Amazon Is The Worst Company Since Oil

Enter Amazon and you have exited capitalism. Despite all the buying and the selling that goes on there, you have entered a realm that can’t be thought of as a market, not even a digital one.

Quite the statement eh and I would agree. Amazon brings to mind Standard Oil with Jeff Bezos taking on the John D. Rockefeller mantle with ease.

Amazon will, at some point, be broken up, but not before Bezos has collected even more of his previous dollars, just like Rockefeller, which will be too little and definitely too late.

Who knows what the world will look like after Amazon but it'll not be consumer-focused unless we stop buying shit we don't need.

So, who said the quote above, Yanis Varoufamis, a a Greek economist and politician, in The big idea: has the digital economy killed capitalism?

Here's another quote from the article:

“If it ain’t a capitalist market, what in the sweet Lord’s name are we stepping into when we enter Amazon.com?” a student at the University of Texas once asked me. “A type of digital fief,” I replied. “A post‑capitalist one, whose historical roots remain in feudal Europe.”

I do urge ya to read the article, it won't necessarily stop you using Amazon however it will give you an insight into the non-market you're buying your stuff from. Stuff, btw, that you really don't need.

This print can be bought at, you guessed it, Amazon - no I'm not going to link.

If you're interested, as I was, in the Rockefeller story (it is nasty as hell as he was a mealy mouthed, thin lipped, bastard), I recommend Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr, a fantastic read to work out why, and how, and what we can learn for today.