Comments on: Amazon versus the Market

By: Militant Libertarian » Workers of the World Unite for a Free Market

Militant Libertarian » Workers of the World Unite for a Free Market — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:42:49 +0000

[...] way of Roderick Long I’ve learned that Amazon.com has some pretty rough rules for its employees. (Long draws on [...]

By: Roderick

Roderick — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:52:34 +0000

Given prevailing conditions, it’s not obvious that a boycott of Walmart or Amazon would do all that much good. (Though as Amazon starts restricting its content, it may well create its own boycott.)

By: Roderick

Roderick — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:50:22 +0000

There's a difference between borh and frankpledge.

By: Neverfox

Neverfox — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:05:40 +0000

The idea is to encourage within-group monitoring/ There is nothing the least bit sinister about it

I remember that from elementary school; it was referred to as “whole class punishment”. One of the “costs” was resentment and even violence.

BTW this type of plan is the heart of the Grameen Bank approach lauded by many of my lefty friends — borrowers are put in groups and can only take out secondary loans when all members of the group have repaid their initial loans.

OK but maybe you should ask those of us here if Grameen means anything to any of us. Or are all lefties alike? Frankly, the fact that Grameen does this adds fuel to the “sinister” theory because Grameen has a reputation that is more than a little creepy and cult-like.

By: Peter G. Klein

Peter G. Klein — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:31:27 +0000

Guys, guys, do some homework before taking Times and HuffPo reports at face value. For example, having employees “[s]et against each other with a bonus scheme that penalises staff if any other member of their group fails to hit the quota” represents a very common type of group incentive plan. Firms of all types, large and small, corporate and cooperative, rely frequently on team-based bonuses in which one person’s bonus depends on the individual performance of other team members. The idea is to encourage within-group monitoring/ There is nothing the least bit sinister about it (though, like other bonus schemes, it has both benefits and costs). BTW this type of plan is the heart of the Grameen Bank approach lauded by many of my lefty friends — borrowers are put in groups and can only take out secondary loans when all members of the group have repaid their initial loans.

By: The Goal Is Freedom: Workers of the World Unite for a Free Market « Reboot The Republic

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:12:47 +0000

[...] way of Roderick Long I’ve learned that Amazon.com has some pretty rough rules for its employees. (Long draws on the [...]

By: Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:27:43 +0000

My take:
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/tgif/workers-of-the-world-unite/

By: Workers of the World Unite for a Free Market : The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:11:25 +0000

[...] way of Roderick Long I’ve learned that Amazon.com has some pretty rough rules for its employees. (Long draws on the [...]

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:50:14 +0000

I’ve read the paper before. I’m not referring to its legal justification so much as I’m referring to the apparent hypocrisy. I don’t think he is a hypocrite, but I know the same sort of question would be asked of me if I were, e.g., complaining about wal-mart and then shopping their “low low prices.” With small contributions to evil regarding the state, its understandable since the proverbial gun is against one’s head to make the contributions, but with Amazon it just isn’t there. It just looks bad, you know?

By: Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:08:32 +0000

But those other jobs were still within the same context of massive state intervention that creates barriers to self-employment, etc.