The Anglo-American world is a business environment in which multinationals and huge retail chains enjoy enough influence to prevent governmental and societal opposition to their perpetual expansion. The likes of Amazon, Wal-Mart (who operate in the UK as ASDA), Dominos and the disgraced Murdoch-owned media empire.News International, er, the shiny, modern and ethically sound News UK alliance, have been allowed to destroy smaller competitors.
And what have they done to establish corporate dominance? They’ve bought our politicians, lowered wages through union busting and the exploitation of cheap foriegn labour, squeezed suppliers into cutting corners and destroyed our local communities. There are so many of us who simply never visit our local high street, including a number of city dwellers who will drive to pick up a newspaper and a pint of milk, despite being within walking distance of a newsagent. As a consequence, we become ever more detached from others: we become just small cogs in a massive consumerist machine. By the time we feel there’s a problem, we can’t break out of the monopoly of the multinationals.
Nowhere is this more true than in the book industry. Amazon has used economies of scale, tax dodging and low wages to undermine our bookshops. In the UK, Borders, Books Etc, and hundreds upon hundreds of independent bookshops have collapsed. Amazon sells the majority of books, and Waterstones is the chain which clings on in the physical world. Most independent bookshops sell secondhand books, but remain in a financially precarious position.
Unlike us, France is less permissive of Amazon’s monopolistic empire building. They see their independent bookshops as the heart of local communities (there are 3000 in France, many in small towns and even rural areas). Also, they rightly see Amazon’s dominance of the emerging e-book market as a recipe for disaster. The two leading political parties have now passed legislation capping the discount that retailers can offer on the books’ Recommended Retail Price to 5%. They’ve also banned online shops offering free delivery on discounted books.
Though the legislation does not apply to secondhand books, it will go far to prevent consolidation of the publishing and bookselling industries. It puts a village bookshop on an almost level playing field with Amazon.
Hilariously, Amazon France has condemned the legislation as anti-competitive. As if its abuse of its vast scale to avoid tax bills is competitive! And, as French politicians rightly point out, if Amazon is allowed to monopolise ebooks, which will one day render paper books to be a very expensive, almost fringe product (though I’m sure most of you will join me in fighting that transition every step of the way), they will not keep prices low when they have complete control of the publishing, distribution and sale of literature.
The world is becoming far too impersonal. Anything that keeps it more human scale is worthy of consideration.
