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace
From a purely business perspective: brilliant, perhaps. From a human perspective: callous, to say the least. Sickening even. But are our businesses required to be morally good? Do we and should we demand better from them? Well, isn't that up for us to determine, whether we'd trade those moral principles for the convenience and price that Amazon offers in its mission of customer satisfaction?
Capitalism per se is neither morally good nor evil, but it certainly doesn't account for human dignity or quality of life as it grinds ever towards profit. Do we feel obliged, due to our participation in society, to want better for a society? Do we feel obliged to strive for it? Would we or should we trade individual comfort or benefit for a greater good -- and to what degree?
The lines are hard to draw, but I would personally be hard-pressed not to say that we can do better (as a society, as a country, but also as people). Given some of the stories, facts, and data presented in this article, Amazon can do better. And we should demand that they do.
From a purely business perspective: brilliant, perhaps. From a human perspective: callous, to say the least. Sickening even. But are our businesses required to be morally good? Do we and should we demand better from them? Well, isn't that up for us to determine, whether we'd trade those moral principles for the convenience and price that Amazon offers in its mission of customer satisfaction?
Capitalism per se is neither morally good nor evil, but it certainly doesn't account for human dignity or quality of life as it grinds ever towards profit. Do we feel obliged, due to our participation in society, to want better for a society? Do we feel obliged to strive for it? Would we or should we trade individual comfort or benefit for a greater good -- and to what degree?
The lines are hard to draw, but I would personally be hard-pressed not to say that we can do better (as a society, as a country, but also as people). Given some of the stories, facts, and data presented in this article, Amazon can do better. And we should demand that they do.
