Trump vs. Amazon

President Trump’s tweets seem to attack almost anyone. He once even went after a war widow. Now he has set his sights on Amazon. Republicans accused President Obama of picking winners. Now we are seeing Trump do the same thing.

His favorite charge is that the US Post Office is losing money delivering Amazon packages. This is utterly ridiculous. The post office has tremendous fixed expenses. It transports mail around the country and drives by everyone’s house six days a week. It doesn’t cost more to drop off a package at the same time they deliver mail. If Amazon stopped using the post office, their losses would skyrocket.

He also attacks them for hurting brick and mortar businesses. Of course it’s true but that’s part of the free enterprise system. Neighborhood grocery stores gave way to supermarkets. Malls replaced downtown department stores. Many local stores have been replaced by chains. We may not like it, but I am not sure what we can do about it. We could ban internet sales or go socialist but the cure is worse than the disease.
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It seems strange for a billionaire businessman to attack another business. It’s time for him to quit throwing temper tantrums and get back to work.
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