
'Being homeless is better than working for Amazon' - winstonsmith
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/28/being-homeless-is-better-than-working-for-amazon
======
bluedino
It's interesting to see how certain jobs are thought of over the years.

Working in an Amazon warehouse is a pretty average blue-collar job these days.
You're a slave to the time clock, you're on your feet all day, walking miles
and miles, but other than that there's no real extremes. In every job you're
expected to get a # of parts out per hours or ship so many package.

But the good thing about an Amazon warehouse, is you're not standing next to a
heat-treating oven, sweating your bag off. You're not mixing dangerous
chemicals that could poison you and requires you to wear an uncomfortable
ventilation system or suit.

There are no fiberglass matting slivers to get in your arms or eyes. There are
no 20 ton presses that will crush you in the blink of an eye. You're not
outside in the freezing cold. You're not standing around in a meat freezer
hacking away at a side of beef with a giant knife.

Is it the greatest job in the world? No, but there are a limited supply of
those and competition for them is very high. Is it worst job? Far from it. And
30 years ago it would have been considered pretty cushy.

~~~
zzzeek
30 years ago, factory jobs were on a fixed workweek with known job securities
and benefits (and were often unionized too). The important part of this
article is that it points out that all of these floor workers are temps, where
each day they could be out of getting paid on a day-to-day basis: "if there
was not any work, they would send us home early without pay. "

~~~
brador
Those were skilled factory jobs. For low level factory jobs (like moving
boxes) you had to wait in line each morning and the foreman would pick names.
If you got work that day, great, if not, go wait in the next line or come back
tomorrow.

Let's not glorify either side.

~~~
zzzeek
well then you are also responding to what I'm responding to; the comparison of
the highly dangerous skilled factory job to the low level warehouse job is not
an apt one. One is a career and the other is not.

------
shaftoe
They sound like a nut with a grievance.

The story is inconsistent. Begging and "writing" is morally superior to being
"working poor?" And then they cannot find any other job with their degrees
because of their grievance with Amazon? And then they like being homeless
because they used to work at a camping store?

They cannot accept charity from family but they beg in front of a Whole Foods?

If this is the poster child for the anti-Amazon movement, Amazon has nothing
to worry about.

~~~
Gigablah
"It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was living a fantasy, thinking
that a student of the humanities would be tolerated, and paid decently, in the
corporate world of the modern university"

"I’ve worked for places to live in Oregon, mostly cooking and feeding
families. It was a kind of Maoist re-education program– a little too much like
slavery for my comfort."

The author's sense of self-entitlement is nauseating.

Seriously, slavery? You'd think a humanities student would have at least some
basic perspective of the world.

------
ig1
While there's certainly an issue around working conditions at Amazon and more
broadly with the US social safety net this story doesn't feel "real".

A quick google reveals the authors bio "I taught ESL in South Korea for more
than two years, traveled Asia, been around the Caribbean and zig-zagged the
U.S. I worked at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Brauhau."
\- she also has a degree in Journalism with a focus on news editorial

It seems hard to believe someone with that background would be unable to
figure out things like food stamps.

------
Maro
1\. She went to school to get a not very competitive degree (journalism?) and
unfortunately took out loans to pay for it. It seems she couldn't pay it back,
because later she says "my credit is wrecked".

2\. It turns out she and her combination of a degree is useless, because she
ended up working at Amazon packing boxes.

3\. She hated her job, so she ended up quiting. Good!

4\. I respect that even after it's not her problem, she stands up against poor
working conditions at Amazon by writing articles.

5\. It's unclear why she can't find a job after Amazon, or why she is
homeless. She writes: "I’ve applied for many jobs, and any prospective
employer that runs a Google search of my name can see my discontent with my
last employer." But that's bogus, I think many employers outside the tech
sector will not Google you.

6\. The ending of the article really falls apart for me. She says "I learned
to live without money and without a home ... I know how to live outside. I
refuse to live within oppressive walls." But then she says "I need cash and an
opportunity. Anything!", and later "I became a capitalist."

The takeaway of the article for me is that there are probably issues around
Amazon's working conditions and that the writer of this article has made some
bad decisions that she needs to work out and stop blaming Amazon and whoever
else.

~~~
ahomescu1
> It seems she couldn't pay it back, because later she says "my credit is
> wrecked".

Earlier in the article she says "I cashed in on my excellent credit, took out
cards, and used them to pay rent and buy food because it would be six months
before I could receive my first unemployment compensation check."

------
kaybe
I can't help it, as a European I'm always shocked how these things can happen
in a rich country like the US. Is it inability to navigate the system (a
problem by itself) or is the US social system really that non-existant? I know
at least some of the arguments, it just never fails to shock me. (Issues with
the behaviour of the writer aside.)

~~~
danieldk
Between Harz IV and European retailers, the difference is unfortunately not
that large in some parts of Europe:

[http://www.thelocal.de/20140427/saab-fighter-jet-deal-up-
in-...](http://www.thelocal.de/20140427/saab-fighter-jet-deal-up-in-air-ahead-
of-swiss-vote) [http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/us-amazon-
germany-...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/us-amazon-germany-
idUSBREA3G08S20140417)

------
yllus
"I became a capitalist. I flew a sign to escape harrowing conditions in Oregon
and I arrived in Seattle with nothing. When I landed I saw green. I created
carefully crafted signs with cardboard and a Sharpie and, just like that, I
was making money again."

That's a really curious statement. I suppose that she is succeeding in a form
of marketing, and the value she's producing is an emotional salve on those
that are wealthier than her and wish to help out or assuage their own guilt?

------
ape4
I'm sure Amazon is already thinking about how to replace "pickers" with
robots.

~~~
isu89
Yes this has been building up for years, although their PR states that it
won't affect the flesh-and-bone employee numbers:
[http://www.geekwire.com/2014/amazon-will-10000-robots-
wareho...](http://www.geekwire.com/2014/amazon-will-10000-robots-warehouses-
years-end-10-fold-bezos-says/)

------
tsotha
Even better would be finding a different job.

------
blhack
If she is making more money being homeless than she was when she was working
at Amazon, why hasn't she moved back into an apartment?

>I have been published in a scholarly journal and a social-justice oriented
website.

Ah.

>My wallet does not contain a single bill. I need glasses. I need winter
clothes. I need cash and an opportunity. Anything!

Anything except making $13 an hour taking things off of shelves? I
mean...c'mon. Glasses, winter clothes etc. aren't _that_ expensive. Check out
coastal.com, go to goodwill.

Maybe that just doesn't make as good of a story for "social justice oriented
websites"

