The Amazonian Death Star vs The Free Market System
I reposted a blog about Amazon censoring legitimate customer reviews because Amazon deemed the vendor and the buyer to be “friends”, and I included a comment of how I was going back to using only brick and mortar distribution points. A friend of mine defended Amazon as being a great option because of their cut throat prices, and said “It may be unfortunate and lop sided in terms of competition, but in this country that kind of power is what rules the economy.”
The Amazonian Death Star
My friend’s statement got me thinking about our economy, and our current state of affairs. Our economy is capitalistic, which basically means Average Joes like you and me own companies and make profits in lieu of the government. However, my friend is actually wrong in his statement. “Our”, the American economy was designed to be a Free Market. A Free Market is an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses. Putting all competition out of business thus controlling the market is not a Free Market, it’s Corporate Feudalism.
Big box retailers killed small business. You can’t find an independent book store because Barnes & Noble has made them an endangered species. You can’t find a butcher, baker or candle stick maker because grocery store chains have exterminated them. So over the last couple decades small business has been destroyed by large corporate entities. This reduces the number of options that we have as consumers. The problem with reducing options is that those whom survive the attrition can then determine what prices are going to be, not the Free Market. If you’re in a small town with only one gas station and the owner says the cost of gas is $4.23, that’s the price. However, if there are three gas stations trying to sell you gas in the same town the cost of gas might only be $2.75. With the one gas station monopoly there’s price gauging, and with with three stations competing for your business you’ll pay a reasonable price for gas.
Now let’s look at the Amazonian Death Star. Yes, according to the Free Market philosophy Jeff Bezos has done nothing wrong, but let’s investigate Amazon’s potential. Amazon has opened up the door for countless individuals to become their own company, peddling their wares to hundreds of millions of consumers. On the flip side more and more points of sale have permanently shuttered their doors. Given enough time Amazon could hold a distribution monopoly by eliminating all of its competitors. That would mean that if sellers wanted to stand a chance of making a living they would be required to abide by any draconian policy issued by the Amazonian Death Star. What happens when the senior executives don’t agree with your politics, or your lifestyle choices? Then at their whim you could be blocked from using Amazon as a point of sale, all but killing your business. In fact Amazon could tell Morgan James Publishing they weren’t going to carry Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence simply because I chose to stand up against their draconian review policy. With no other points of distribution Amazon could also dictate your sales terms, a tactic that was originally perfected by Wal-Mart. “If you want Billy Bob’s Country Cookbook listed on Amazon it’s going to cost you 20%, or your inventory can sit and rot.”
You might be saying, “I’m not a vendor so none of that applies to me.” It’s true you may not be a vendor, but with the Amazonian Death Star eradicating its competition, and killing the Free Market in the process, you may want to pay attention. Chances are you work for someone, and when they are impacted by Amazon you’re eventually going to feel it. If Amazon told Carly’s Creation’s that they were no longer going to carry her products that would set off a chain reaction. Things might run smoothly for a while, but if sales dropped too sharply, inevitably at least for the short term, Carly would have to downsize and that means workers losing their jobs. If you were lucky enough to survive the downsizing and the sales trend didn’t rebound over time, Carly might have to cut you to a part time worker. If things remain the same eventually you will be looking for a new job because Carly will just call it quits. It’s okay because you can always go to work for Amazon in one of their massive distribution centers. You’ll have to take a sizable pay cut and work for minimum wage. The growing unemployment problem means the supply of workers far exceeds the number of job vacancies.
This scenario won’t unfold overnight, and the free market may even try to fight back. However, Amazon may have already reached a point of critical mass. It may take two or three more decades, but Amazon capturing over 90% market share in any field it chooses to enter isn’t outside the scope of possibility. So to my friend, in this country we have ever so gradually regressed to the year 1776, a year when men and women said enough was enough. The true Free Market System that is supposed to rule this economy has given way to Corporate Feudalism, a new take on a timeless classic. As history repeats itself I think Amazon is on the verge of it’s own revolution. This will not be fought on colonial battlefields by red coats, blue coats and militias with bayonets and black powder muskets. It will be fought by companies refusing to use Amazon as a point of sale, buyers recognizing that the expense of Amazon’s lowest price mentality and convenience are too steep, and by techies that are disgusted by the draconian tactics employed by the elite of the Corporate Feudal System. I just hope that I’m around long enough to see history repeat itself.
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
