Quote:
Originally Posted by CommonReader
"improving the availability of books"....
 ... don't I just love it when multi-billionaires, whose companies have stashed away tens of billions of EUR/USD in tax havens, try to present themselves as fighting for the common man against those dastardly elitists.
The whole parasitical business model of Amazon & Co. is based on the creation of a tiny group of obscenely rich people supported by a huge group of working poor (warehouse workers, delivery truck drivers etc.).
The traditional middle classes - those people who are supposed to be happy about those cheap books - are then kindly requested to subsidize essential services for the working poor with their taxes.
Currently we are being fed the same lie with "uber". Supposedly little, plucky underdog "uber" is fighting against the nasty establishment of the taxi companies. Who is behind "uber"? Little underdogs like Google, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, who claim that their shady outfit is worth 17 billion USD. So in the future, instead of getting a decent, regulated taxi, you're supposed to make do with some rust bucket and a driver with a record. But, hey, while the investors made a killing with their IPO, you've saved 50 Cents on the ride. Aren't you feeling lucky?
We can thank traditional publishers not only for many great works of literature - because they commissioned those books or cajoled authored into writing them - but also for many books as beautiful physical objects. Perhaps Amazon should prove equally useful before they can claim that publishers are superfluous.
Finally, as to the availability of books. My public library has a very substantial collection of ebooks, most of them current titles by major publishers. I can put ten books on the waiting list and I can borrow up to 99 books at a time. This service costs me 10 EUR/yr. No one requires Amazon to "add value" to such existing services. |
This post has it all. Railing against a retailer for being just a way for billionaires to make money, praise for traditional publishers (that are presumably making money for a more agreeable set of billionaires), the argument that there are enough books anyway, and then a totally unrelated dig against Uber.
All that, and spiced up with just a few subtle hints of conspiracy make this a post with a truly delightful bouquet.