BROADCASTS.com

Published: Sept. 1, 2015, 11 a.m.

b'In which we quite aggressively tackle Amazon\\u2019s corporate treatment of its workers, and launch into a discussion of corporate ethics and responsibility. We also note that though we critique Amazon\\u2019s practices, we recognize that it has good effects in the world, some of them significant. The question is: at what point to the externalities associated with those benefits make dealing with any given company morally unjustifiable?\\n
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Links

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• The original piece which sparked this discussion: \\u201cInside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace\\u201d
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  \\u201cWhy the New York Times\\u2019s Amazon story is so controversial, explained\\u201d (Vox) \\u2013 with a scathing and accurate comment on blue-collar workers as the real problem for Amazon:

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  \\nThe real workplace scandal at Amazon \\u2014 and in the economy writ large \\u2014 isn\\u2019t the treatment of white-collar workers with plenty of options. It\\u2019s the treatment of blue-collar workers with none.\\n
  Most of Amazon\\u2019s workers, after all, aren\\u2019t highly paid engineers or marketers sitting in a Seattle office. They\\u2019re contract warehouse workers rushing frantically to meet their packing quotas.\\n
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  Responses:

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  • \\u201cFull memo: Jeff Bezos responds to brutal NYT story, says it doesn\\u2019t represent the Amazon he leads\\u201d
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  • \\u201cAn Amazonian\\u2019s response to\\u201dInside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace\\u201c
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  • \\u201cAmazon: Friend of the Christian Family?\\u201d \\u2013 an outsider praising the ethic itself as well as the results of that ethic in the American economy (First Things)
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  • \\u201cI Had a Baby and Cancer When I Worked at Amazon. This Is My Story\\u201d
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  • \\u201cAmazon as an Antidote to Life Inside the High-Technology Bubble\\u201d
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  • \\u201cThe Case Against Full-Time Employees\\u201d
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  Takedowns of Amazon\\u2019s warehouse practices:

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  • \\u201cInside Amazon\\u2019s Warehouse\\u201d (2011)
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  • \\u201cI Was A Warehouse Wage Slave\\u201d (2012)
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  • \\u201cMy Week as an Amazon Insider\\u201d (2013)
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  • \\u201cAmazon workers face \\u2018increased risk of mental illness\\u2019\\u201d (2013)
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  • \\u201cExclusive: Amazon makes even temporary warehouse workers sign 18-month non-competes\\u201d (2014)
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• Previously on the show:\\n
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  • 1.02: On Family
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Before You Go

For just one of many articles on the Chinese nose dive last week, see \\u201cGlobal shares nosedive on China economic woes\\u201d. Notably, as we predicted it might, things substantially stabilized throughout the week elsewhere in the world.\\n
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Music

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• \\u201cit was gone\\u201d by orchid mantis. Used by permission.
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• \\u201cWinning Slowly Theme\\u201d by Chris Krycho. The piano version is cool; somewhere in the future is a rock orchestra version that\\u2019s been playing in Chris\\u2019 head for years.
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Sponsors

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Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month\\u2019s sponsors:

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• Jeremy W. Sherman
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• Jeremy Cherfas
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If you\\u2019d like to support the show, you can make a pledge at Patreon or give directly via Square Cash.

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