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143 reviews for:
Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America
Alec MacGillis, Stefan Alexander MacGillis
3.9 AVERAGE
143 reviews for:
Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America
Alec MacGillis, Stefan Alexander MacGillis
3.9 AVERAGE
I have a love/hate relationship with Amazon, which I suspect is not uncommon. I don't think it's entirely fair to hold it so heavily responsible for the economic demise of small towns in rural America; trends have been moving in that direction for a long time. The globalization genie is well out of the bottle at this point. Economic inequality has reached absurd proportions. One thing that would help is universal access to health care. Free community college is another thing. Investment in affordable housing would be a plus. Things will never go back to "the good old days" (which were not universally "good"). I do think there are antitrust issues here that need legal scrutiny. Not just Amazon, but Google and Facebook as well.
The digression into the minutia of the BonTon stores rise and fall didn't really add anything to the narrative here.
Telling the story of rural/small town devastation through the experiences of individual people helped to humanize the story; it's not news that Amazon exploits its lowest-wage workforce, but seeing how it actually affects people on an individual level makes it vivid.
The digression into the minutia of the BonTon stores rise and fall didn't really add anything to the narrative here.
Telling the story of rural/small town devastation through the experiences of individual people helped to humanize the story; it's not news that Amazon exploits its lowest-wage workforce, but seeing how it actually affects people on an individual level makes it vivid.
You will never be able to see Amazon the same way again after reading this. Hugely thought provoking and powerful.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Molt interessant per entendre i veure l'efecte d'Amazon a la societat nord-americana. És sorprenent com les grans empreses s'aprofiten del seu poder per aconseguir el que volen i evitar pagar impostos.
Algunes històries personals es fan una mica llargues, però ofereixen una realitat que viuen moltes persones.
Algunes històries personals es fan una mica llargues, però ofereixen una realitat que viuen moltes persones.
This is one of those books that I'm going to be sitting with and digesting for awhile yet. It tells you very little you don't already know (if you've been paying attention) but the way MacGillis is able to illustrate with stories of real people just how broken everything is, and how much everyone seems to be OK with that especially those in positions of power to actually DO something about it, is the killer in this narrative. It can make any small efforts seem futile, or at best, you're doing what little you can do to make yourself feel better, not because anything a single individual does is actually going to affect any bottom line for the companies being examined here. It is a chilling, no punches pulled, damning account. And yet, it's not probably going to change much of anything other than to make the reader feel like they've already lost in a game they didn't have a choice to play.
(and yes, I am very aware that recording a review and my reading of this book on a platform owned by the company at the heart of this account is a perfect illustration of how messed up it all is)
(and yes, I am very aware that recording a review and my reading of this book on a platform owned by the company at the heart of this account is a perfect illustration of how messed up it all is)
I mean Amazon does horrible things but they also do some good things. We definitely have to make them do better, like pay taxes. But they have increased the minimum wage at other stores and they employ lots of people. The book was at times hard to follow because he goes deeeeeep into the history of towns and people. Then talks about Amazon and then goes back to those people. The book could have been a lot shorter.
This book shows what happens when Amazon comes to town. It is not generally a happy picture.
The way this book looks at Amazon is interesting no doubt. Not only does it track the way that Amazon as an economic juggernaut affects everything from federal policy down to daily quality of life of people in associated with the organization, but it also chronicles the political and social changes that happened before and during Amazon’s rise to prominence that allowed Amazon to make the changes in our society that it has. I think the breadth of the reporting in this text is genuinely impressive. I’m only knocking it a star because I felt that sometimes it kind of fell into “good old days” kind of rhetoric especially when describing medium and small towns nostalgically, though I am and have always been a city babe so grain of salt I guess.
It was fine, just not grabbing me as an audiobook.
informative
sad
slow-paced
Fulfillment is a fantastic exposition of the impact of Amazon on US cities, suburbs, and exurbs. Like the best non-fiction in recent history -- Evicted, Say Nothing, etc. -- MacGillis does a great job of highlighting and creating emotional investment in personal stories while connecting those stories to larger trends.
The subtitle here is perfect: Amazon and its success has created winners and losers across America. Wealth continues to concentrate across individuals, companies, and locales. The few winners in power continue to exacerbate this immense imbalance. The many losers, whether the be in gentrified neighborhoods or hollowed-out small cities, suffer in a country that has more enough resources for them if they were distributed equitably. It's a sad story, but an absolutely necessary one to understand modern America.
The subtitle here is perfect: Amazon and its success has created winners and losers across America. Wealth continues to concentrate across individuals, companies, and locales. The few winners in power continue to exacerbate this immense imbalance. The many losers, whether the be in gentrified neighborhoods or hollowed-out small cities, suffer in a country that has more enough resources for them if they were distributed equitably. It's a sad story, but an absolutely necessary one to understand modern America.