The Cantillon Effect and Credit Cards: The $257 Billion Payments Mess
www.thebignewsletter.com
The Federal Reserve might be increasing or lowering interest rates for Wall Street, but it's the credit card cartel that structures interest rates for the rest of us.

As a self-respecting environmentalist, I #boycottAmazon (rationale; ¶6 covers relevant environmental problems with Amazon and thus why boycotting Amazon is a useful individual action).

I just read about Amazon entering the healthcare sector (in the bottom of the linked article), and that employers are subscribing to offer employees health benefits through that. Naturally, I find this despicable. IIUC, if you rightfully boycott Amazon then by extension you lose employment opportunities at employers who limit healthcare benefits to those of Amazon. Correct? Or am I missing something?

  • jadero@slrpnk.net
    1·
    3 months ago

    For anyone curious about how this might play out, take a look at Telus Health. Telus is a Canadian telecom company that has branched out into several health care businesses, from clinics to building and hosting¹ electronic healthcare records. There are currently battles over whether it is legal to force prescription fulfillment through Telus providers.

    That’s right, a telecom company, that most reviled, least trusted sector of the economy, is trying to take over healthcare in a country with a (mostly) single-payer, tax-funded, (mostly) free at the point of delivery, public healthcare system. And they’re doing so successfully.

    Amazon is actually late to the game.

    (1) I don’t know for sure that they are hosting the records, but the fact that the word “Telus” shows up in the url makes it seem like like a reasonable conclusion.

  • 5opn0o30@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    From an environmental perspective, Amazon is much better than most big box stores due to efficiency.

    • activistPnk@slrpnk.netOPM
      1·
      3 months ago

      Did you read ¶6 of the linked page? E.g.

      “Amazon is destroying millions of items of unsold stock every year, products that are often new and unused, ITV News can reveal. (That article covers the UK, but an insider tells me it’s happening in the US too)”

      Amazon overstocks their warehouse and then has to prioritize the space for the most profitable stock. They destroy everything that does not make the cut. That strikes me as very inefficient. I think any perceived efficiency draws from the sort of work environment that causes employees to pee in jars. That’s not really the kind of efficiency that benefits the environment.