Amazon has long since been run by crooks and staffed by desperate workers, both blue and white collar. Even as they do stuff like this, no one else can compete and authors eventually give up and go there. Worse, almost every public company eventually ends up here, short term paperclip maximizing and screwing everyone.
Feels like our current market/economic system has failed badly.
I disagree. I believe capitalism is actually about maximizing the return on capital.
Sometimes this takes the form of MBA paperclip optimization, but it can also take the form of simply making something lots of people want. Hollywood is an example of the latter - they don't seem that concerned with minimizing costs, because they believe that if they make a good movie that resonates with audiences, they'll still get a 10x return on investment. :)
Ha! Work in the film industry buddy, that minimizing of expense mentality is in full bloom. The film industry is a propaganda engine, of course it appears to not care about expenses - that's how it attracts the rubes (like I was) to enslave with illegal work "best practices".
I constantly get ads on Youtube making illegal earning statements for some randos get rich online scheme, that I report, and am then served again a week later. So they are knowingly making money on illegal predatory ads. Just saying.
Feels like our current market/economic system has failed badly.