In the face of the Internet world that has everything, why do people have nothing?

Some time ago, a university teacher experience delivery article in the network screen, although the content of the article is quite controversial, but it did succeed in triggering people's scrutiny of the delivery platform.

The scrutiny of Internet platforms is not a new topic, but an old topic on a global scale. While technology brings great convenience to human beings, it also triggers many dark sides. "The defining rule of economic development in the high-tech age will be summed up as follows: Winner takes all, and the rich get richer," wrote American author Alec McGillis in his book, "Keeping the Order: Everything and Nothing."

For those who run around under the algorithm system and always survive on the subsistence line, "winner takes all, the rich get richer" is indeed an insurmountable reality, and it is also a curse that cuts off the possibility of life.

Alec McGillis is a well-known American writer who has worked for a number of media outlets. He has spent more than a decade tracking the global Internet giant Amazon, exploring the collusion between technology and capital. In his view, understanding Amazon can identify many social problems in the United States: the rise of Amazon is accompanied by the tearing of American society, and the more accelerated the technology, the more the society will fall like dominoes; People seem to live in a time when they have everything, but they are trapped in a life of nothing; People can enjoy convenience such as food delivery and online shopping, but lose the dignity of work, freedom of choice and the right to public participation; The real economy continues to decline, traditional communities wither, and small and medium-sized retailers struggle... In the history of Internet companies, Amazon cannot be bypassed. In just over two decades, it 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, reshaping the way people live. Its rising road and operating model have become industry textbooks.

But at the same time, American society's scrutiny of Amazon has never stopped. In the shadow of the technological oligarchy, capital is tearing America apart along two dimensions: geography and class.

Of course, the valuable point of McGillis is that he did not just stay at the "experience" level, but deeply investigated the upstream and downstream of the entire industry, different enterprises and different types of work, avoiding the single direction of the conclusion, but also avoiding the practice of finding evidence after the conclusion. In his view, just blaming the problem on a single enterprise, in fact, will not help to improve and solve the problem. He acknowledges Amazon's brilliance as a business, but also points out Amazon's flaws, and more importantly, he does not believe that Amazon or even the Internet company is the fundamental problem that caused all this.

After the intervention of capital, the Internet has a greater voice than local governments

Since the birth of the Internet, freedom has been regarded as the core of the spirit of the Internet. However, the "convergence of capital and technology" that human beings have always faced since entering modern industrial society has also occurred in the Internet era. When capital intervenes, the Internet ecology changes.

Geographically speaking, people's emphasis on the freedom of the Internet in the past was often inseparable from the "freedom to choose where to live and work", believing that the space span of the Internet makes people have a broader space, and they can abandon cubicles and office parks. This is true for individuals, but it is also true for businesses.

Fulfilling the Order: Having Everything and Having Nothing.

But instead, McGillis writes in "Fulfilling the Bill," "Entrepreneurs in the tech industry are quickly discovering that location is more important than ever. The right location helps companies cluster with similar businesses, making it easier to attract employees-not only by poaching from companies across the street, but also by having a reputation as an industry hub that attracts new talent. When you lose your current job, it makes sense to go to a place where you can get another decent job nearby. As a result, people are willing to work in industry centers, which in turn attracts more employers. Agglomeration is not only a matter of human resources, it is also important to innovate the essence of this technology. In a sense, it's always true: History is the story of the right cities and the right people coming together to move the world forward."

This agglomeration has certainly provided convenience for companies and job seekers, and has become the capital of local governments to show off, but it has also intensified the class division, and the cost of living has been greatly increased even at the higher levels of the class.

The paper points to Seattle as an example of this result: the city has added 220,000 jobs in the decade since 2008, and more than 20 Fortune 500 companies have decided to set up engineering or R&D operations there, including Facebook, Google and Apple. Per capita income in the Seattle metro area has grown to nearly $75,000 in 2018, about 25 percent higher than cities like Milwaukee, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, which were at the same level a few decades ago.