Trump Takes Aim at Amazon’s Post Office Scam

Most people only get to play Monopoly on a colored cardboard square. But a few people, (we’re looking at you Jeff Bezos) get to play it in real life. Like the infamous Wal-Mart superstores, Amazon has out-competed so many other businesses both physical and online that some e-commerce thought leaders have foreseen the day when every retail market is sucked up by the online giant.

Amazon has gotten so big and casts such a large shadow over the free market that companies have been scrabbled together by conglomerates of big-time entrepreneurs and investors for the sole purpose of taking the wind out of Bezos’ sails.

Jet.com is one such company. It started as an innovative way to have groceries delivered to your door- and it’s pretty good. But Amazon continues to grow. It would seem David is going to need to put a bigger rock in his slingshot.

Fortunately, Jet isn’t the only one looking to slow Amazon’s roll.

Donald Trump, too, has had enough of Amazon’s unparalleled market dominance. What’s got him up in arms against the online retail giant is the fact that they, as he puts it, “Use the Post Office as their own delivery boy.”

That might not seem abnormal, but Amazon does make especially heavy use of the Postal Service. Trump tweeted:

Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country…not a level playing field!

And he’s not just whistling Dixie. Trump’s grim appraisal of Amazon’s business practices has already caused Amazon’s shares to take a major hit.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Trump’s word alone affect the economy. Even before he was inaugurated, after winning the election, the stock market started surging. This was because businessmen who understand business- and know Trump does too- realized that he was serious about his claims. They also realized that he could make his intention to punish job exporters a reality.

So it only takes a tweet from Trump to take a big bite out of Amazon. Amazon’s shares slipped down 3.5% of what they were before Trump spoke out against them. But the President isn’t stopping there.

Last week he also said, “While we are on the subject, it is reported that the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon.”

Later he elaborated, “That amounts to Billions of Dollars. The Failing N.Y. Times reports that ‘the size of the company’s lobbying staff has ballooned,’ and that does not include the Fake Washington Post, which is used as a ‘lobbyist’ and should so REGISTER. If the P.O. ‘increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion.’ This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!”

It’s encouraging to see the President interested in protecting smaller merchants from the tyranny of an unstoppable giant. But just as with Wal-Mart, we’ve learned that if we want to take down Goliath and save the little guy there is a price to be paid.

During Wal-Mart’s rise to prominence, we saw Mom and Pop shops all over the country close their doors for business. They were filling up the landscape with ugly big box buildings and refusing to sell or demolish them after they were done. It was a full-on scorched earth campaign against any and all competition. This is not what we mean when we extol the virtues of the free market.

But we learned that if we wanted to cut Wal-Mart down to size we would have to stop shopping there and pay full retail prices at our local stores. For most Americans, this was just too high a price to pay.

If Trump’s plan to take a bite out of Amazon’s profits by forcing the Postal Service to raise their prices goes forward, then those costs will be passed on to all of us. Not only that, but Amazon might raise their prices as well.

If we want to see the end of massive all-consuming retail giants that squash our local mom & pops, then we have to be willing to say goodbye to the convenience and the discounts. If we want to make America great again, we might have to take our belts in a notch and do more than just vote Trump in 2020.

~ American Liberty Report


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