<story><title>Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48990482</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mdorazio</author><text>&amp;gt; The compensation should reflect the mental and physical stress they put people through.&lt;p&gt;As with all companies paying workers to do a job, the compensation should reflect the confluence of supply and demand in the market.  The fact that Amazon can &lt;i&gt;easily&lt;/i&gt; hire as many workers as it wants at $15&amp;#x2F;hr says that they are paying their employees plenty already.  It bothers me that people are constantly demonizing Amazon for their labor practices rather than demonizing the market conditions that have led to Amazon warehouses being a place &lt;i&gt;people are willing to work&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item><item><author>enlyth</author><text>I agree with the worker in the video, they should be treated as human beings. One of the issues is doing a simple, monotonous task every 8 seconds, 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, without creating anything of value, is going to be dehumanizing and unfulfilling regardless.&lt;p&gt;Robots carrying out this work would probably be for the best for everyone involved, although Amazon should do right by the workers carrying them over this difficult transition period where they&amp;#x27;re still required for part of the menial manual labour tasks. The compensation should reflect the mental and physical stress they put people through.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lallysingh</author><text>&amp;gt;  It bothers me that people are constantly demonizing Amazon for their labor practices rather than demonizing the market conditions that have led to Amazon warehouses being a place people are willing to work.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s about as useful a statement as &amp;quot;Thoughts and prayers.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;To change the labor market you go after the parties you can affect.  Amazon is one.  There are many others on the demand side.  Retaining the workforce would be a much lower % return for the investment.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48990482</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mdorazio</author><text>&amp;gt; The compensation should reflect the mental and physical stress they put people through.&lt;p&gt;As with all companies paying workers to do a job, the compensation should reflect the confluence of supply and demand in the market.  The fact that Amazon can &lt;i&gt;easily&lt;/i&gt; hire as many workers as it wants at $15&amp;#x2F;hr says that they are paying their employees plenty already.  It bothers me that people are constantly demonizing Amazon for their labor practices rather than demonizing the market conditions that have led to Amazon warehouses being a place &lt;i&gt;people are willing to work&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item><item><author>enlyth</author><text>I agree with the worker in the video, they should be treated as human beings. One of the issues is doing a simple, monotonous task every 8 seconds, 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, without creating anything of value, is going to be dehumanizing and unfulfilling regardless.&lt;p&gt;Robots carrying out this work would probably be for the best for everyone involved, although Amazon should do right by the workers carrying them over this difficult transition period where they&amp;#x27;re still required for part of the menial manual labour tasks. The compensation should reflect the mental and physical stress they put people through.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>klodolph</author><text>&amp;gt; As with all companies paying workers to do a job, the compensation should reflect the confluence of supply and demand in the market.&lt;p&gt;The market has no moral compass. If you decide that the market dictates what we should do, then your actions will reflect the morals of the market, i.e., none.&lt;p&gt;Supply and demand is a statement of what &amp;quot;is&amp;quot;, not what &amp;quot;should be&amp;quot;. To some approximation.</text></comment>