This is part 2 of our examination of Amazon’s political principles.

In case there was ever any confusion about where Amazon stands politically as a company, be confused no more. The online sales giant released a position statement outlining many of their core positions politically.

This is likely an effort to try and sway their employees as well as their customers to vote Democrat in 2020.

Here are their core principles and my brief commentary on them:

We strongly support the rights of immigrants and immigration reform.

What rights do they have based on our constitution to come here illegally? The biggest problem with immigration reform is that there is no meeting in the middle. Democrats want to let everyone and their grandmother in, and Republicans just want to make sure that the people who are coming here contribute and aren’t criminals. But the Dems want to portray the conservatives as wanting to keep everyone out, which isn’t the case.

Governments at all levels—federal, state, and local—should have access to the best technology.

I can agree with this, but I have a feeling that they’re wanting to allow the government to use certain technologies to overstep some boundaries such as privacy.

Governments should work quickly to put in place a regulatory framework for facial recognition technology.

This is turning into 1984 rather quickly, but I can see the pros and cons of this technology. The only real issue is that it can once again become an invasion of privacy, but if there were some way to keep the anonymity of individuals which simultaneously searching for missing children, or sex trafficking victims, then I could probably get on board with that.

Counterfeiters should receive stronger penalties under federal law.

Counterfeiters should be treated as theft and depending on the circumstance, should be repaid double at times. I’m not sure what penalties Amazon has in mind, but probably not what I have in mind.

Consumer data privacy should be protected under federal law.

I agree, but if they are willing to share (which is usually the case, except they never read terms and conditions) then I see no problem in utilizing it to make user experiences better.

Corporate tax codes should incentivize investment in the economy and job creation.

Exactly. And it’s a shame that the company hates Republicans because they’re the only ones willing to give any incentive to big companies for their economic growth and job creation.

Photo Credit: Steve Jurvetson