I rarely order from Amazon but if I lived in the US maybe I would. I have no strong feelings as to their moral integrity, in fact I suspect it is much like that of other businesses both big and small.
I would like to see minimum wage at a higher standard, perhaps indexed to civil service wages or union wages, but can imagine the uproar that would cause.
Most companies only raise their base wages because of unionization, or to ward of unionization. Few do it out of the goodness of their hearts although I am sure there are exceptions in the very small business arena.
Someone mentioned Costco for example
http://www.ufcw.org/2013/10/30/costc...on-difference/.
They do pay higher wages thanks to many of its employees being unionised and that is a good thing overall, but it is up to the Amazon workers to become unionized. Costco pays a decent wage, I believe in order to keep more unionisation at bay but perhaps it is pure altruism.
And how well would consumers take the price increases that would follow? They would be demanding raises themselves which would lead to more price increases and spiraling inflation and at the end of it the same situation with no one any better off and the lowest paid probably considerably worse off. Not to mention those on social insurance who can barely buy food. In Canada the socially disenfranchised are treated very badly by past standards in this country and have about $550 a month to get by on.
No one is forced to work at Amazon, no one is forced to buy from them. I shop locally when the item is available and if the price is not a lot higher. I actually find it more convenient to go to a store and take it home with me than to wait for delivery and worry about safe dropping or missing the delivery and having to go and pick it up at UPS etc. But if the savings for ordering online are substantial I order online, or if it is not available locally I order online.
I am approaching retirement and will hopefully be able to maintain pretty much the same standard of living which is pretty frugal. I would be happy to live a bit more frugally if it meant that all of my fellow citizens had the means to pay for decent accommodation and food with a bit left over for fun. But I am afraid I am not willing to sink into poverty.
Selfish I know. Still it makes it hard for me to bash a company that is trying to remain successful and/or become more successful for paying only a reasonable wage and having only reasonable to good working conditions for their beginning employees
Helen.