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Antiwork

Does Mr. Smith really need his package delivered in the next 24 hours?

I've been thinking of how Amazon operates and where things start to go south for the average fulfillment center / logistics worker. We might say that what Amazon does as a whole is positive for society: quick, online shopping and the delivery of the purchased items to your house in less than a week. Sometimes, in less than 24 hours. Since Amazon is an international organization, they need a lot of people sorting, packing, managing inventory, loading trucks, etc. This needs to be done constantly in order to ensure the promised delivery time. The truck driver needs to do his part as well and be quick once the items are loaded. Clearly, if someone is paying for something and they want it delivered within 48 hours, then that person should get it. But my question is, why? Why do we need to have things as soon as possible. Why even…


I've been thinking of how Amazon operates and where things start to go south for the average fulfillment center / logistics worker. We might say that what Amazon does as a whole is positive for society: quick, online shopping and the delivery of the purchased items to your house in less than a week. Sometimes, in less than 24 hours. Since Amazon is an international organization, they need a lot of people sorting, packing, managing inventory, loading trucks, etc. This needs to be done constantly in order to ensure the promised delivery time. The truck driver needs to do his part as well and be quick once the items are loaded. Clearly, if someone is paying for something and they want it delivered within 48 hours, then that person should get it. But my question is, why? Why do we need to have things as soon as possible. Why even create a system like this, that while it may have its benefits, it creates an immensely stressful and exhausting job for its workers. I bet most purchases made through Amazon aren't urgent, otherwise people would just buy them at a local store. We are accostumed to everything being fast-paced, new and trendy. Fast fashion, fast deivery times. We want our ads to load fast even though they take 6-7 seconds. We want have been taught to always consume, as fast as possible and as much as possible. Anyway, there's probably mistakes here. English is not my main language.

The exploited Amazon worker is a victim of a society obssesed with immediate response. If Mr Smith and everyone else didn't need 24-48 hour delivery time, then the tasks at Amazon warehouses wouldn't be as fast-paced and time-centric.

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