CarolannieOct 23
More Amazon horrors: try to not buy through Amazon if you can avoid it
#HumanRights #LaborAtAmazon
"The chickenized reverse centaur is a new circle of labor hell, a genuinely innovative way of making workers' lives worse in order to extract more billions for one of the most profitable companies in history."
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/23/traveling-salesman-solution/
Pluralistic: Checking in on the state of Amazon’s chickenized reverse-centaurs (23 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 23

@carolannie The 10¢ or 50¢ per package they were paying for delivery really showed where I live. I’m 2 miles down a gravel road and if you stick to the 15mph speed limit, it’ll take about 15 minutes (1/4 hour) just to get to my place and back. At 50¢ a package, that’s $2/hour.

Last winter, before I stopped using Amazon, the delivery guy was leaving packages in the snow near our mailbox unit on a main road 2 miles away. Now I know why.

cc @pluralistic

Show threadBen Rosengart
@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Someone in my neighborhood was expressing anger to me at couriers for this kind of behavior, and I was appalled. The real culprits are people you'll never set eyes on; couriers are just ordinary people trying to scrape by.
Oct 24 at 1:20amWeb
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24
@fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk The way I looked at it is this: a job worth doing is worth doing right. If this courier company couldn't properly deliver the packages, they shouldn't be delivering them at all.
Show threadBen RosengartOct 24
@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Do you think people are doing this job because they want to?
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24

@fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Does anyone really WANT to do a job like that?

If someone offered you a job for two dollars an hour, would you take it? Of course not. It is a losing proposition. You could do better on unemployment. You could do better with a tin can and a sign on a street corner.

That's my point. What is the benefit of taking a job with the pay that low? There is no benefit.

Show threadBen RosengartOct 24

@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk The world is complicated. People doing that work have probably found it to be the least worst of a bad set of options.

I urge you to save your scorn for the folks profiteering off it all. And to cancel Prime if you can and you haven't yet.

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24

@fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk I canceled Prime years ago. I have purchased less than 10 things from Amazon in this whole year and that was only after I realize that I could not get it for anywhere near the same price elsewhere.

Don't lecture me.

I have no pity for people who take crappy jobs and then complain about them. There is ALWAYS a choice.

I can only assume that the company that was doing the deliveries last year got wise and quit. Good for them!

Show threadchristian mockOct 24
@mlanger @fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk The courier company's job is not to deliver packages, but to make money.
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24

@cm @fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Yes! Then why the hell would they operate at a loss by deliver for Amazon?

Poor business decision.