Canceled my prime subscription last month. No regrets
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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Same, honestly haven't missed it.
I do not need reasons, I need ways.
Guess I'll be shopping at Canada Computers.
Amazon is more than a shop. You can't escape amazon web services.
Azure rules the roost now in Australia
Very true, but I assume you don't mean "then why bother at all" right?
And if I'm correct in that assumption, then I figure we can agree that mitigating what you can is still a worthwhile endeavor?
For the user asking for ways, the user needs ways not just one way out of a single amazon service.
Sounds like your turn to step up to the plate then huh?
I agree with the message, but these two points following each other feels a little hypocritical:
“Amazon is supporting new nuclear plants” and “Amazon has a poor climate record”
Nuclear power is the most effective way to get out of climate change. Caring about climate change and being against nuclear power at the same time is a contradictory position to take, and needlessly puritanical.
If we could only rely on renewables, that would be very nice. That is not currently the case. We should strive to have more renewable energy, while keeping in mind nuclear power is here to stay and even be expanded as we eliminate carbon emitting sources of energy.
Imagine a capital juggernaut like Amazon invested in truly renewable energy instead of just trying to be power hungry assholes trying to race Google to the AI market.
The amount of technology that they could create simply from these investments could change the course of our planet. But, no. Line must go up next quarter. Not 2 years from now.
i disagree. nuclear power is expensive to build (usually exceeding the planned costs), is not resistant to high heat in summer (as shown by french summers), and a proper way of getting rid of nuclear waste is still not developed.
One Big Chart: how does the cost of nuclear power compare to renewables?
CSIRO confirms nuclear fantasy would cost twice as much as renewables https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/csiro-confirms-nuclear-fantasy-would-cost-twice-as-much-as-renewables/
Nuclear reactor in France shut down over drought Chooz Nuclear Plant on Belgian border turned off after dry summer evaporates water needed to cool reactors
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/nuclear-reactor-in-france-shut-down-over-drought/1952943
Genuinely, disposing of nuclear waste is not the slightest issue. Just dump it in one spot.
The good thing about science is that it doesn't care if you disagree, it just works the way it does
Building nuclear power plants is not a science problem, though, it’s an engineering problem. Just because we can harness energy by breaking up nuclear bonds does not mean that we can do so economically, given the constraints under which we have to operate power plants.
And OP never disputed the science anyways?
Also like solar wind and water power also involve science? As do coal plants? So like, really WTF are we even talking about with science "functioning"?
Edit: Seems like this is just the potato version of the "science is what's true whether or not you believe it" quote applied to policy...which actually doesn't work.
It doesn't matter whether or not nuclear plants are possible if humans don't build them. The science backing them existing is meaningless.
They go so far over budget because of lawsuits, usually. Vogtle was announced in like 2011 and didn't even get to break ground until 2017, then got caught up in even more lawsuits, if I recall correctly. And while conventional nuclear plants will probably always have huge upfront costs that take 30 years to offset, SMRs are darn close to a full reality and those will be a lot cheaper, and will get cheaper over time, like solar panels did.
There's a plant in Phoenix Arizona that uses city wastewater to cool the reactors, so they can hold up to hot dry climates just fine if designed to do so. (Fun side fact, the plant has to clean the rad waste out of the water before they use it - the rad waste from medical procedures that get into wastewater would be enough to exceed their allowance of acceptable release).
I'll give you the waste issue, but it's 100% a matter of politics. You're going to have to convince a state to take it on and none of them will. But on-site cask storage isn't the worst option. It's worked for a long time. There's also a lot of research going into other stuff we might be able to do with it. (In fact, waste isn't an issue in France because they already recycle it; the US doesn't because some of the recycled materials could be used to build bombs).
By footprint (in terms of land and waste) nuclear is the best option still. It's still the most stable output (save perhaps geothermal, but you can't do that everywhere) One day we might have batteries good enough to make that less of an issue but right now it's probably not a good idea to abandon nuclear.
Nobody has ever died from nuclear waste.
Nuclear waste itself is a misnomer, there is no waste it's just uneconomical to use at a certain point, it still has a ton of energy potential.
https://newrepublic.com/article/48426/sadly-there-such-thing-nuclear-waste
If people stopped being hysterical about a technology they don't understand we could probably develop it.
nuclear power is expensive to build
So? It pays for itself.
Horrible take.
Ugh, here's a new wrinkle (at least to me), that literally showed up in my inbox as I was reading this post.
I'm actively trying to avoid Amazon, researched and found the site of a small company making the product I'm looking for, and then find out that Amazon is handling their shipping.
No mention of this anywhere on their site.
This just happened to me. I purchased shoes and they shipped via Amazon even though I didn't buy them there.
I think that's part of what people don't understand. Amazon isn't a website that sells stuff, they are a dozen infrastructure based industries.
Shut down their website and they still have the logistics to fulfill for the sites you shop on and their servers are probably hosting them too.
That's vertical integration, and the end result for a virus like Amazon is that, left unchecked, they own everything.
I keep running into the same exact thing.
The missing reason is that you should just buy less anyway and if you avoid Amazon it is slightly harder to just buy stuff.
That being said, if you need it cheap, quick, and you cannot source it locally, just buy it on Amazon. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. You are not guilty of a moral crime by using them when the need exists.
… when the need exists.
Like you already said, it's much easier to separate needs from wants when you just don't go to Amazon. It was a real eye opener for me, how I could just add a tiny bit of friction to my "customer journey" (just don't automatically start my search on Amazon), and my desire for the object would usually just … evaporate.
Like a fey mood had overtaken me, but I managed to shake it.
I guess that's consumerism.
I feel like I found a new reason to avoid amazon every time I looked for a product not being sold under some random fake brand name. I cancelled prime over a year ago and started shopping elsewhere. It costs more, but the quality of just about anything is higher.
I avoid amazon for the same reason I avoid walmart: everything is a simulacrum of an actual product. Somehow, amazon is even worse than walmart.
So yeah, boycott amazon and shop at places selling actual products.
And if you really want a simulacrum of a real product for whatever reason, Aliexpress exists and has the same crap available for a fraction of the cost, and doesn't enrich Jeff Bezos.
It's a real shame, because amazon was able to deliver to some very remote communities in the north. It was the first time they really had access to shit that big cities had without having to fly down there and carry everything back.
What I don't get is HOW people shops on Amazon, their search engine is the shittiest I've seen in a long time: "you searched for AMD RX1234 video card; here is a RX1235, a RX1024, and another one from a completely different brand! People also searched for other that is maybe related to that"
Yeah, their search is basically the main thing keeping me away from their store.
If I type in EXACTLY what I want, down to the exact type number, it’ll first show me things that vaguely have the same text, followed by things in the same category, followed by something totally random like a waffle iron, and MAYBE on page 2, there’s the thing I need. Show me that FIRST, not the slew of crappy clone/fake/off-brand shit or things not even in the same category.
I usually have better luck just going to Google and searching it that way. Usually that gets me to the item straight away. Like it should be.
For sure; you'd have better luck finding product listings from another search engine their own search. I feel like it used to be better. Years ago, it would return exactly what I searched for, but not today. I think that was before 3rd party resellers were as common as today though
Well, 8 reasons anyway. Only one I needed is Amazon is a shit company that will try to squeeze money out of you anyway they can.
I’ve got a $25 Amazon gift card sitting around that I don’t know what to do with. My mother-in-law gave it to me for Xmas, and I don’t shop on Amazon.
This situation is the only time I use Amazon. May as well burn it on something cause they already have the money
I might try to sell it to a coworker for cash.