Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by fenderbluesjr 1914 days ago
Some people don't think that 'fair treatment' should be determined with the bosses wealth as a factor
2 comments

Why not? The workers have created enormous value, more than any other time in the history of humanity. Why shouldn't we frame this in terms of where that value goes to?
Workers enter into an agreement - compensation for labor. There are plenty of people at Amazon who are now millionaires or very highly paid.
People have rent to pay. The "you agreed to it" argument only works if the person genuinely had other realistic options available to them. Nobody would work for peanuts and pee in bottles if they had another realistic option.
Why would you assume workers don’t have other options? The unemployment rate before Covid was the lowest since the 50’s.

If the Amazon job is so bad then there must be plenty of better options?

Why do you think that? Doesn't it make more sense that if people are accepting a bad job it's because all their options are bad as well?
It's not about his wealth. If Jeff had been independently wealthy before starting Amazon this wouldn't be an issue. The problem is the percentage workers receive of the value they generate. Jeff has gotten rich by pushing that number as low as possible, while also working to kill off businesses that might offer alternative employment to low skill workers.