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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
This book had a lot of interesting information in it, and it mentioned some facts about Amazon's business practices that would be of great concern if true. However, the extremely heavy-handed spin inserted liberally throughout the pages really undercut the message, and left me wondering how much of the author's claims were truthfully and accurately presented.
One technique which I really disliked was the extensive use of narrative biography, where the author would attempt to appeal to emotion by getting the reader to "know a character". He would tell a really intimate story about events in a person's life, and how they felt at major points in their careers, and how they reacted when good or bad stuff happened to them, etc. The fact that a lot of these characters have been dead for some time and the author could not possibly have known these details really drives home the fact that he's taking a lot of artistic license in these stories (a.k.a. just making stuff up) to try to manipulate the reader's emotions. Many of these characters didn't even have much if anything to do with Amazon. At one point the author talked about a guy who was killed in a tornado, and I think he was trying to insinuate that it was Amazon's fault somehow because the guy was an Amazon contractor. There were so many of these tangentially related segues that just felt like pure nonsense.
I also didn't like how the author tried really hard to spin his political views into the book. A lot of times when he had some critique of Amazon, he tried to tie it into the Republican party as well. I think he was really trying to make it seem that Amazon and Republicans were conspiring, and was insinuating that Amazon was making back-door deals with Republicans, and trying to get them into power, and using them to pass shady laws. This view of reality seems to have gone through an extremely heavy cognitive filter. After reading the book I looked up Amazon's political donation history and it's been split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans all the way back. When individual Amazon contributors are included, the contributions to Democrats are at least double those to Republicans, and in 2020 it was more like a ratio of 10 to 1. It appears the author is either ignoring or exaggerating half the story in order to push a political agenda. In either case, it makes the rest of his accounting also very suspect.
Anyway, my takeaway from this book is that Amazon might be engaging in some business practices that are very ethically questionable, and I'd like to look into it more. However, I absolutely cannot trust anything this author is telling me because of the extreme and blatant amounts of bias he puts into his writing.
One technique which I really disliked was the extensive use of narrative biography, where the author would attempt to appeal to emotion by getting the reader to "know a character". He would tell a really intimate story about events in a person's life, and how they felt at major points in their careers, and how they reacted when good or bad stuff happened to them, etc. The fact that a lot of these characters have been dead for some time and the author could not possibly have known these details really drives home the fact that he's taking a lot of artistic license in these stories (a.k.a. just making stuff up) to try to manipulate the reader's emotions. Many of these characters didn't even have much if anything to do with Amazon. At one point the author talked about a guy who was killed in a tornado, and I think he was trying to insinuate that it was Amazon's fault somehow because the guy was an Amazon contractor. There were so many of these tangentially related segues that just felt like pure nonsense.
I also didn't like how the author tried really hard to spin his political views into the book. A lot of times when he had some critique of Amazon, he tried to tie it into the Republican party as well. I think he was really trying to make it seem that Amazon and Republicans were conspiring, and was insinuating that Amazon was making back-door deals with Republicans, and trying to get them into power, and using them to pass shady laws. This view of reality seems to have gone through an extremely heavy cognitive filter. After reading the book I looked up Amazon's political donation history and it's been split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans all the way back. When individual Amazon contributors are included, the contributions to Democrats are at least double those to Republicans, and in 2020 it was more like a ratio of 10 to 1. It appears the author is either ignoring or exaggerating half the story in order to push a political agenda. In either case, it makes the rest of his accounting also very suspect.
Anyway, my takeaway from this book is that Amazon might be engaging in some business practices that are very ethically questionable, and I'd like to look into it more. However, I absolutely cannot trust anything this author is telling me because of the extreme and blatant amounts of bias he puts into his writing.
I think the parts about Amazon are the most interesting parts of this book, but it's as much about the decline of manufacturing and retail jobs, the rise of housing costs in tech meccas, and the general plight of the warehouse worker. 3.5 stars.
I already hate amazon and I still found this book pretty ineffective and uncompelling
3.5
We all kind of know Amazon is evil, but actually having all the different ways it hurts people/the economy/housing/etc. laid out is overwhelming and depressing. I think the scope of the book is too broad, but the personal stories are interesting.
We all kind of know Amazon is evil, but actually having all the different ways it hurts people/the economy/housing/etc. laid out is overwhelming and depressing. I think the scope of the book is too broad, but the personal stories are interesting.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Enjoyed it. Paints a picture of the modern American economy, loosely tying various parts of the country with the thread that is Amazon.
informative
medium-paced
You’re on the couch. Comfortably reading some moderately engrossing book. When your sweetie comes through the door in a whirlwind of activity. Shoes go plop onto the floor, jacket comes off with a woosh, keys and phone slide onto the countertop. They saunter over to you for a kiss, quickly twirling back into the kitchen for a snack.
10 to 15 minutes later as your sweetie settles in next to you on the couch, they ask “babe have you seen …..” AirPods, fidget spinner, it doesn’t really matter except that it’s small, and it has been picked up and misplaced in the whirlwind.
“I thought I saw it go up on the counter with your keys and phone” you say
“yeah I looked there but I don’t know where it went”
with the patience of a saint you reply, “ well maybe if you put your things down in the same spot every time you wouldn’t lose them”
This continues for another 15 or 20 seconds as you swat back increasingly loaded comments like some sort of masochistic tennis player.
The tension ratchets up. Is it a conversation you’ve had in your head hundreds of times, and in real life dozens. Their slightly messy nature clashes with your need to organize and control the things around you. It’s a source of conflict but the end result Is that you and your sweetie wind up hunting around your apartment for whatever item they misplaced.
I was going to use this story as an example of externalities. Your sweeties behavior imposed an undeserved penalty upon you, through no fault of your own. I thought it was clever. In this book essentially talks about externalities that Amazon is imposing upon the world.
Except it’s more than that. This is a cute example, contained. Kind of cartoonish really. Like the Springfield power plant polluting the lake and giving them a 3 eyed fish. The total scope of Amazons externalities is probably that we’re all gonna die in about 50 years from climate change while Jeff Bezos escapes on a rocket to Mars. So upon reflection a little bit more than a loaded emotionally frank conversation with your partner. But I like it, and no one really read my reviews anyways so…..
This book argues that Amazon is changing the social fabric of the communities that it has a footprint in. From ripping away land from vulnerable communities in order to build data centers and other buildings. To the circus act that was HQ2 and ultimately ended up in Amazon just going with what they would’ve done anyways.
After reading Amazon and bound this is a very compelling counterbalance to that. Amazon bound can’t help but shake the sort of idolization that comes when you build something large. This book can’t shake the fact that that company is built upon the suffering of many. A sort of Rube Goldberg package delivery device taped together with economic insecurity and OSHA violations.
No I don’t think this is the fault of Amazon, and I’m not really sure we have a structure to make them responsible for what they’ve doing. That’s just not how our world or capitalism seems to work at this time. The government back stops trillions of dollars in private equity, mortgages, student loans, and insurance. If there’s one thing that’s distinctly American it’s figuring out ways to avoid the externalities you’ve created. But it is concerning and I’m glad that this author wrote a book about it.
On the negative, this book needs a good editor. Chapters start in one place and engage in a sort of aerial acrobatics to end up in another. Sentences meander like your friend Vinny talking about the Bruins after a few too many white claws. About half the time it’s OK, but the other half the time it really detracts from the storytelling. I kept thinking “tighten it up“ while reading various parts of the book.
Overall I think it’s a strong book and it gives a good portrait of the ecosystem that a lot of these tech companies existed. You can draw the same parallel to Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. Much of the continued “shareholder value” being extracted as these companies grow is from government subsidies and and the externalities imposed upon the general population.
10 to 15 minutes later as your sweetie settles in next to you on the couch, they ask “babe have you seen …..” AirPods, fidget spinner, it doesn’t really matter except that it’s small, and it has been picked up and misplaced in the whirlwind.
“I thought I saw it go up on the counter with your keys and phone” you say
“yeah I looked there but I don’t know where it went”
with the patience of a saint you reply, “ well maybe if you put your things down in the same spot every time you wouldn’t lose them”
This continues for another 15 or 20 seconds as you swat back increasingly loaded comments like some sort of masochistic tennis player.
The tension ratchets up. Is it a conversation you’ve had in your head hundreds of times, and in real life dozens. Their slightly messy nature clashes with your need to organize and control the things around you. It’s a source of conflict but the end result Is that you and your sweetie wind up hunting around your apartment for whatever item they misplaced.
I was going to use this story as an example of externalities. Your sweeties behavior imposed an undeserved penalty upon you, through no fault of your own. I thought it was clever. In this book essentially talks about externalities that Amazon is imposing upon the world.
Except it’s more than that. This is a cute example, contained. Kind of cartoonish really. Like the Springfield power plant polluting the lake and giving them a 3 eyed fish. The total scope of Amazons externalities is probably that we’re all gonna die in about 50 years from climate change while Jeff Bezos escapes on a rocket to Mars. So upon reflection a little bit more than a loaded emotionally frank conversation with your partner. But I like it, and no one really read my reviews anyways so…..
This book argues that Amazon is changing the social fabric of the communities that it has a footprint in. From ripping away land from vulnerable communities in order to build data centers and other buildings. To the circus act that was HQ2 and ultimately ended up in Amazon just going with what they would’ve done anyways.
After reading Amazon and bound this is a very compelling counterbalance to that. Amazon bound can’t help but shake the sort of idolization that comes when you build something large. This book can’t shake the fact that that company is built upon the suffering of many. A sort of Rube Goldberg package delivery device taped together with economic insecurity and OSHA violations.
No I don’t think this is the fault of Amazon, and I’m not really sure we have a structure to make them responsible for what they’ve doing. That’s just not how our world or capitalism seems to work at this time. The government back stops trillions of dollars in private equity, mortgages, student loans, and insurance. If there’s one thing that’s distinctly American it’s figuring out ways to avoid the externalities you’ve created. But it is concerning and I’m glad that this author wrote a book about it.
On the negative, this book needs a good editor. Chapters start in one place and engage in a sort of aerial acrobatics to end up in another. Sentences meander like your friend Vinny talking about the Bruins after a few too many white claws. About half the time it’s OK, but the other half the time it really detracts from the storytelling. I kept thinking “tighten it up“ while reading various parts of the book.
Overall I think it’s a strong book and it gives a good portrait of the ecosystem that a lot of these tech companies existed. You can draw the same parallel to Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. Much of the continued “shareholder value” being extracted as these companies grow is from government subsidies and and the externalities imposed upon the general population.
Nauseating. Frustrating. Infuriating. All of these feelings rise up as you read the book Fulfilment. The company tramples any needs of local communities, individual workers, the political system in its drive to control as much of the economy as possible.
As MacGillis outlines the various Amazon locations, businesses, deals with politicians, and overall operating strategy, he strongly lays the argument that they break the basic social contract of civilization. Or, as he puts it, “The basic social compact applied to others, but not them.” The give and take of society is upturned by Amazon. Where individuals pay taxes to benefit from shared support (think schools, fire, roadwork, and utilities), Amazon doesn’t pay taxes in most places, gets other monetary incentives form governments, but overwhelms local community infrastructure and environments. They take, but not give, on a massive scale. “The taxpayer would have to make up for what the company did not provide.”
And while the advocates will point to job creation as a balance to that, it doesn’t pan out. The use of part time employees, seasonal employees, and subcontractors dilutes liability and employee costs to the company and hardly enriches the local workers bank accounts. And the low quality of work environment and many minimal wage positions do not offset the hit to the local public funds. In fact, “In 2018, it emerged that one in ten Amazon employees in Ohio was making so little on the job that they were receiving food stamps. Nationwide, the company was one of the top employers of food stamp recipients in at least five states.” In reality, they are not the kind of employer to relieve your area of poverty by providing jobs. On the contrary, they are likely to use up your power, tear up your roads, and not provide much back. Except for cheap, unnecessary junk delivered in numerous cardboard boxes to clutter up households everywhere.
I may be a bit in an echo chamber as I read this book, and I acknowledge that. But my 6 years of boycotting Amazon seems to be confirmed as a good decision after hearing some of these additional stories.
As MacGillis outlines the various Amazon locations, businesses, deals with politicians, and overall operating strategy, he strongly lays the argument that they break the basic social contract of civilization. Or, as he puts it, “The basic social compact applied to others, but not them.” The give and take of society is upturned by Amazon. Where individuals pay taxes to benefit from shared support (think schools, fire, roadwork, and utilities), Amazon doesn’t pay taxes in most places, gets other monetary incentives form governments, but overwhelms local community infrastructure and environments. They take, but not give, on a massive scale. “The taxpayer would have to make up for what the company did not provide.”
And while the advocates will point to job creation as a balance to that, it doesn’t pan out. The use of part time employees, seasonal employees, and subcontractors dilutes liability and employee costs to the company and hardly enriches the local workers bank accounts. And the low quality of work environment and many minimal wage positions do not offset the hit to the local public funds. In fact, “In 2018, it emerged that one in ten Amazon employees in Ohio was making so little on the job that they were receiving food stamps. Nationwide, the company was one of the top employers of food stamp recipients in at least five states.” In reality, they are not the kind of employer to relieve your area of poverty by providing jobs. On the contrary, they are likely to use up your power, tear up your roads, and not provide much back. Except for cheap, unnecessary junk delivered in numerous cardboard boxes to clutter up households everywhere.
I may be a bit in an echo chamber as I read this book, and I acknowledge that. But my 6 years of boycotting Amazon seems to be confirmed as a good decision after hearing some of these additional stories.
Some new information about the behemoth that is amazon, including some testimony before Congress, but I found this book episodic and a little unfocused.
It follows on earlier books showing the growth of the underclass of American workers, so not too much new here.
As a retailer myself, I find the rise of amazon mesmerizing and worrying. But there’s not much I can do to alter its trajectory.
It follows on earlier books showing the growth of the underclass of American workers, so not too much new here.
As a retailer myself, I find the rise of amazon mesmerizing and worrying. But there’s not much I can do to alter its trajectory.
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
This book took a look at the changes to the U.S. over the last several decades, both in terms of jobs and population distribution and what that means for the future. I found the commentary on safety within certain companies distribution centers to be fascinating as someone who works in distribution. I'll be interested to see what the future holds.