In praise of Amazon

[rafezetter]

It's a personal opinion,a few years ago it was fairly normal for goods to found on UK shelves that were made using child labour which is now not allowed by established and reputable companies and virtually stamped out. Equally, certain products exploited the indigenous enhabitants for low cost products which lead to a back lash when people finally understood what was going on to fair trade products. Again a few years ago is was common for products to made from minerals mined and sold that supported localised wars and terrorism, the conflict minerals legislation has agin fairly well stamped this out.

For me, just because it's cheap, doesn't make it right, ethical and moral behaviours are what is required. Avoidance of tax just means for a standard of health care, schooling, police, etc etc we all have to pay more tax to compensate for those who find a loop hole. There will always be loop holes, as no law is perfect.

Again it's just a personal opinion, but to reduce my tax bill, and to support those companies that have an ethical and moral approach to business I avoid buying any products of those who use accountants, and lawyers to find the cracks in legislation and in so doing pay less tax and unfairly compete against those who don't. Now that's sounds counter intuitive to having signed up to them, well, to support my employees I need the sales outlet that they have created and dominate.

Do I read correctly that you are vilifying amazons lack of morals and paying tax while benefitting from using the marketplace they have created?

A moral member of the shareholders of amazon has every right to donate the section of their dividend that would have ordinarily have been paid in tax, to a charity of their choice; and no doubt some of them do make charitable donations.

High moral values and a successful thriving business have rarely made good bedfellows; and I would hazard of the few that have or do (within living memory), have had significantly less overheads, with less boardmembers and shareholders clamoring for their cut; the very people who would fire those responsible for increasing overheads and lowering profitability in the name of "high moral standards".

So ultimately it's NOT Amazon the company that you should lynch but those pulling Amazons strings.

(and lets not forget "High Moral Values" has not ever been an all pervading phenomena within a social group - not even in most religions of the world.)

High moral values are and always will be a very personal choice, to expect it of a collective of people numbering more than a handful, especially where any form of tradeable currency or personal cost is involved (time / money / loss of social standing / business reputuation / against thier own personal moral code / etc /etc) is naive in the extreme.

Deema, have you at ANY time within your business owner career said the words "In what ways can I reduce my tax bill?" or taken steps to research for the same outcome. Have you ever considered an impending tax bill and thought "actually if I bought item X, that could be considered a business purchase and thus reduce my tax obligation".

To me the arguement of "I wish to pay less tax but will openly complain about those who are more proficient at it" pretty hollow.

 

[AJB Temple]

Can I just say I started this thread only because Amazon gave me very good service when a Triton rebate plane was defective and they had a replacement in my hand the next morning and trusted me to send the old one back later. I was not trying to start a debate about morals. In my time I have been a PWC partner and so directly engaged in a global business that (among lots of other things) advises companies how to reduce tax bills. Very few of us can stand on the moral high ground and claim immunity from brickbats! Lots of businesses (e.g. Tesco used by millions) are accused of exploitation - there are always two sides to this debate as trading relationships are rarely perfectly equal.

 

[timber]

Can I just say I started this thread only because Amazon gave me very good service when a Triton rebate plane was defective and they had a replacement in my hand the next morning and trusted me to send the old one back later. I was not trying to start a debate about morals. In my time I have been a PWC partner and so directly engaged in a global business that (among lots of other things) advises companies how to reduce tax bills. Very few of us can stand on the moral high ground and claim immunity from brickbats! Lots of businesses (e.g. Tesco used by millions) are accused of exploitation - there are always two sides to this debate as trading relationships are rarely perfectly equal.

My old police sergeant used to say "there is no one more pure than the purified "
We all try to get out of paying taxes, All AJB was saying is what good service he got from Amazon We usually hear about all the bad points about different companies.
At the present time I am waiting for a full refund from Rutlands, if and when I get it. I will also post my findings of Rutlands
Keep smiling
Timber