Unmaking Amazon
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What goes up, must come down.
It’s no secret that the world’s 10 wealthiest men doubled their wealth during the pandemic. A sum equivalent to the GDP of several small countries combined is difficult to hide, especially in the information age.
What isn’t as well known is that we are currently witnessing perhaps the largest single transfer of wealth in the history of the world. The ultra wealthy- the top 1% of the 1%- already had more money than we could possibly have imagined before Covid19.
In 2022, the wealth gap is wider than ever. The world’s wealthiest got much richer during the uncertainty of a global pandemic. The world’s poor are about to get a whole lot poorer.
Not that the working and middle classes are poised to fare much better in the coming years. With inflation, rising prices, the cost of gasoline and shelter all skyrocketing, the bite taken out of the average family budget is already reaching truly punishing levels with no signs of the “transitory” duress we were promised when these upticks began.
Small and mid-sized businesses haven’t fared as well during the pandemic as their larger corporate cousins, either. When the dust settles on covid, and all the measures we took to stop the spread of it- which admittedly might have been overly ambitious- the dystopian nightmare into which small business owners have been plunged will be fully apparent in the “For Sale” and “Commercial Space for Rent” we’ll be seeing everywhere.
Those retail store owners, restauranteurs, and entrepreneurs who have managed to hold on this long are now being forced to contend with supply line issues, staffing shortages and a sharply rising cost of doing business.
Through it all, has sailed Amazon.
Amazon may have been best positioned- from the beginning- to take advantage of new consumer buying habits, online shopping trends, even the grocery delivery business during all the many ongoing ravages of Covid19. It isn’t Amazon’s fault- not exactly- though there are plenty of questionable business practices for which Amazon execs should answer.
Amazon is the latest iteration of a retail trend which has been marching along since the Agricultural Revolution, probably before. Trade is an ancient human vocation…
