A lot of working stiffs today say the system is rigged to keep them from getting ahead. One thing that might make them feel like that is this: The system is rigged against them!

Consider some very hard workers busting their butts going up and down our residential streets – Amazon’s army of delivery drivers, hauling tons of packages right to our doorsteps. Their exhausting, corporate-mandated hustle is a key source of Amazon’s enormous profits – making Amazon boss Jeff Bezos a cartoonishly-rich global playboy.

Yet Bezos – who’s entire career has been built on rigging the system against employees, competitors, and taxpayers – even refuses to acknowledge that those hundreds of thousands of drivers work for him. He disavows them because many are attempting to unionize over the autocratic and abusive working conditions he imposes on them – including having such dehumanizing delivery schedules that drivers can’t even stop to pee. So, they commonly carry bottles so they can “go on the go.”

Not my problem, says Jeff, pointing to a perverse, corporate-written gotcha in American labor law. It rigs the system by letting Amazon contract with thousands of local front groups called DSPs – “delivery service partners.” They then hire drivers to deliver Amazon’s packages. This lets Bezos deny responsibility for how the workers are treated since, technically, he doesn’t employ them.

Cute, huh? Worse, his DSP ruse further rigs the system by proclaiming that unions cannot even try to organize Amazon itself. Instead, they must go place to place, trying to organize each of the 3,000 DSP fronts that provide Amazon’s workforce.

These legalistic manipulations disempower workers, enrich bosses, and enforce the Corporate Golden Rule: “Those who have the gold, rule.”

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe