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Idiot goddam tossers

All hail Jeff Bezos the philanthropist! The rest of us will just keep paying our taxes
Marina Hyde

You know, what’s Amazon ever done for me?

This time the Amazon founder has gone one better, unveiling plans, in an “exclusive interview” with CNN, to “give away” the majority of his $124bn fortune just hours before the online shopping behemoth announced it would be laying off 10,000 workers.

If Bezos was hoping his sudden generosity would help to deflect some of the attention from the largest single round of lay-offs in the company’s near 30-year history, then on the face of it, it worked. Within hours, this supposed act of extraordinary magnanimity was beamed around the world – across the internet, prime-time television and in all the top newspapers.

Still, it seems unlikely that many people will take it at face value. The general public aren’t fools. There is more than a whiff of reputation-washing in all of this, from a tycoon who founded a business often mired in controversy.

Sigh.

So, Amazon. The existence of it is said to have reduced US inflation (to look purely at that country) by around 0.2% a year for a couple of decades now.

So, 4% off the cost of everything, for everyone then. The US economy is what, $30 trillion these days? Consumption equals production equals incomes, obviously. 4% of $30 trillion is $1.2 trillion. That’s the amount by which US consumers are better off, each year, for the existence of Amazon.

Again, note, that’s per annum. Capitalise that and what, $20 trillion in wealth?

And people are complaining?

Idiot goddam tossers.

Of course. Ms, Hyde is at The Guardian and her job is to snark at stuff. There was a time when we’d expect better of others. But apparently not:

Yet, no amount of greenwashing can turn him into Greta Thunberg. People would be far more inclined to listen if Amazon had made great strides in reducing its impact on the planet’s resources, yet the company’s delivery vans, trucks and planes have a higher carbon footprint than Switzerland and Luxembourg combined.

The major part of emissions from retail is the car going to the shop to pick the stuff up. Delivery vans following a route reduces this.

When do we get – OK, how do we get – the adults writing the newspapers once again?

27 thoughts on “Idiot goddam tossers”

  1. Rather gleeful article in Zerohedge about Disney.
    Amazon Prime is going the same way apparently.

    There is a lot to dislike about Amazin – it has killed the book, computer and record shop for instance – but it has opened up a lot for consumers that were otherwise too difficult to find on the High Street.

  2. The Guardian is a product that has to be sold. It contains this sort of article because it attracts readers & readers attract advertisers. Whether the writers are adults or not, they’re hired to produce this sort of product. So, within the logic, successfully.
    Informing & educating about reality is not the business model. Newspapers produce what their readers want to consume. Like biscuit manufacturers.

  3. You can guarantee that Ms Hyde has used Amazon to purchase goods at some point in the past. But she’s not a hypocrite, because reasons.

    My theory is that all leftist criticism of the likes of Amazon, Starbucks, MacDonalds, Tesco et al is just thinly disguised middle class hatred for the working classes. All the businesses that have made their money on the backs of the individual voluntary purchases of the masses are the ones the Left love to criticise. Tesco get it in the neck, but never Waitrose. No-one ever writes a piece decrying that a Waitrose has opened in an area, but if Tesco move into a new location then you might think Attila the Hun has set up camp by the reaction from the usual suspects. The middle class left can’t openly call the masses scum (though they came pretty close during Brexit – I think their BDS tipped them over the edge) so the next best thing is to openly criticise everywhere they spend their money.

  4. There is a lot to dislike about Amazin – it has killed the book, computer and record shop for instance – but it has opened up a lot for consumers that were otherwise too difficult to find on the High Street.

    Couldn’t agree more. Bought loads of stuff off of Amazon that I couldn’t find locally in Perth (or more usually the price was extortionate and / or choice was limited). Literally couldn’t be happier with them.

    All these moaning minnies with their “Whataboutism” over Amazon’s taxes, labour practices or “Killing the high street” can go do one.

  5. There is a lot to dislike about Amazin – it has killed the book, computer and record shop for instance . . .

    It’s more than mere pendantry to say that it was the customers who killed those outlets by preferring to shop at Amazon, or that the outlets killed themselves by not offering what customers wanted.

  6. Alexa!

    Is there a treatment for persons who suffer from left wing idiocy, hypocrisy, nimbyism, envy and populism, apart from throwing them off tall buildings?

  7. It’s more than mere pendantry to say that it was the customers who killed those outlets by preferring to shop at Amazon, or that the outlets killed themselves by not offering what customers wanted.

    I agree that customers killed the high street by not shopping there, but it has to be acknowledged that the high street is encumbered with bricks-and-mortar costs that by remaining almost purely a logistics operation Amazon has avoided. Not least of which being high street rent and uniform business rates.

    Until the commercial property bubble is burst and commercial property companies have to acknowledge the real value of their assets and have that reflected in realistic rents then nothing will change and the high street will continue to die for everything except chain coffee shops and mobile phone businesses (which is why all high streets look the same nowadays).

  8. Is there a treatment for persons who suffer from left wing idiocy, hypocrisy, nimbyism, envy and populism, apart from throwing them off tall buildings?

    I’m rather a fan of Colonel Pinochet’s one-way helicopter flights myself. Solves the problem of leftwing idiocy right quick!

  9. One foolproof way of finding out if someone is a lefty is to drop the word “Wetherspoons” into the conversation

  10. Yet, no amount of greenwashing can turn him into Greta Thunberg.

    Good, one is more than enough. That said, it would be far better if ridiculously rich would-be philanthropists could be persuaded to build themselves palaces of solid gold rather than foist on people their version of “a better world”. The Gates Foundation is a sinister operation.

  11. I love Amazon. I also like a stroll around the shops to look at some objects and a sit down at a cafe. Some business person must be able to come up with a way to make that profitable. A subscription service to a giant showroom, perhaps. Minimise logistics by not actually selling the items, you just pick them out and they get delivered. Make it a pleasant enough experience and people will pay the entry fee. I pay enough for theme park passes for my family; we’re planning a trip to Ikea partly for fun and meatballs and the proposition is not *that* different…

  12. I’m rather a fan of Colonel Pinochet’s one-way helicopter flights myself.

    <pendant>The flight has to be two-way, or it gets quite expensive quite rapidly. </pendant>

  13. When one considers Guardian journalists there’s plenty of criticism that can be made but Hyde is the epitome of a smug, Crouch end based tosser who needs an encounter with the business end of a two by four. Really does make your teeth grind – no redeeming features whatsoever.

  14. Obviously, I am referring to the one-way trip of the passenger dropped from an unsurvivable height over the sea or the Amazon, rather than that of the helicopter, crew and associated CIA operatives.

  15. BiW

    Good way to dispose of surplus/obsolete helicopters though. Bit of a pain for the pilot, making sure he has a parachute, dinghy etc

  16. Every day, in every way, the Guardian + BBC combo makes me detest the Left ever more.
    If the Left were a giant eyeball I would spend a couple of hours every day slicing it with a razor blade dipped in something disgusting, just for the fun of it.
    With Murphy’s testicles as a digestif…

  17. We’re currently filming a scene where Big Dick is fellated by the donkey. He did say that he hoped his four-legged friend would not close his mouth while fellating him

  18. Dennis, Pointing Out The Obvious

    Yet, no amount of greenwashing can turn him into Greta Thunberg.

    Somehow, I doubt that Jeff Bezo’s goal is to turn himself into an semi-educated individual suffering from autism spectrum disorder who has done absolutely nothing to actually advance THE CAUSE. And since he’s clearly learned to whore to the media, there really isn’t anything he can learn from Greta.

  19. Also note that Jeff’s Amazon Web Services is drastically driving down the energy cost of operating online services – surely the greenies should welcome this? You will get a far better compute unit per KWh on AWS (or its competitors) than in your own data centre.

  20. it would be far better if ridiculously rich would-be philanthropists could be persuaded to build themselves palaces of solid gold rather than foist on people their version of “a better world”. The Gates Foundation is a sinister operation.

    Agreed TMB. I would much prefer that Bezos spaffed his fortune on buying shiny things, thus keeping shiny things artisans in business, rather than spending it on whatever the autistic weirdo thinks is good works.

    I remember reading that the Gates Foundation was going to rid the world of malaria. Instead, malaria deaths have been going up for the past couple of years, while Bill was buying propaganda in the Terriblegraph and throwing money at America’s most famous nonce in the hope of getting a Nobel Peace Prize.

  21. The comment about taxes grates with me. Whatever he does with his money it will be infinitely better than handing it over to the government.

  22. Record and computer shops were always doomed by the Internet (although the former are making a comeback for second-hand vinyl). But good book shops can survive (their bigger threat is from charity shops that take donated books and sell them for a couple of quid). If I want to buy the latest Reacher or Rebus, I’ll get it from wherever it’s cheapest; but sometimes you can’t beat browsing and finding something interesting, or a new book that you weren’t aware of from an author you like.

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