Amazon has been working to edge stores out of the picture by affordable, rapid home delivery. Impulse buying can happen in our living room. Walmart is reacting to this juggernaut by changing its official name. In an article by ZDNet contributor Jake Smith Walmart Stores, Inc. will become Walmart Inc. on February 1, 2018. This is directly related to the growth of eCommerce.
If you want your widget on the shelves at Walmart then Walmart makes the rules. From an article in Investopedia some interesting points can be gleaned. The price of a specific item in 1990 was $20 and the price of the similar item in 2003 was $10. To effect this shift the supplier of that item laid people off and moved manufacturing to China. Perhaps you’ve heard of out-sourcing? This article referenced a book by author Charles Fishman, the Walmart Effect. Fishman proposes that price has proven to be a greater human motivator than behind the scenes business practices.
Maybe just a tad wicked? Would God destroy a city for outsourcing it manufacturing process? That seems like a stretch. It is not why Babylon became “Babyl-gone.”
Net neutrality
This is a topic that comes in and out of the news. What exactly is net neutrality? As a principle it says that companies who sell internet access must have no bias in giving you what you ask for. Suppose you pay a monthly fee to Comcast for your internet. What if they owned Netflix, but you wanted to watch Amazon Prime video? Comcast might just figure, “Hmm, if I cause some ‘errors’ in delivery of Amazon Prime video I bet so-and-so will activate a new Netflix account.” Well, then more money flows into the Comcast coffers (different name, same umbrella company…I made this example up).
So, net neutrality is an FCC rule saying that internet companies must serve up data according to the users wishes. No throttling (slowing down), blocking or some other things that are beyond the scope of this lesson.
The tie-back to Revelation 18 is that certain businesses, merchants in Revelation 18 terms, can easily control what goes on in the world. “Permission from the merchant king” is the ticket to global wealth and power.
The angel of Revelation 18 said that companies in Babylon were the movers and shakers on the earth.
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