Is Warehouse Feudalism the New Norm in the American Economy?
By: Alex Lago
Tags: Politics, Jobs, Money, Work, Economics

Warehouse employment is expanding during the winter Holiday season. The United States added 146,700 new warehouse jobs from April to October as companies such as Amazon and Walmart aim to take advantage of the new online era of retail shopping.

This could be seen as a move in the right direction, but the quality of these jobs must also be considered. Workers typically report working 12-hour shifts in dangerous conditions that don't respect the wellbeing of the workers. One worker referred to the working centers as “a COVID box”. Many others report being afraid of their health while working as coworkers and managers fail to follow mask requirements and the nature of the work makes social distancing especially difficult.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 1.268 million people employed in the warehouse industry in October of 2020. Constantly growing, this population of warehouse workers is replacing the traditional retail worker. With companies like Macy’s, J.C. Penney, and Nordstrom closing stores and possibly going out of business in the near future, it is easy to understand the gains in warehouse employment.

Many experts such as Juan Arias, a senior consultant at real estate data firm CoStar Group, tout the warehouse industry as “the backbone of our economy.” Juan expresses his concern for workers’ safety and hopes that nothing happens to them for the sake of our economy. People like this are missing the point though.

If our economy survives solely on overworked and Covid exposed employees who work ridiculous 12-hour shifts just so we can get a new shirt or jeans, is that really a sector we want to grow? Sure jobs are coming back, but if they are being replaced at the expense of jobs in other sectors that offer better lives for people, it may not be a good thing.

Right now we have to decide if advancement in humanity means people getting goods shipped to their doors at a low-cost at the expense of warehouse workers, or if we would like to focus our productive powers elsewhere. Unimportant work so that members of the economy can mindlessly consume may not be a good direction for humanity.

Warehouse work also has other issues other than it’s safety concerns and waste of productive capacities. It creates a situation where the American taxpayer has to subsidize them.

According to a study from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, Walmart and Amazon are among the top employers of beneficiaries of federal aid programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. Amazon is also guilty of having many of its workers on government benefits and in Arizona, nearly one in three of its workers are on food stamps.

You may take this information with skepticism — and that is only natural. A common assumption may be “these people are lazy, most of them work part-time,” but about 70% of the federal aid beneficiaries in the GAO study worked full time.

So how is it possible that full-time workers who are often suggested to the most grueling workweeks in the developed world are unable to pay for basic necessities?

While retail companies such as Amazon and Walmart employ a lot of people, there is no doubt that they cause a lot of harm to the economy. Amazon and Walmart are some of the nation’s largest low-wage companies and cause taxpayers to contribute to their employees maintaining a basic standard of living.

With these large companies are able to ignore common safety practices and still have taxpayers subsidize them, it is clear that they are not the only source of the problem. The main issue is that they are allowed to do this by our government. Despite poverty on the increase and a decreasing middle class, our government continues to concede and provide welfare to companies that don't need it.

Obviously, there is little most of us can do to change this other than be aware of these practices and encourage others to protect themselves. This industry and its horrid standards will most likely grow. But there are a few things we can do to change this trajectory.

We can realize that this industry is growing because of our dedication to materialism and luxuries. We can also realize that we don't need many of these things that Amazon can give us and we can choose minimalism.

Many will argue that this will damage the economy, but long term gains for humanity are more important than the destruction of a short-term economy. We need to reconsider where we want to take the United States. Do we continue worshipping goods, or do we sacrifice for the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters?

On a final note, although idealistic, I believe the answer to this problem could be Universal Basic Income. Many workers for Amazon and Walmart are already heavily subsidized by the government, and instead of adding to these companies’ profits, workers will have the choice and safety net to pursue other more valuable things that will invariably improve humanity.

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