One reason their profits are up is because they have reduced their customer-service work force to save on labor costs. The more profits the shittier the service.
Wow! VERY generous tonight, are we? Just like his reported boss, elon is a SERIAL LOSER WHO FAILED UPWARDS.
Remember how successful Twitter was when you were on it? Yeah, Twitter's little exceptional brother X is on "Trump Brand Life Support," or a phony prayer from an avowed Athiest.
I survived a landing into Las Vegas about 20 years ago on a Monday morning. We had a normal approach and were low enough I could see the shadow of the aircraft on the ground. Suddenly, our aircraft went sideways to avoid hitting a plane taking off on the same runway! The pilot righted the plane and then went straight up to get some altitude. We leveled off and went around and landed without incident. Our plane was met by paramedics because the passenger across the aisle from me saw how close we came to crashing into the other plane and was still in a catatonic state. Some air traffic controller tied one on over the weekend and put two planes on the same runway!!!
Eggzactly! Lots of corporations started switching to automated services a while ago, and really speeded up the process during Covid. They got to skip the salaries, benefits, workspace, and complaints. Customers have no recourse, no way to problem-solve, no avenue to getting something corrected. I bet they let go supervisors as well, since they cannot be accessed.
If we don't work, we don't make money. If we don't make money, we don't buy whatever crap they're selling. If we, the largest consumers in the world, don't buy their crap, they go under. Then we all cheer.
Try talking to Google. They have insulated themselves so far behind a firewell of lack of response and automated messaging that when Google asks us to check a piece of equipment at work, we check it and report back with a question and we hardly EVER get a human response. The problem that google wants US to fix then goes unresolved because of communication problems with google.
United flight , would not yield his seat . As a crew dragged him out the customer suffered bodily injuries . United would not apologize at first - but as the public relations suffered - the
CEO finally made some excuse but it was hardly
sincere.
At the time , I predicted that the incident would have a negligible impact on the airline’s bottom line. Reason - near monopoly power on the routes they operate in.
This incident with delays and difficulties in contacting live operators should not come as any surprise.
I would never advocate violence against corporate executives, but they seem immune
to the needs of the public. We need a better plan to reduce corporate power and replace
the relentless love of profits with the concept of rewarding employees that produce the product or service and taking care of customers .
STOP praying to the god of profit maximization
and take care of your employees- profits will follow .
Inadequate staffing of air traffic controllers goes all the way back to Reagan who fired them all as they were asking for safer conditions for flyers and themselves. Oh no not Reagan again….
I have detested Ronny Raygun for ages! A grade B movie actor at best as I actually watched his movie Bedtime for Bonzo and the monkey was a better actor! My deceased almost 95 year old father that when they went to town on a Saturday afternoon in rural northwest Missouri my grandfather would give my Dad and his brother a nickel to see a movie. Any movie featuring Ronny Raygun was never attended by my dad and his brother!!!
Yep and if you want to be reminded of the character of the members of the Republican Party, a fraternity that long worshipped Ronald Reagan, after he destroyed that air controllers' union (and affected air travel then and since), they named a national airport after him. One of their mottoes is "In your face, suckers."
Before Bodycams the law allowed us to video cops. These are CUSTOMER SERVICE LAWS.
💓Reich💓:"I relate this to you because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the frustrations that might drive people to vote for a strongman who promises to “shake things up” ...or might cause people to cheer for someone who murders..."
Me:"I relate to this because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the frustrations caused by crap government customer service that might drive people to vote for a strongman who promises to “shake things up” ...OUTLAW THEIR FAVORITE RESPONSE TO OUR NEEDS("Not My Job") ANAND THEIR SECOND FAVORITE ("I'm going to make you wait on hold for another three hours because you said a naughty word") or might cause people to cheer for using the trillion/year OFFENSIVE NOT DEFENSE budget to murder civilians..."
A lot of "government customer service" has been privatized, so you may or may not be talking to a person employed by the government directly. You may be getting crap customer service from a company/corporation that has been awarded a contract. The politicians who hate government go about making it dysfunctional so that they can award the replacement contracts to their cronies, who then underpay front line workers, line their own pockets, and make people hate the government ~ a virtuous circle, no?
So so true. I've seen it happing over the last 10 years.
More services going to contractors , who operate on profits and promise to be cheaper. They then hire a workforce that is paid less, with little or no benifits allawhile sticking a large part of the contract into their pockets.
Not only is their workforce paid less but also receive little training. When they get a call that is not in their training manual, we'll good luck, you'll be on hold for a long time.
The next year the gov contract increase, why? Well why not, the government doesn't have anyone left so they have to pay out the new amount.
It's horrible what the Republicans have done, with their never ending mandra the for profits are always better.
By the way, the same thing is happening in the DOD.
Much of the services the government could have provided in past is going to
private contracts. I'm taking about billions each year.
At least when these services were provided by federal government a citizen could ask for costs, number of employees, even salaries of employes.
When money goes to these contractors no information is provided, who gets paid, what the company's salary distribution is, how much the executives get, none of these information is visible to tax payers because it's a private company.
You want to talk about deficits, look into these contracts and many are awared on non-competative bases.
Talk about poor government customer service---I have been waiting six months for my 2023 IRS refund check--stolen while in transit in the mail--to be replaced.
In this, you are dealing with 2 agencies: The IRS and the Postal service. Since DeJoy, we never know at what time we are going to get our mail. some days, we don't get any. some days we get tons of mailers... AAarrgh!
IMHO, NOT ONE of the22 million government employees in the US has been trained on the First Amendment... THEY'RE BREAKING THE LAW WHEN THEY FRUSTRATE US THEN RETALIATE WHEN WE PROTEST!
Another reason is the fact that 24 years ago there were 10 U.S. airlines. Now there are 4. The CEOs and shareholders of those companies look at each other as if playing poker to see who's the next to fold his cards. Same thing when there's only 3 and 1 is about to go under. When it's down to 2, buy popcorn. Enjoy the billionaire game of boy hair pulling.
We dont know what happened. The company was doing fine until our private equity firm bought it, leveraged it with massive debt and sold off its asset. We have no choice but to merge with 1 of the other 3 companies left in the industry. Unforeseeable! A true tragedy! Merge us please, we have no choice!
And that is the story of the high flying 1980s and 1990s when economic bullying of corporations by corporate raiders screwed everyone along the entire path of their destruction. Screw the corp., execs, shareholders, leverage it up to the hilt, buy it, sell off everything that makes a profit, then send it to bankruptcy court and keep all the money you sucked out of the carcass. And the people who did that? They’re now hedge fund officers and private equity guys living in the Hamptons. The employees and their retirement funds? Unemployed and lost the retirement funds. White collar pinstripe suit grand theft that never got punished. Such was the rise of Trumpistan.
Reduce services to the bare minimum, keep costs the same, executives profit endlessly. This is what you do when you have a monopoly in an industry or no real competition. Almost every industry in America is like this now and its about to get way worse.
It is everything - banks, healthcare, every service industry, utilities, anything and everything. Call centers offshored. And we worry about security of our private information - there is zero privacy or security or service.
So true. These companies collect and sell our private information. If you don’t agree, you get no service at all. So the cost of their service/product is not just the monetary price you pay, but you must also give some level of private information. Every year I receive a letter(s) that my information may have been compromised. This year it was from a healthcare related company and a phone company.
I cannot even make a dr appt because no one answers the phone. You get a voice message that they are too busy to answer. You can sit on hold forever and still no answer. You can press 1 and they say they will call you back. They never call back. The only way to make an appt is to drive to the office.
Your experiences today typify life for virtually everyone. I've lost count of the number of times that I have been unable to connect with an actual human to answer a question or solve a problem.
Not everyone. Not treasonous fascistfelon45's billionaires. Just we millions of regular people. Who still don't get it that corporations & the 1% are calling the shots. Thanks to a looong history of corrupt antiDemocracy antiConstitution obviously antiPeople & -Planet SCOTUS rulings.
I feel your frustration. Right now I just wanna commiserate with you. I have no brilliant solutions. It is enough to drive you crazy. I hope you get where you’re going and don’t have to cancel your appointment.
I adore Robert. His brillant writing and generous spirit. His wonderful cartoons. No one should have to go through what he’s experiencing— and especially not a man who gives so much to so many.
And i have to fly soon. Not looking forward. Sorry for Robert and all his fellow Detainees!😎😭🙏🏼
My brother lives in Arlington, Texas and my whole family is in Dallas except for my grown children who are here with me in Manhattan or in Saratoga Springs. Zoom is not a solution for family.
I want to actually hug them not just see them and actually talk to them and actually do things with them. I use Zoom a lot to give speeches on how to become a best selling author, which is what I do as a ghostwriter, book publisher and marketer. But it is no substitute for human interaction of the best kind. We humans need touch. We are after all not that different from other animals.
Zoom certainly is cheap and efficient, but has contributed to the isolation of humans, especially young people who used to see each other in common spaces (offices), get to know each other both inside and outside the office, etc. I watch two of my son's 3 housemates isolated in their bedrooms all day long, off and on Zoom for work- but NEVER looking another 3 dimensional human in the eyes. Never interacting in person beyond the Zoom meeting. Of course they're depressed.
My daughter goes into the office 3 days a week and is at home for work on zoom 2 days a week. Much better. Going in person to see Robert speak at an event and interacting with others there would be SO much better for our mental health than having him holed up in his office viewing us as faces in little boxes on his screen. So, while travel is difficult, there's no substitute for in-person contact.
Introverts have the right of it. If you don't go anywhere or do anything, companies can't make money off of you and then screw you over. Eat shit, capitalism.
"If it's got circuits". I like that. Pretty much sums up all that is frustrating in our world. Especially if it is intended to take the place of a human.
Sorry, no offense to EEs. Where I've worked it's been a lack of good IT. I also think some software developers don't really have any idea of how their designs are to be used.
Yes, 100%. I am quiet-quitting everything. Done. Not giving my money to anything non-essential, and certainly not directly to the gazillionaires, and using the least amount of services possible. Enshittification (thanks Cory Doctorow) is not just about online platforms.
And you probably think nationalization, socialism, communism and other utopian schemes would be better. Something like, "What we can be, unburdened by what has been." Capitalism had out produced any other idea ever. It has built larger, richer, more successful economies hands down. And you too can be a capitalist. It's easy, spend less than you take in, at any level. The difference is capital to invest, pay for school, buy a car, a house, or start a business if you don't turn away customers by telling them to "eat shit".
My daughter and I just had a conversation about these fruitless rabbit holes that need traversed to solve any problem in the world today; be it banks, hotels , airports. Good luck getting a clear answer or resolution.
Don’t forget automated service that typically means little or no service. We get charged more for less and less service. It is becoming more and more difficult to speak to a live human being. Many customer service sites do not offer any option to talk to a real person. It's maddening and seems to be getting worse all the time.
The thing about a strong man fixing things? You’ll never be able to tell- because it’s easier to corrupt the data and records than to actually fix what needs fixing. The Italian fascists claimed Mussolini got the trains running on time- but they also knew Mussolini bullied the train workers to never record that a train was late.
I guarantee, one of the first casualties under the 2nd Trump administration will be accurate data collected by the US government.
it's already happening. at least two states (texas and georgia, i believe) have stopped reporting maternal mortalities, which, of course, have gone up since abortion has been outlawed. far beyond the pale.
I fear that the incoming regime will make things much much worse, and that pleasures and conveniences we've become used to in the U.S. will disappear while the billionaires continue to fleece the rest of us. I hope I'm wrong.
Absolutely. I doubt any of the billionaires trump has tapped to lead departments really care about the hard working Americans who voted for MAGA candidate. They obviously don’t care what any hard working Democrat thinks. 🫤
The airlines are now required BY LAW to pay you for that cancelled flight. Bob, you need to keep up with Pete. 😉 Start with Dept of Transportation or FAA. You have so many new rights under the Biden Admin.
Starting in 2020 the Fed Government bailed out the airlines to the amount of $54 billion. This was to help keep their workers employed under the Payroll Support Program. They offered senior staff generous retirement packages. Since these folks weren't actually being laid off the airlines kept the money but didn't spend it to replace these folks when business got better. That's why the are having so called "staffing shortages" and the public is getting crappy service and paying more for it. They only have to pay back $14 billion or 26.2% of the total bailout.
If I have to complain about one facet of the air travel experience, it isn’t the delays as much as the poor communication. “It will be another 30 minutes” told to me over and over again from four hours is infuriating. Telling me there will be a four hour delay is manageable. I can make needed travel changes like hotels and meals. I can visit the lounge or perhaps eat in a sit-down restaurant that I wouldn’t have time for had I not known the duration of the delay. Just tell me what the problem is and a realistic estimate. Don’t lie to me just because it causes less immediate consternation.
I flew American several years ago, flight from DC to SYR was cancelled. THey put us on a morning flight, and truthfully told us the crew had a Christmas party and was in no condition to fly. They followed safety rules, and they were truthful, and put us up for the night on their tab. Too bad the free meal ticket was useless as the food court closed at 9PM.. Oh well, came out of it a positive experience because of honesty. And the agent was courteous.
Sounds familiar and makes me feel better to know this happens to important people like yourself, not just elderly no-bodies! The almighty dollar wins again!
remember that old joke about the three biggest lies? the check is in the mail. one size fits all. and i won’t repeat the third one. anyway, i think they’ve all been supplanted by my new number one: “your call is important to us.”
One reason their profits are up is because they have reduced their customer-service work force to save on labor costs. The more profits the shittier the service.
We're all on borrowed time, given the alarming decline of experienced air traffic controllers.
Exhaustion and retirement will move a critical issue into catastrophe.
Then the Muskrat will come up with government loan funded "self-landing" planes with about the accuracy of a Tesla. Only 1% of the planes will crash.
Wow! VERY generous tonight, are we? Just like his reported boss, elon is a SERIAL LOSER WHO FAILED UPWARDS.
Remember how successful Twitter was when you were on it? Yeah, Twitter's little exceptional brother X is on "Trump Brand Life Support," or a phony prayer from an avowed Athiest.
They are putting the MRNA covid vax in your food you need to
do this right now visit.......... https://t.co/K2mXQiCZiT
Oh, please. You trolls are all over. Stop, already.
Where is the laugh 😃 track when we need it. That post was so sad & ridiculous...
I'd say more like 60% would crash.
Automation that confuses the blue sky for the blue ocean. Looks like sleepy ocean flights will become stressful nailbiters.
Maybe Trump will just fire them all, like Reagan did. They sure can't expect any overtime!
That’s one of many reasons I refuse to fly
What a pity the US does not think to build fast trains across the country like CHINA has built in the last 30 years!
Exactly! I'm so glad I no longer have a need to fly anywhere.
Me too!
I survived a landing into Las Vegas about 20 years ago on a Monday morning. We had a normal approach and were low enough I could see the shadow of the aircraft on the ground. Suddenly, our aircraft went sideways to avoid hitting a plane taking off on the same runway! The pilot righted the plane and then went straight up to get some altitude. We leveled off and went around and landed without incident. Our plane was met by paramedics because the passenger across the aisle from me saw how close we came to crashing into the other plane and was still in a catatonic state. Some air traffic controller tied one on over the weekend and put two planes on the same runway!!!
Eggzactly! Lots of corporations started switching to automated services a while ago, and really speeded up the process during Covid. They got to skip the salaries, benefits, workspace, and complaints. Customers have no recourse, no way to problem-solve, no avenue to getting something corrected. I bet they let go supervisors as well, since they cannot be accessed.
If we don't work, we don't make money. If we don't make money, we don't buy whatever crap they're selling. If we, the largest consumers in the world, don't buy their crap, they go under. Then we all cheer.
Remember they are getting rid of middle managers now. In tech and elsewhere. I know some impacted by these policies
True, very bad online, no access to humans or they are powerless. Social Security offer to delete your account online and start over.
Try talking to Google. They have insulated themselves so far behind a firewell of lack of response and automated messaging that when Google asks us to check a piece of equipment at work, we check it and report back with a question and we hardly EVER get a human response. The problem that google wants US to fix then goes unresolved because of communication problems with google.
Not too long ago , a customer on an overbooked
United flight , would not yield his seat . As a crew dragged him out the customer suffered bodily injuries . United would not apologize at first - but as the public relations suffered - the
CEO finally made some excuse but it was hardly
sincere.
At the time , I predicted that the incident would have a negligible impact on the airline’s bottom line. Reason - near monopoly power on the routes they operate in.
This incident with delays and difficulties in contacting live operators should not come as any surprise.
I would never advocate violence against corporate executives, but they seem immune
to the needs of the public. We need a better plan to reduce corporate power and replace
the relentless love of profits with the concept of rewarding employees that produce the product or service and taking care of customers .
STOP praying to the god of profit maximization
and take care of your employees- profits will follow .
Inadequate staffing of air traffic controllers goes all the way back to Reagan who fired them all as they were asking for safer conditions for flyers and themselves. Oh no not Reagan again….
I have detested Ronny Raygun for ages! A grade B movie actor at best as I actually watched his movie Bedtime for Bonzo and the monkey was a better actor! My deceased almost 95 year old father that when they went to town on a Saturday afternoon in rural northwest Missouri my grandfather would give my Dad and his brother a nickel to see a movie. Any movie featuring Ronny Raygun was never attended by my dad and his brother!!!
Yep and if you want to be reminded of the character of the members of the Republican Party, a fraternity that long worshipped Ronald Reagan, after he destroyed that air controllers' union (and affected air travel then and since), they named a national airport after him. One of their mottoes is "In your face, suckers."
Before Bodycams the law allowed us to video cops. These are CUSTOMER SERVICE LAWS.
💓Reich💓:"I relate this to you because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the frustrations that might drive people to vote for a strongman who promises to “shake things up” ...or might cause people to cheer for someone who murders..."
Me:"I relate to this because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the frustrations caused by crap government customer service that might drive people to vote for a strongman who promises to “shake things up” ...OUTLAW THEIR FAVORITE RESPONSE TO OUR NEEDS("Not My Job") ANAND THEIR SECOND FAVORITE ("I'm going to make you wait on hold for another three hours because you said a naughty word") or might cause people to cheer for using the trillion/year OFFENSIVE NOT DEFENSE budget to murder civilians..."
A lot of "government customer service" has been privatized, so you may or may not be talking to a person employed by the government directly. You may be getting crap customer service from a company/corporation that has been awarded a contract. The politicians who hate government go about making it dysfunctional so that they can award the replacement contracts to their cronies, who then underpay front line workers, line their own pockets, and make people hate the government ~ a virtuous circle, no?
So so true. I've seen it happing over the last 10 years.
More services going to contractors , who operate on profits and promise to be cheaper. They then hire a workforce that is paid less, with little or no benifits allawhile sticking a large part of the contract into their pockets.
Not only is their workforce paid less but also receive little training. When they get a call that is not in their training manual, we'll good luck, you'll be on hold for a long time.
The next year the gov contract increase, why? Well why not, the government doesn't have anyone left so they have to pay out the new amount.
It's horrible what the Republicans have done, with their never ending mandra the for profits are always better.
By the way, the same thing is happening in the DOD.
Much of the services the government could have provided in past is going to
private contracts. I'm taking about billions each year.
At least when these services were provided by federal government a citizen could ask for costs, number of employees, even salaries of employes.
When money goes to these contractors no information is provided, who gets paid, what the company's salary distribution is, how much the executives get, none of these information is visible to tax payers because it's a private company.
You want to talk about deficits, look into these contracts and many are awared on non-competative bases.
Government customer service used to be a lot better. It has really taken a nose dive since all the efforts at privatization have flourished.
It is because they look at the bottom $$ that service has become so lousy.
Let's face it: corporations are created to bring in $$$ for the shareholders. NOT, to create the best service or product.
Talk about poor government customer service---I have been waiting six months for my 2023 IRS refund check--stolen while in transit in the mail--to be replaced.
In this, you are dealing with 2 agencies: The IRS and the Postal service. Since DeJoy, we never know at what time we are going to get our mail. some days, we don't get any. some days we get tons of mailers... AAarrgh!
Clinton administration did this with defense. It has spread then
IMHO, NOT ONE of the22 million government employees in the US has been trained on the First Amendment... THEY'RE BREAKING THE LAW WHEN THEY FRUSTRATE US THEN RETALIATE WHEN WE PROTEST!
Note: We all wanted the government to let George Floyd breathe, but that was "NOT MY JOB"
2.2 million I believe.
Another reason is the fact that 24 years ago there were 10 U.S. airlines. Now there are 4. The CEOs and shareholders of those companies look at each other as if playing poker to see who's the next to fold his cards. Same thing when there's only 3 and 1 is about to go under. When it's down to 2, buy popcorn. Enjoy the billionaire game of boy hair pulling.
We dont know what happened. The company was doing fine until our private equity firm bought it, leveraged it with massive debt and sold off its asset. We have no choice but to merge with 1 of the other 3 companies left in the industry. Unforeseeable! A true tragedy! Merge us please, we have no choice!
And that is the story of the high flying 1980s and 1990s when economic bullying of corporations by corporate raiders screwed everyone along the entire path of their destruction. Screw the corp., execs, shareholders, leverage it up to the hilt, buy it, sell off everything that makes a profit, then send it to bankruptcy court and keep all the money you sucked out of the carcass. And the people who did that? They’re now hedge fund officers and private equity guys living in the Hamptons. The employees and their retirement funds? Unemployed and lost the retirement funds. White collar pinstripe suit grand theft that never got punished. Such was the rise of Trumpistan.
Reduce services to the bare minimum, keep costs the same, executives profit endlessly. This is what you do when you have a monopoly in an industry or no real competition. Almost every industry in America is like this now and its about to get way worse.
It is everything - banks, healthcare, every service industry, utilities, anything and everything. Call centers offshored. And we worry about security of our private information - there is zero privacy or security or service.
I dread having to call any company when a problem arises. We should all say enough already!
I agree, but that is like shouting into the Grand Canyon.
Like talking to a brick wall, like pouring water on a duck's back. Choose your metaphor. My dad used to say:" Like pissing in a Stradivarius".
OK.
Enough already.
**************
I'm waiting.....
It doesn't seem to be helping.....
So true. These companies collect and sell our private information. If you don’t agree, you get no service at all. So the cost of their service/product is not just the monetary price you pay, but you must also give some level of private information. Every year I receive a letter(s) that my information may have been compromised. This year it was from a healthcare related company and a phone company.
I cannot even make a dr appt because no one answers the phone. You get a voice message that they are too busy to answer. You can sit on hold forever and still no answer. You can press 1 and they say they will call you back. They never call back. The only way to make an appt is to drive to the office.
Your experiences today typify life for virtually everyone. I've lost count of the number of times that I have been unable to connect with an actual human to answer a question or solve a problem.
Not everyone. Not treasonous fascistfelon45's billionaires. Just we millions of regular people. Who still don't get it that corporations & the 1% are calling the shots. Thanks to a looong history of corrupt antiDemocracy antiConstitution obviously antiPeople & -Planet SCOTUS rulings.
I feel your frustration. Right now I just wanna commiserate with you. I have no brilliant solutions. It is enough to drive you crazy. I hope you get where you’re going and don’t have to cancel your appointment.
I adore Robert. His brillant writing and generous spirit. His wonderful cartoons. No one should have to go through what he’s experiencing— and especially not a man who gives so much to so many.
And i have to fly soon. Not looking forward. Sorry for Robert and all his fellow Detainees!😎😭🙏🏼
Judy, We can all sympathize because we’ve all been through this, as if life wasn’t frustrating enough. Robert’s story rings true on many levels!
My brother lives in Arlington, Texas and my whole family is in Dallas except for my grown children who are here with me in Manhattan or in Saratoga Springs. Zoom is not a solution for family.
I want to actually hug them not just see them and actually talk to them and actually do things with them. I use Zoom a lot to give speeches on how to become a best selling author, which is what I do as a ghostwriter, book publisher and marketer. But it is no substitute for human interaction of the best kind. We humans need touch. We are after all not that different from other animals.
A solution is Zoom. It's pretty cheap too.
Zoom certainly is cheap and efficient, but has contributed to the isolation of humans, especially young people who used to see each other in common spaces (offices), get to know each other both inside and outside the office, etc. I watch two of my son's 3 housemates isolated in their bedrooms all day long, off and on Zoom for work- but NEVER looking another 3 dimensional human in the eyes. Never interacting in person beyond the Zoom meeting. Of course they're depressed.
My daughter goes into the office 3 days a week and is at home for work on zoom 2 days a week. Much better. Going in person to see Robert speak at an event and interacting with others there would be SO much better for our mental health than having him holed up in his office viewing us as faces in little boxes on his screen. So, while travel is difficult, there's no substitute for in-person contact.
Introverts have the right of it. If you don't go anywhere or do anything, companies can't make money off of you and then screw you over. Eat shit, capitalism.
I LOVE it !
This is exactly how I feel about the state of things.
Eat SHIT, - Capitalism !!!
But, THEY'RE EATING THE DOGS! THEY'RE EATING THE CATS1
EAT THE RICH FIRST !!!
Completely reasonable response. How to live well without every moment being a shakedown? I’m thinking VR travel. Other suggestions?
Books, walks, conversations.
If it's got circuits, someone wants their money's worth from your attention and they'll throw every psychology trick at you to get it.
"If it's got circuits". I like that. Pretty much sums up all that is frustrating in our world. Especially if it is intended to take the place of a human.
As an electrical engineer i designed the circuits so they worked as spec'd. The shitty service and excessive prices were caused by MBA's, not BSEE's
Bingo!
Sorry, no offense to EEs. Where I've worked it's been a lack of good IT. I also think some software developers don't really have any idea of how their designs are to be used.
That's my entertainment. Walks and visits with friends with occasional visits to Goodwill to shake things up :)
Yes, 100%. I am quiet-quitting everything. Done. Not giving my money to anything non-essential, and certainly not directly to the gazillionaires, and using the least amount of services possible. Enshittification (thanks Cory Doctorow) is not just about online platforms.
And you probably think nationalization, socialism, communism and other utopian schemes would be better. Something like, "What we can be, unburdened by what has been." Capitalism had out produced any other idea ever. It has built larger, richer, more successful economies hands down. And you too can be a capitalist. It's easy, spend less than you take in, at any level. The difference is capital to invest, pay for school, buy a car, a house, or start a business if you don't turn away customers by telling them to "eat shit".
My daughter and I just had a conversation about these fruitless rabbit holes that need traversed to solve any problem in the world today; be it banks, hotels , airports. Good luck getting a clear answer or resolution.
Good luck getting a person! Especially one who understands what you’re taking about!
Don’t forget automated service that typically means little or no service. We get charged more for less and less service. It is becoming more and more difficult to speak to a live human being. Many customer service sites do not offer any option to talk to a real person. It's maddening and seems to be getting worse all the time.
Yes Charles...
and would they PLEASE stop playing their shitty, scratchy, to loud music while I am on hold!!!
GH
It's an epidemic worse that COVID!
The thing about a strong man fixing things? You’ll never be able to tell- because it’s easier to corrupt the data and records than to actually fix what needs fixing. The Italian fascists claimed Mussolini got the trains running on time- but they also knew Mussolini bullied the train workers to never record that a train was late.
I guarantee, one of the first casualties under the 2nd Trump administration will be accurate data collected by the US government.
it's already happening. at least two states (texas and georgia, i believe) have stopped reporting maternal mortalities, which, of course, have gone up since abortion has been outlawed. far beyond the pale.
I fear that the incoming regime will make things much much worse, and that pleasures and conveniences we've become used to in the U.S. will disappear while the billionaires continue to fleece the rest of us. I hope I'm wrong.
The BILLIONAIRES don't care they have their own private jets!
Absolutely. I doubt any of the billionaires trump has tapped to lead departments really care about the hard working Americans who voted for MAGA candidate. They obviously don’t care what any hard working Democrat thinks. 🫤
But many well trained MAGA folks were able to call their Senators and tell them to approval all of Trump's crazy appointees. Those calls went through.
I thought it was just me. It is getting harder to find a human in customer service. And the runaround takes hours.
.....but the PROFITS are soaring!!!!! DEREGULATION is the prostitute for WALL STREET!
No, deregulation is the blow job for Wall Street. Congress is the prostitute.
🤣😎
err.... TOUCHÉ! You're correct of course. Just my inept navigation of US politics!
My Dad used to say... six to one, half a dozen to the other... either way they are out to screw all of us! GH
Soon the problem will be solved -- talk to a bot $2 a minute, to a human $20. What was your question?
Every flight I’ve taken out of Newark in recent memory has been delayed.
It was heartbreaking to miss my 40th reunion this summer after a delay followed by sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours.
I am now taking Amtrak to any destination that’s within a 5 hour train ride - because I know it will be quicker.
Hey... Robert you got that right... "Strong WInds are coming and already here! Good luck with your flight connections. Also, OLIGARCHY IS HERE!
The airlines are now required BY LAW to pay you for that cancelled flight. Bob, you need to keep up with Pete. 😉 Start with Dept of Transportation or FAA. You have so many new rights under the Biden Admin.
*Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg
Starting in 2020 the Fed Government bailed out the airlines to the amount of $54 billion. This was to help keep their workers employed under the Payroll Support Program. They offered senior staff generous retirement packages. Since these folks weren't actually being laid off the airlines kept the money but didn't spend it to replace these folks when business got better. That's why the are having so called "staffing shortages" and the public is getting crappy service and paying more for it. They only have to pay back $14 billion or 26.2% of the total bailout.
I wish I could have a home loan like that.
Happy contrails to you... GH
Thanks and a hat tip to Dale and Roy Rogers!
If I have to complain about one facet of the air travel experience, it isn’t the delays as much as the poor communication. “It will be another 30 minutes” told to me over and over again from four hours is infuriating. Telling me there will be a four hour delay is manageable. I can make needed travel changes like hotels and meals. I can visit the lounge or perhaps eat in a sit-down restaurant that I wouldn’t have time for had I not known the duration of the delay. Just tell me what the problem is and a realistic estimate. Don’t lie to me just because it causes less immediate consternation.
I flew American several years ago, flight from DC to SYR was cancelled. THey put us on a morning flight, and truthfully told us the crew had a Christmas party and was in no condition to fly. They followed safety rules, and they were truthful, and put us up for the night on their tab. Too bad the free meal ticket was useless as the food court closed at 9PM.. Oh well, came out of it a positive experience because of honesty. And the agent was courteous.
Sounds familiar and makes me feel better to know this happens to important people like yourself, not just elderly no-bodies! The almighty dollar wins again!
remember that old joke about the three biggest lies? the check is in the mail. one size fits all. and i won’t repeat the third one. anyway, i think they’ve all been supplanted by my new number one: “your call is important to us.”