Amazon probably does this to make people feel better in switching to them. Large megacorporations are able to do so partly because they can organise their finances like all big money players do. This includes stuff like tax planning that routes moneys through Luxembur for less-than neccesary reasons.
I am not convinced that the direct money contribution is worth the enforcement of a structure that makes contribution to the surrounding society mandatory.
Of course it is strictly better than doing so while saving no share for charity or neccesary caring.
I may be entirely wrong, but I was under the impression that this simply leverages amazon’s affiliate program, in which amazon rewards 3rd parties for linking to them. That wouldn’t be any sort of public relations play by Amazon, since the policy is transparent to the actual customers.
That doesn’t address your point about the tradeoffs involved—if you object enough to Amazon’s policies to forgo the benefits, that is entirely your prerogative. Just pointing out that this isn’t a case of Amazon baiting people by appearing charitable—rather, some is providing a way to leverage Amazon’s existing policies to have Amazon pay commissions on your sale for charity.
Amazon probably does this to make people feel better in switching to them. Large megacorporations are able to do so partly because they can organise their finances like all big money players do. This includes stuff like tax planning that routes moneys through Luxembur for less-than neccesary reasons.
I am not convinced that the direct money contribution is worth the enforcement of a structure that makes contribution to the surrounding society mandatory.
Of course it is strictly better than doing so while saving no share for charity or neccesary caring.
I may be entirely wrong, but I was under the impression that this simply leverages amazon’s affiliate program, in which amazon rewards 3rd parties for linking to them. That wouldn’t be any sort of public relations play by Amazon, since the policy is transparent to the actual customers.
That doesn’t address your point about the tradeoffs involved—if you object enough to Amazon’s policies to forgo the benefits, that is entirely your prerogative. Just pointing out that this isn’t a case of Amazon baiting people by appearing charitable—rather, some is providing a way to leverage Amazon’s existing policies to have Amazon pay commissions on your sale for charity.