I think that's what drives leftists crazy - that no matter how much they hem and haw, they can't force the market to bend to their own version of morality. If you want to dethrone amazon, then create something better that free people choose with their own wallets.
* Companies doing what's best for their profits; not what's best for people. * Companies becoming so large that they are literally impossible to compete with. * Customers choosing what's cheapest and/or most convenient for themselves, regardless of human/societal/environmental cost.
Defending this concept of a "free market" is an excuse for saying "making money in a way which doesn't hurt the world is too hard for me so let's not even try".
Blackberry, Kodak, IBM, US Steel, Blockbuster, Direct TV. These companies are far smaller proportionally to what they once were. No one considers them empires, or on the cutting edge.
Hand waving away the free market as corrupt ignores the perfect track record of capitalist societies vs. every other single system ever tried.
Amazon has the money and the power to bend the market to their own will. That's not a free market. They have the supply, and they'll force your demand to them one way or another.
I don't understand why building a warehouse in a small town, where people voluntarily start to work for them (presumably by offering better pay, working conditions, and opportunity) is a bad thing. You have a zero-sum, incorrect understanding of market forces and how the economy works.
Free market capitalism (specifically Amazon's method) significantly results in market dominance, a macro-economic reliance on that company succeeding, and reduces social mobility among working class Americans.
Market Dominance: Amazon has, in basic terms, brought upon the Walmart Effect throughout the US. And exacerbates the effect within the small towns where they build their warehouses.
Macro-Economic Reliance: As Amazon employs 1.1m Americans, the macro-economics of America have become reliant on Amazon succeeding. Resulting in a fear, or at least a trepidation, in interfering with whatever Amazon wants to do. The threat of mass layoffs due to any state/local/federal regulations would have profound effects of the American economy. Something that, back when free market capitalism was seen as the most equal way to ensure competition, was not possible, and most likely not even conceived as being likely.
Reduction in Social Mobility: Building off of the Market Dominance bit, this reduction in wages and revenue for small businesses/local businesses reduces the ability of everyday American citizens to build a successful business to provide social mobility for them and their children. And for employees, yes, they make great money working at an Amazon factory. But talk to many Amazon employees and they'll tell you it's grueling, backbreaking work. And when they have enough and decide to quit or are fired there are, typically, no jobs in their local area that either pay that well or that they may qualify for.
I'm not saying Amazon is forcing you at gunpoint to buy from them. I'm saying that Amazon, due to our government's failure to intervene earlier on in their growth, has crafted the free market around them, has made it to where it's more difficult/annoying/impossible to not buy from them.
People complain that some people get extremely rich but fail to realize that they do so by increasing the average standard of living for a large number of people. Amazon provides conveniences that did not exist 50 years ago and it does make people's lives easier, provides more free time, provides jobs for a large number of workers, provides companies a way to get their products to customers, etc.
These days, "The Amazon Effect" is probably even more worrisome, because it's much more diffuse.
When companies can rely entirely on economies of scale, rather than innovation, to crush competition, it's possible to have immediate effects (such as lower prices) that are beneficial, but knock-on effects (such as the broader impact on the economy and the quality of jobs available) that are insidious and deleterious.
If you calculate what impact Walmart has had on the average standard of living, would you claim that it has driven it lower? There are obviously going to be some people and segments that aren't able to adapt quickly, but that is the case with anything...and even those individuals are going to benefit from goods being available at lower prices.
