Don’t forget the eleventeenth of July! It’s Amazon’s Prime Day! Or is it Prime Week now?

As if the affluent world isn’t already awash in consumer goods, along come Amazon’s Prime Day and Prime Week to add to the flotsam that’s ending up in oceans and landfills. So have a thought, before you press that convenient One-Click buy button, for the poor souls who work overtime for a pittance to fulfil your orders for the amazing bargains you simply cannot do without.

Oh, and don’t forget to tip the happy delivery boy (whose job has probably been outsourced to another company) a fraction of what you save by buying your mail order from Amazon. What’s wrong with these genius tech companies and the service they provide? Facebook is another example: such a brilliant service for keeping in touch with far-flung friends and relatives around the world. And yet, I’ve felt compelled to come off it.

I was a strong supporter of the Amazon book store throughout the 1990’s and eagerly bought the first generation Kindle as soon as it appeared. What a great way to save the world’s trees, I thought. And yet it has brought about the death of thousands of booksellers world wide and is growing to be a monopoly in the self-publishing world. Rather than raising publishing standards and saving the world’s trees, it’s putting myriad people out of jobs and concentrating immense economic power in the hands of a company that can even force a wealthy city’s council to lower taxes meant to help the poor.

These two companies clearly contravene two of the seven deadly sins enunciated by Gandhi.

Knowledge without character and
Commerce without morality.

Big Tech clearly needs to be reined in by governments. But who’s to do it when another one of the seven deadly sins in contravened by
Politics without Principle.

If there ever was a time for people to speak up, and to vote with your feet or your wallets, it is now.