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Comment by 0x262d | Hacker News Reader

The important context is that inequality driven by Amazon's low wages for non-programmers and their tax dodging has driven Seattle's homelessness crisis and they've tried hard to crush every political movement that tries to stop this (see link), so now they are trying to salvage public perception of their effects on this so they can more effectively spend money on politics to dodge more taxes and keep wages low. It is a move that has much more impact on PR than the specter of homelessness.

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/amazon-kshama-sawant-seattle-...

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>inequality driven by Amazon's low wages for non-programmers

i think it is absolutely disingenuous to blame it on corporations playing by the rules clearly and explicitly established by the society. It is the society who bears responsibility for the ugly situation that the minimum wage is many times below living wage. The minimum wage must be at least $30-$50, especially in the high cost areas. I don't understand why the people at the local Starbucks who work much harder than me are making on the scale of ten-folds less. The society explicitly and intentionally maintains that situation by maintaining the very low minimum wage. The only reason i can find is that the society seems to want the social darwinism of the 'rat race' and achieves that by maintaining the large gradient between supposed "losers" and "winners" (which i think is almost medievally cruel) which powers the miracle of American economy. Looks like the society is pretty sure that nobody is going to work hard, or at all, if there were a generous safety net, a minimum wage allowing for normal life, etc ...

These corporations are part of the society and they get to bear their share of the blame. Considering the disproportional impact that these corporations have on the legislature, I'd say they should probably should much (if not all) of the blame. Just take your minimum wage example; how much money do you think was spent in lobbying and cozying up to politicians to prevent exactly that, a living minimum wage?

Their tax-avoidance schemes and their lobbying have robbed society of resources that are needed to address and ameliorate the many problems we face.

> I don't understand why the people at the local Starbucks who work much harder than me are making on the scale of ten-folds less. The society explicitly and intentionally maintains that situation by maintaining the very low minimum wage.

Supply and demand. If starbucks baristas were paid $50/hour think about how expensive coffees would be. People would either start making their own coffee at home or buying expensive machines that are still cheaper than $50/hour to operate.

I'm not that paranoid.

You must have missed the recent city council election, then. The parent comment is spot on

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