March 9, 2021

EP. 95 — How Amazon Reshaped America with Alec MacGillis

Journalist and author of “Fulfillment”, Alec MacGillis, joins Adam this week to discuss how Amazon’s unprecedented and wide-spread growth has reshaped our economy and society. They cover the economic changes that created a vacuum for Amazon to fill; how economic concentration hurts both “winners” and losers; the lack of community and dignity Amazon jobs create, and why Alec is still hopeful for change. Check out Alec MacGillis’ book  FULFILLMENT: Winning & Losing in One-Click America wherever you get your books.

Transcript

Adam: [00:00:22] Hello, everyone, welcome to Factually!, I’m Adam Conover, and let’s talk about a company that I think you’re familiar with. You might order from it, you might order from it every day. You might order from it even though you don’t want to, but you feel like you have no choice. And even if you do avoid it as best you can, I would bet that you end up using this company’s services without even realizing it. Of course, I am talking about Amazon, but I think you might not realize just how huge of a footprint Amazon actually has in America today. Let’s break it down a little bit. What started as a gleam in the eye of a young Bezos who had a simple dream to bend the book publishing industry to his will, has grown into a corporate megastructure that touches every part of American society. Now, you might say, hey, Adam, hold on a second. You’re exaggerating why Amazon hasn’t even hit eight percent of all retail purchases yet. And t

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