We live in a time when we have everything, but we are trapped in a life of nothing

In just over two decades, Amazon has risen to become the world's largest Internet company, the second-largest private employer in the United States, and its "fulfillment centers" for warehousing and transportation have spread around the world, completely reshaping the way people live.

In today's sandwich book, we'd like to share with you New Classic's nonfiction book, "Keeping the Order." Using Amazon as a lens, Alec McGillis captures life in the shadow of a tech oligarchy, showing an America that is geographically and classically divided by capital. Through a panoramic view, the book also shows that the upstream and downstream of the e-commerce industry, from industrial workers to ordinary buyers, are all caught in the slave trap of surveillance capitalism

We live in a time when we have everything, but we are trapped in a life of nothing; We get 30-minute takeout at the click of a button, next-day delivery of digital products, the convenience of seven-day returns for no reason, but lose the dignity of labor, the freedom of choice, the right to public participation, and the connections and human feelings that once existed in the neighborhood.

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618 is coming, and it's not just us who love online shopping, it's Americans.

Americans may not know Mona Lisa's smile, but they will all be familiar with another smile

Amazon logo smile.

The "American version of Taobao", founded less than 30 years ago, has become one of the world's largest online shopping sites.

Its founder, Jeff Bezos, is also known for his love of laughter, but he is better known for his fortune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

How rich is Bezos?

In 2019, Bezos and his wife divorced, and after paying the most expensive divorce settlement in history, a "breakup fee" of $38.3 billion, he was still the richest man on the planet at the time.

Amazon founder: Jeff Bezos

According to statistics, one in two Americans uses Amazon.

From your POTS and pans at home to the latest smart speakers, you can arrive the next day in just one click.

Abundant products, low prices, fast delivery, easy return service, who can not love this kind of online shopping?

But there is a sneaking sense that something is wrong with the business model.

For example, journalist Alec McGillis, who has worked for many years in the old media Washington Post and the New Republic, won the Robin Toner Award and the George Polk Journalism Award two industry awards, and is still active in the front line of American news reporting.

In his decades-long career, there is one thing he has persisted for more than a decade, and that is the investigation and research of Amazon.

He talked to drivers, deliverymen and sorters employed by Amazon, interviewed third-party sellers and manufacturers, and delved into the world of politicians and executives to write a nonfiction book called "Fulfilling Orders."

This is not a business inspiration story, but the reverse story of how one company has grown into a capital behemoth that has elevated the nation, and how this behemoth has gradually eroded the lives of all of us.

It's not just the story of Amazon or America, it's probably the story of our future.

01 Sweatshop

They call themselves a tech company, but they're really a sweatshop.

-- Laura

Warehouse worker Hector's wife

Amazon is the second largest private employer in the United States, but it is also one of the most demanding.

Hundreds of thousands of people work for Amazon.

A significant number of them were once middle-class, with high-paying white-collar jobs. But the economic downturn has brought them from cubicles to workshops.

How much money can you make working at Amazon?

After years of low wages, Amazon proudly announced in 2018 that it would raise wages for its 250,000 US warehouse employees and 100,000 seasonal workers.

The minimum wage for workers was raised to $15 an hour.

If you compare that to the federal minimum wage, that's a decent amount, twice as much.

But in fact, as early as a decade ago, General Motors workers were making $27 an hour.

Reporter McGillis also found that even the $15 figure does not apply to many workers.

You first have to meet the high intensity conditions in warehouses and factories.

If you're a forklift driver unloading trucks in an Amazon warehouse, you have to --

Working a 10-hour shift;

Unload a truck in 15 to 20 minutes;

There was only a 20-minute break;

The 20-minute break includes your bathroom break;

For 10 hours, he was monitored by supervisors, surveillance cameras, wristbands on his hands.

If you're a night porter in an Amazon warehouse, you have to --

Four all-nighters a week;

From 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.;

Standing in front of a conveyor belt for 12 hours (not a single chair in the entire warehouse);

Moving hundreds of loads per hour, keep the side with the bar code facing up;

Some cargo may weigh up to 22 kilograms;

For each shift, it's 19 kilometers.

If you do all of the above, congratulations on your full salary.

If you fail to do so, you will be docked or even fired.

Too harsh a condition? Better keep your job, there may not be such a good job in the future

Amazon has already deployed 200,000 robots around the world to pick and move goods.

In 2018, during the busiest holiday season, Amazon hired 20,000 fewer people in its warehouses than in previous years.

In response to the public's concerns, the head of Amazon responded with ease: Don't worry, if the robot takes your job, you can also become a robot repairman.

But will we need that many repairmen in the future? How many people can become maintenance engineers?

A handling robot inside an Amazon factory

02 Empire of Power

These companies have too much power, and that power must be reined in and subject to proper regulation and enforcement. Our economy and democracy are under threat.

- House Subcommittee Democratic Antitrust Report

You could also lose your life inside an Amazon factory.

And your life may not be worth anything.

In 2017, a 59-year-old worker in an Amazon warehouse was crushed to death by a forklift in overhead maintenance.

It wasn't discovered until two hours later.

After the accident, local Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector John Stallone stepped in to investigate and decided to subpoena Amazon's relevant officials.

He then accused Amazon of four security violations at its warehouses, issuing a $28,000 fine.

Soon the head of the authority tipped off Amazon and approached John: "We have to tamper with your subpoena to Amazon."

Governor Eric Holcomb also weighed in, suggesting he would influence future partnerships between the state and Amazon.

A year after the worker's death, the state and Amazon finally reached an agreement that omitted fines and citations. The only price Amazon paid was a $1,000 campaign contribution to Governor Holcomb.

After developing into a giant company, Amazon's tentacles are not only in the economic market, but also into the political field.

Since 2016, Bezos has spent more time in Washington, DC.

He bought property and hosted parties in the neighborhood with the Obamas and Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump.

He bought the Washington Post, one of the most politically influential newspapers in the United States, and once exposed the "Watergate scandal" that brought down Nixon - now the newspaper belongs to Bezos, and will greatly enhance his image in Washington.

A satirical cartoon showing Bezos's influence in Washington

But even more important is Amazon's lobbying power in Washington.

According to McGillis, Amazon increased its spending on political lobbying fivefold from 2012 to 2017.

Until 2018, Amazon had the largest lobbying office in Washington of any tech company.

These lobbyists will clear policy hurdles for Amazon

They lobbied the postal Service to keep giving Amazon discounted shipping rates;

They lobbied for government purchase orders for all federal agencies;

They lobbied against regulations on drones in order to use them to deliver packages;

They lobbied for excise taxes so that third-party sellers, who make up half the retail business, do not pay taxes;

They lobbied against all antitrust investigations against Amazon.

Amazon's financial power not only influences decision-making in Washington, DC, but in cities and towns.

After winning a $600 million cloud contract from the CIA in 2013, Amazon built a 500,000-square-foot data center near the town of Haymarket.

Amazon had one more requirement: a power line.

The power project, which will be funded by the government for $65 million, will run through the homes of thousands of residents and the Crescent Protected area to protect the local environment, water supply and character.

"This is not a fight about power lines and data centers," said one resident at the protest. "The real reason is that we as a community are subsidizing a company like Amazon."

"Who doesn't love Amazon? Everyone loves Amazon until it destroys your community."

Amazon's single cloud data center uses enough power to power 5,000 homes

03 Our future

We are neighbors, workers, producers, taxpayers and citizens, and "one-click orders" cannot meet our needs and aspirations.

-- Mike Tucker

Head of the Association of Independent Office Products and Furniture Dealers

After the rise of Amazon, brick-and-mortar retail in the United States began to struggle, with nearly 7,000 stores closing in 2017 alone, more than double the previous year.

Along with the real economy, there are thousands of jobs that support small towns

Macy's alone has laid off more than 50,000 employees since 2008.

Of course, Amazon itself is creating jobs - if you can tolerate harsh working conditions.

Mike Tucker, director of the Independent Office Supplies Association, also pointed out that for every job Amazon creates, two brick-and-mortar retailer employees lose their jobs.

Brick-and-mortar retailers that went bankrupt between 2015 and 2018

It's not just the shops and the jobs that are lost, it's the sense of connection.

In early 2018, the 120-year-old Bongton Department store declared bankruptcy. The 262 stores gradually closed, but many employees stayed until the last minute.

Referring to the century-old store and the disappearing physical retail industry, the former chairman of Bonton said: "The great thing about retail is face-to-face communication. Interactions with customers, face-to-face interactions with managers, face-to-face interactions with colleagues."

"Some people have been in our department stores for 50 years. Bunton is like a community."

This may be the "nearby disappearance" proposed by Professor Xiang Biao of Oxford University.

We no longer care about the life of the nearby 500 meters, but the desire for immediate gratification: updated hot spots, more direct feedback, faster delivery speed.

Amazon's "Fulfillment Centre" for warehousing and shipping is like a metaphor for our times: fulfillment means both "fulfillment" and "fulfillment."

Xiang Biao put forward: A trend in the development of modern society is to "eliminate the neighborhood."

Soon, fresh food platforms replaced wet markets, online shopping replaced shopping, and online chatting replaced meeting.

Thirteen Invitations: Sociologist Xiang Biao Talks about "Nearby"

McGillis also writes in his book:

Not many people are crying over the loss of parking lots and food courts. But it's not just malls and plazas that have disappeared

The fewer opportunities one has to buy goods face to face in one's own city, the fewer opportunities one has to meet one's needs in a physical space.

Online shopping has brought us countless products and the convenience of "one-click order", but it will also cause a series of chain reactions: the real economy continues to decline, and traditional communities have been devastated; Squeezed by monopolies, small and medium-sized retailers are struggling; Workers are trapped in a high-pressure efficiency system and lose their dignity as workers.

The deaths of workers, the cries of small businesses, the cries of protesters, the inquiries of the United States Congress, and the warning of the future are all encapsulated in Alec McGillis's "Keeping a Bill."