"NOYB" wrote in message
om...
My dad has been trying to talk to someone at Dell computers about an error
they made, and all he keeps reaching are ex-7-11 employees. I figure that
the latest trend of using foreign speaking people in customer support
won't
last long once the customer satisfaction polling data comes in.


snip
You and Dave are unflagging supporters of an unregulated free market system.
Enjoy the fruits of your most perfect system. Considering that you both have
complained loud and long about any form of restriction or regulation of
companies, you have absolutely no right to complain about what you are
getting. Enjoy it.

You used to be able to go to the hardware store and ask the man about a barn
hinge and the owner could tell you what he had, and discuss alternative in a
knowledgeable way. Of course, that corner hardware store has been driven out
of business by Wal-Mart. When you go to Wal-Mart, the "help" there can tell
you the isle where that sort of thing might be found; if they carry it. With
any luck at all, that knowledgeable former owner of the old hardware store
is now working as a greeter (low paid security staff) in the front of the
store.

This is the inevitable result of driving the wages down using the free
market. Your orders are filled wrong at the fast food restaurant, your
support at Dell sucks. The telephone is answered by a machine that does not
have the answer to your question.

As long as the only measure of the success of the economic system is how
much money changes hands, then issues like quality of life and quality of
services delivered will be taken off the table. A few will get the best of
everything, the rest will get the lowest common denominator.

This is the tyranny of "good enough". As long as there is a cost associated
with delivering better service, no company can afford to spend the money to
do effective support if it will raise the prices. At the time of purchase,
all the majority of the customers look at is the price and features. The one
or two souls that might pay a few bucks for quality service can't support a
big firm like Dell.

I will go out on a limb and predict that this mediocrity will continue and
be compounded as the economy worsens. The split between the few and the many
will continue to widen as the middle class continues to crumble. If you
think that millions of professional class jobs will be created to fill the
blue collar losses, then you are seeing some opportunity that are not
apparent from looking at the help wanted pages. If you continue to spout
this Pollyanna position, then I would ask you to explain were these jobs
will come from and why they won't be outsourced. I don't think you can.
Since there is not substance to your position, all I expect lots of
meaningless generalities and no specifics.

If you reject my starting premise (regulation of the market to achieve
social goals) then it is up to you to explain how things will be fixed.

Don't even ask how I would change the system. Homey don't play that game no
mo. It is being broken so badly that I am not sure that it can be fixed. The
needed medicine is so threatening to the supporters of both political
parties that is inconceivable that any politician could put them in place
unless there was a dire need. My answers I have are so far from current
policy that they will not seem relevant until we see the return of large
crowds of angry and unemployed homeless, like we had in the 30's. Thank God
we are hanging on to the right to bear arms; this may become useful in a
social crash. On the other hand, so are the desperate poor.

The unthinking and uneducated don't seem capable of working through the
inevitable output of current wrong-headed political decisions. To my way of
thinking, we have already been driven over the cliff, it is just a matter of
crashing to the ground. I don't see any way around this outcome unless some
very big changes occur; considering the blindness of the current political
leaders, this in not going to happen. Remember that things looked pretty
good in the roaring 20's. Until the inevitable crash, you just keep your
eyes shut tight and cross your fingers. It will do as much good as the
actions of the current political leadership.

Mark Browne