Alec McGillis: Amazon Dystopia

‘Could you live without Amazon?’ You can easily adapt this question from American consumers: Could you live without Coupang? Could you live without AliExpress? Of course you could. If we believe otherwise, we have to accept that these companies can control our work, economy, politics, and even the conditions of our lives. This book is the definitive investigative account of the ‘Everything Store’ and ‘Everywhere Store,’ Amazon: it exposes how the giant corporation deepens economic inequality in the United States, widens regional gaps, drives workers toward death, avoids taxes, and corrupts politics and even democracy. The book was praised throughout the American press for its in-depth reporting and empathetic writing about vulnerable people. The stories of workers, small businesses, and local communities suffering under one giant retail platform make us read it as an Amazon version of Nomadland and Hillbilly Elegy. Amazon plays an overwhelmingly large role in the neoliberal restructuring that divides every region and every person in a country into winners and losers. By showing us the United States increasingly covered by Amazon’s shadow, the book asks us to learn from its example and look again at our own reality. We can’t help but think of domestic companies striving to follow Amazon’s model.

Korean title: 아마존 디스토피아

Korean author: 알렉 맥길리스

Korean publisher: 사월의책

ISBN-13: 9791192092294