William Banks is a writer, editor, and translator. His latest book, The Great Debate: Nietzsche, Culture and the Scandinavian Welfare Society, is out now from the University of Wisconsin Press.
Silicon Valley capitalist Marc Andreessen has released a manifesto that decries efforts to restrain the genius of tech billionaires. Drawing heavily from Nietzsche and Hayek, it’s the same old right-wing elitism in new packaging.
Working at Amazon isn’t just physically taxing, it’s dangerous. Despite years of scrutiny and years of company spin, Amazon still has a serious injury rate more than double the rest of the industry.
Amazon wants to be both “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company” and “Earth’s Best Employer.” But it can’t have both. In fact, its customer-dazzling business model is predicated on worker exploitation and endangerment.
In his final letter to shareholders as Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos offers a novel — and profoundly disturbing — conception of value creation: a handful of visionaries are the sole source of all “real value.” This aristocracy mercifully blesses customers, clients, and even Amazon workers with social goods.