Article content

Imagine if Amazon — not amazon.ca — but Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, the real Amazon, was in Canada. Could it last a month?

In an exposé in the New York Times, written by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, Amazon was described as a cutthroat culture where employees were overburdened, overworked, measured on every metric possible, regardless of their job, and then vastly rewarded if they succeeded and quickly fired if they did not.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Jeff Bezos' ruthless Amazon culture would never fly in Canada, and that's a shame Back to video

Some might think that spirit represents the best of America and is what is needed to continue that economy’s pre-eminence. Others might consider it representative of a cannibalization of the human spirit by capitalism.

Amazon rewards creativity, innovation, and ruthless competition. As a result of this culture, it has now become the world’s biggest retailer, exceeding Wal-Mart by market value.

In an increasingly globalized economy, where former Third World nations are educating their youth to the same standards as Canada and in some cases beyond, how can this country retain competitiveness and standard of living without a good dose of Bezos’ medicine?