I am cutting ties to Amazon and Twitter / X
13 March 2025, revised 24 March 2025
I am ending my use of Amazon.com and Twitter / X as much as possible, in keeping with my decision to limit spending at big businesses. Many of these businesses are abusing their wealth and power to:
Increase wealth inequality.
Rig the system so it is harder for the middle and working classes to get ahead but easier for the wealthy to accumulate even more wealth.
Contribute to the Trump / Musk dictatorship.
Damage our democracy in other ways.
My business posted books linked to Amazon and earned about $4K per year. We are canceling these links to Amazon and replacing them with free links to the publishers. Since we previously sold book postings to publishers for about $3K per year, our total loss will be about $7K per year. We hope to establish stronger relationships with the publishers and get them to advertise more with us, but in any event, we do not want to be associated with Jeff Bezos, its owner, in any way:
Amazon has always been difficult for third parties:
Despite the benefits, many brands feel trapped by Amazon's policies and fees. Amazon's cut can be anywhere from 15% to 45% of every sale, drastically reducing profit margins. Moreover, sellers have little to no control over branding, customer relationships, or marketing. Source.
I believe we were cheated in the past by Amazon, and know they were very difficult to deal with. As a result, we decreased our collaborations with them many years ago. Now we are eliminating them.
As owner of the Washington Post, Bezos has taken many actions to reduce its independence and curry favor with the Trump administration:
Disallowing endorsements, advertising and cartoons that he doesn’t like or thinks will get Trump upset at him.
The cowardice of Bezos, despite his immense wealth, has caused many prominent journalists to resign from the Washington Post. We should similarly cut our ties with him and his companies.
Regarding Twitter / X, we had a large social media presence there but we are no longer using this social media because Elon Musk, its owner:
Has transformed X into a vehicle to propagate hate.
Is working with Trump to destroy the U.S. government and convert it from a strong democracy to a country ruled by and for billionaires.
We cannot change everything in our lives - we have to pick and choose. But I believe we should be constantly thinking about what we can do to fight evil or at least not support it so much, even if it entails some sacrifice. This is not just the moral thing to do but practical advice. If evil prevails, we will be making more profound sacrifices.
The index to my prior essays (mostly post 5 November 2024) is here.
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Why should we pay taxes if all our programs are being cut?