The idea that fickle consumers are to blame for unethical and often unlawful exploitation of employees is propaganda with only the thinnest veneer of economics painted on it.
I suppose I understand why the very rich and business interests make arguments like this, but usually it's just ordinary people. Who benefits? It's about time we held companies like Amazon accountable for the way they harm and exploit their employees instead of helping shift the blame to their customers.
I'm not convinced Amazon would suffer significantly if they raised their prices by 10% on average. No other seller can compete with them on convenience, and people are willing to pay for that.
I didn't say that consumers would choose to pay extra for decent employee treatment. I said that Amazon could just do it and get away with it. Mind you, I'm also not convinced that the cost of treating your employees like human beings is as high as 10%.
Also, for fuck's sake stop making excuses for abusive employers. Why would you do that?
Satyajit Ray was a master storyteller. In the same league as Kurusova or Miyazaki.
His stories seemed simple and yet had some unknown power that gripped your heart. I remembering crying the first time I saw the Pather Panchali trilogy as a kid. I never understood why.
Some little know facts about Ray :
1. His first movie Pather Panchali (Song of the Road) faced financial issues. A good friend of Ray convinced the Communist Chief Minister of his state to provide some funding. Upon learning the name of the movie the Minister (who was art blind) asked the Public Works Department (Road construction department) to finance it. (because there is a Road in the name)
2. The Chief minister was furious to see the ending. He demanded the ending should be changed and they must show that the family finally gets benefited from a communist government scheme where they get free house and everything. Ray however flat out refused.
3. Satyajit ray penned down Feluda who is Indian Sherlock Holmes told from the perspective of his teenage sidekick. Feluda movies were utterly brilliant.
4. Satyajit Ray also wrote a number of science fiction stories. He would easily feature among the top 5 Sci-Fi writers from India any day.
5. Though India has such a vibrant movie industry called Bollywood, Satyajit Ray never became mainstream. A lot of his contemporaries hated him for unknown reasons and one even called his movies "poverty porn".
6. Ray introduced some great actors to the world. From Sharmila Tagore to
Western movie makes very often make poverty porn movies about India, the best example being Slumdog Millionaire. Here is a wonderful comparison of Boyle and Ray.
> Comey is a symptom of the kind of cowardly, authority-respecting society we've become.
I am an Indian citizen living in USA and I think American society must take the blame here and not the politicians. The way society thinks and votes I think only a total narcissist moron can succeed in US administration.
The fastest way to rise to top (as we saw in case of Obama and Trump) is to find some target group and blame that group for the failure of other larger society. The larger society is far too quick to raise pitchforks and burn the other group at stake.
It is depressing to see that large % of Americans have seen inside of jail. A lot of people labeled as "suspected terrorist" or "sex offenders" are no where close to the common sense definition of those words. But once you have that label rest of the society treats you like utter shit. You cant find a job, state can put any arbitrary restrictions on all your freedoms etc.
Unless US society learns to be compassionate and stand up for the rights of even those "deplorable" people purely as matter of principle I don't think there is any scope for optimism.
I remember Ron Paul's words "Once you give up some liberty, you are not going to get it back, ever!"
I'm always requesting constructive criticism like this from foreign-born coworkers, hoping for such valuable outside perspective, but they seldom provide it, no doubt hoping to avoid being offensive.
> The fastest way to rise to top (as we saw in case of Obama and Trump) is to find some target group and blame that group for the failure of other larger society. The larger society is far too quick to raise pitchforks and burn the other group at stake.
Yes, we are very much a blame society. It is the Republicans fault. It is the Democrats fault. It is my neighbor's fault. It is my parents' fault. Blame blame.
