Tag Archives: intelligence

Self-Image, Coffee is for Closers, An Economic Last Stand, Whiskey Lies, and Other Things

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This entry is part 71 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The big non-shock in the feed today is that every level of Comcast is all about sales.

This hot on the heels of an 8+ minute recording of someone trying to cancel their cable service.

All that sales, of course, came at the cost of actual customer service–something cable companies are notoriously bad at to begin with.

Now current and former employees and customers are more or less coming out of the woodwork with their own horror stories from both sides of the phone. It’s utterly terrifying and completely expected.

If we think that Comcast is the only big business doing something like this, we’re wearing blinders. Profit above all else seems to be the modus operandi of the economic powerhouses. I guess it’s served them well enough. It was certainly glorified in the Gordon Gecko era of the 80s, when it certainly seemed good for everyone.

But now the disparity between the top and bottom has grown to historic proportions and the middle class has been squeezed right on out of the equation. All those years of being told it’s good for the rich to keep getting richer–and the general population swallowing that lie (often sweetend with the pie-in-the-sky dream of hitting it big themselves, somehow… the lottery is not a business plan)–is starting to fall apart as the super rich are now on their way to making their own rules.

And that quest for eternal profit continues at the cost of everyone who’s helped supply it.

While Comcast is trying to sell to people who just want to be left alone (or, alternately, annoy and confuse them enough that they give up trying to leave), the workers and customers of Market Basket are fighting for the company to keep on with the business practices that have made it a favorite in the regions that it severs.

Market Basket has actually provided solid service, it seems. Both to its employees (who have been known to willingly and happily stick around for decades) and to its customers. But now in-fighting among the family members that own and operate the corporation is threatening to tear it all apart.

It would seem that the issue at hand is the amount of profit to be made. While the business appears to be profitable to continue comfortably–despite the fact that it pays out profit sharing and other bonuses to it’s employees who are already compensated at an above-average rate and it maintains cheaper prices than it’s competition–one faction of the family seems more interested in a quick jump in profits for themselves.

According to what I’ve seen, they’re interested in getting out of the business altogether by selling it off to one of the huge conglomerates. (None of whom are particularly well known for how they treat their employees and who Market Basket is currently beating in most price categories, too.) Through some semi-questionable maneuvering, they’ve managed to oust the CEO who’s been behind the last few decades of sustained business and good-will.

This, of course, has employees and customers livid. Neither group wants to lose the benefits they have–benefits that don’t seem to be hurting the sustainability of Market Basket’s business model.

They’re doing what few can sensibly do against questionable corporate action–they’re standing up to it.

They can do it because the corporation in question is comparatively small and there are many other options for the goods they provide.

There is serious ability to vote with your dollars.

This is not the case with Comcast, which already controls nearly a third of the country’s cable and Internet service and is poised to merge with Time-Warner Cable, the second biggest cable and Internet provider.

It would take millions of people to stand up to just one of those companies. Tens of millions to really make a difference. And the only other real options in most areas for solid Internet service (let alone television service) are generally rated just as bad and engage in the same practices (former phone companies like Verizon and AT&T).

That’s not a market that a small population can have an impact on. Not without destroying their own lives in the process.

And so, unless there’s government intervention of some sort (this would be the importance of the FCC supporting Net Neutrality, among other reforms and safeguards), the people are just stuck with whatever the not-quite-monopolies feel like handing out.

So that’s kind of the state of things and it annoys the hell out of me.

Mostly because I have no real solution that can be implemented.

Anyway, all that and more in the feed below…

Dumbing Down, Questionable Relationship Awareness, Godzilla Humor, Economic Issues, Speed Cameras, and Zepplin

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This entry is part 31 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I hadn’t heard about the Macklemore thing until I saw a post about it yesterday. (He’s since apologized.)

I was left wondering if a bit part of the problem was that we’re not willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt when they say “I really didn’t know.” (Especially if no other public action we’ve ever seen indicates otherwise.)

“Everybody ought to know this one,” people say. “After all, dehumanization of the Jews nearly led to their total extermination in Europe.”

But everyone doesn’t know it.

I know this for a fact because it was one of my big gripes about Star Wars The Phantom Menace (the critter that owned Anakin and his mother: filthy, big nosed, always looking for a deal and/or a way to screw you over, talking with an obvious Semitic accent… same with the obvious Oriental stereotype at work on the Trade Federation reps). Only about half the people I talked to–and they spanned ages from a decade or more younger than me to a few years older–recognized the stereotype.

And the only reason I recognized it was because I’m interested in how minority populations have been oppressed and demonized over the years. It’s not something I ever had explicitly shown to me (though I can recall some implicit statements, usually in old jokes, which I never really got at the time I heard them).

What should really be the case is: No one should know.

No one should immediately think that a character with a big nose is a jab at the Jews. The simple fact that so many of us still immediately see that means that dehumanization is still alive and well.

It’s definitely along the lines of the “Check your privilege” stuff… where we need to remind ourselves that we’re not always aware of everything that goes on inside our own heads, let alone what forces are at work around us.

I grew up in a surprising diverse area for being in the middle of nowhere. Yet, even with all the talk of racism and prejudice on the news in the 80s and early 90s, I’d never seen it play out until, I think it was my Junior Year of high school. When a buddy of mine, who happened to be black, had his locker vandalized with racial slurs.

We were all just dumbfounded… him especially.

The world got a little less bright and shiny that day. And I know that I became much more aware of a lot of the subtle undertones in a lot of my learned interactions… in a lot of the humor that was out there… in who did and who did not interact with one another.

It was more than a few years after that when I learned more about the hunk of hometown that I lived in. One of the local long-time families was cleaning out an old barn and came across one of the original signs that used to sit at the entrance to the area I lived. It said, if I recall correctly: “No Niggers, No Jews.”

And, yet, I’d gone at least 16 or so years before I saw any of that sentiment in action. So things must change somewhat… or, at least, it’s possible to grow up right in the middle of it and not know… until it hits you square in the face.

That’s not to say that, when it becomes clear there is harm/ridicule intended, decisive action shouldn’t be taken to reprimand the perpetrator… but the first step should always be “Dude, this is how I’m seeing this… is this what you mean?” And if the answer is “Really? No!” then a wee history lesson may be in order. In another generation or two, the stereotype may fade even more.

Now, people who actively live down to the stereotypes about their culture/race/whatever… I have little sympathy for them, as they’re part of the overall problem. Possibly worse than the people what use those stereotypes against the larger group. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.