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.


I got an eye-opening insight into the current economy at Home Depot. I bought a
small truckload of bathtubs, sinks, toilets, faucets, etc recently. As the cast
iron tubs are almost 300 lb apiece and Mama didn't raise too big-or at least
too strong- a fool, I opted for the $55 delivery. (Anything between one item
and a whole truckload is a flat $55)

A nice young man followed us around with a notepad and kept track of all the
fixtures we picked out. As we waited to get written up at the Special Services
counter, we chatted with the guy and discovered he had to take the job clerking
at the Depot with five years of college and a degree in physics!

Not too many years ago, I knew a guy who went to work in the paint dept at Home
D.
He had a lot of knowledge about paint. They started him at $9 and hour, and
after
about a year raised him to $10. My friend was convinced that he would be on the
fast track to management, which at the time meant working about 60 hours a
week, supervising 45 employees, and being responsible for a branch store doing
over a $million volume on a busy weekend. The managers made annual salaries of
$50-60k at that time........

So the articulate, intelligent young guy with a physics degree? The kind of
nice guy I wish my daughter would meet? If he works really hard and is willing
to shoulder a huge responsibility, and if he plays his corporate politics
properly, he'll get to work up to a middle class wage- eventually- if he stays
at Home Depot and is really lucky.

My paint selling friend moved to another store after a couple of years. He is
now pretty disillusioned about his actual prospects to become the (woo woo)
"manager."