Within my memory (I’m 64 years old) there was a time when Capitalism wasn’t yet as exploitive as it appears now, not only in our foreign dealings, but here at home.
The prevailing ethic of American business was still to make money and profit, but there was also an underlying desire to do it in an honest way that benefited both the customer and the company itself, and by extension the commonweal.
An example that comes immediately to mind is A.T&T. and its regional Bell affiliates. Yes, it was a monopoly, but a benign monopoly which offered dependable and affordable service.
The service offered was straightforward and easy to understand--a customer didn’t have to spend inordinate time defending themselves from exploitation. In fact, the telephone company not only provided a valuable and necessary means for communication, they also maintained the hardware, even in our homes.
One call to a Bell company brought a truck and an installer to your home, where they installed not only the outside hook-up, but the wires throughout the house, and they did it with a smile. Better still, they continued to service your in-home phone lines for free.
Of course we had to pay monthly for this service, but the amount wasn’t out of line with other essential services like water and electric service. In essence, what you saw and were told is what you got.
In light of the following, which I maintain is standard and usual in dealing with phone companies today, I have to ask, What have we become?
A few weeks ago my friends suddenly started complaining that whenever they called me they were forced to identify themselves before their call was put through. After a few days we figured out that Caller ID Blocking had been turned on for us, even though we didn't want it. So we called AT&T to find out what was going on.
The first two times, they hung up on us after we'd been on hold for 20 minutes. The third time, I got transferred to about nine different people, including twice to India, before someone finally transferred me to "AT&T California," where I learned, among other things, that my phone service had been switched from "Legacy AT&T" to "The New AT&T." Fine. Whatever. But I don't want all these new services (caller ID blocking turned out to be just one of many new services I now had), so can I get rid of them?
Long story short, the answer was no. I could get rid of them all and just pay for the two or three I wanted, but that would actually cost more. More? Yes indeed. OK then, I'll keep them. But how do I turn off this annoying caller ID stuff? The customer service rep didn't know, but ten minutes later after making several internal calls, she decided she could do it. No more caller ID blocking.
Whew. But then she told me that this was just the beginning. Eventually my long distance service was bound to get switched to The New AT&T™ as well. Did I want to just go ahead and make the switch now? Sure. I guess so.
But then she sighed and asked a question she had obviously asked a thousand times before: did I have a fax machine at home? Yes I did. Well, you're not allowed to use a fax machine on The New AT&T's long distance service. If their computers detect a fax tone on your line, they'll automatically drop you from the flat rate plan and start charging you ten dollars a minute for all subsequent calls. Or something.
Washington Monthly, 7-17-07
Yes, what have we become? My premise here isn’t focused only on phone companies, but the whole complexion of Capitalism as it’s played out in America and the world in 2007.
Has the relentlessness of Capitalism in seeking profit finally reached a point where no other consideration matters, regardless of what methods it uses to get there? Am I the only one to sense an air of the ethics we used to consign to thieves, used car dealers, and confidence men?
Think of a banquet table loaded end to end with large, delicious cuts of meat, steaming vegetables, piles of bread and rolls, butter, condiments—in other words, an apparently endless supply of food.
Around the table sits a hoard of executives in expensive suits, all of whom have insatiable appetites. What happens when the executives keep growing in number and the food begins to be more difficult to replace? Two things. One, the insatiable executives have to find more and more creative ways to out eat each other, and two, the food itself ceases to be valued as sustenance, even as it takes on a new value—a unique desirability far in excess of any necessity.
In fact, if the executives are true to the principles of Capitalism, not only the food is to be consumed (increasing consumption is at the heart Capitalism) but also the plates on which it sits, the silverware they’ve used, the bowls and candlesticks, the napkins, the tablecloths, everything. Such is the relentlessness of greed, the other keystone of Capitalism.
All right, even I will admit the above example is over the top and shaded to hyperbole, but the principle is true. My real aim is directed at trying to understand what brought us to where we are today.
I suspect that Capitalism is a good system as long as the equilibrium is between what we actually need to survive and thrive and what is supplied are nearly equal, but when it becomes an end in itself, thereby diminishing and dismissing every countering balance (cultural and physical) it ceases to be a positive force.
We can see this truth in contemporary sports, the condition of the media, and perhaps most of all the current political landscape.
This is what we’ve become.