Eliot Wild
Irreverent Agnostic Jerk
I intend the title of this thread as figurative, not literal. I am really interested in reading thoughts on whether or not forum members believe that the quality of life, generally speaking, in the United States, or elsewhere, is at any risk of decline, or perhaps is already in decline, due to a culture of corporate expansion and plutocratic tendencies? Hence, is it possible that our avaricious, materialistic culture that seems to reward growth and expansion of insensitive corporate titans topple like a weird, inverted, top-heavy pyramid?
And I am not necessarily referring to a concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Although that certainly could be a disastrous result of such tendencies.
No, what I am personally seeing is a decline in service and products due to less accountability from manufacturers and retailers because they are a part of a corporate structure that operates mostly in oblivion to customer needs and criticisms.
For example, the convenient store nearest my office, the one most accessible to me during the day, has never, and I mean they've absolutely NEVER, sold me a cold soft drink. To me, it seems it shouldn't be a huge challenge to keep the soft drinks in their coolers cold, but for some reason, this place simply cannot manage to achieve such an ambitious goal. I have decided to boycott, to simply forego this place of business because they obviously have no concern for the needs and concerns of their customers. They have continually, over the course of a year or more, provided subpar service/products and I simply don't feel they should be rewarded for doing so.
However, I really feel like the practical results of my decision in this matter will be to cause me to go out of my way for a cold soft drink, while the store in question will continue to provide poor quality service/products. Nothing really changes, except I am forced to travel an extra couple of blocks to get a cold drink. No big deal. And the store isn't really affected by one or a handfull of customers leaving dissatisfied when the store itself is apart of a corporate entity that suffers nothing noticeable by losing me and maybe a few other customers.
But I feel this lack of attention to customer care evidences something more substantively wrong, and perhaps even ultimately destructive, in our mercantile culture, perhaps an ambivelance extending beyond the mercantile arena.
Am I just unduly bitter over drinking a warm orange soda for lunch?
Or do other people see a trend emerging, perhaps a trend that emerged long ago and is still worsening, wherein corporate giants that are able to so easily influence governmental policy becoming larger and larger, and more and more desensitized to individuals needs and concerns that overall quality of life, at least for most people, actually experiences a decline?
And I am not necessarily referring to a concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Although that certainly could be a disastrous result of such tendencies.
No, what I am personally seeing is a decline in service and products due to less accountability from manufacturers and retailers because they are a part of a corporate structure that operates mostly in oblivion to customer needs and criticisms.
For example, the convenient store nearest my office, the one most accessible to me during the day, has never, and I mean they've absolutely NEVER, sold me a cold soft drink. To me, it seems it shouldn't be a huge challenge to keep the soft drinks in their coolers cold, but for some reason, this place simply cannot manage to achieve such an ambitious goal. I have decided to boycott, to simply forego this place of business because they obviously have no concern for the needs and concerns of their customers. They have continually, over the course of a year or more, provided subpar service/products and I simply don't feel they should be rewarded for doing so.
However, I really feel like the practical results of my decision in this matter will be to cause me to go out of my way for a cold soft drink, while the store in question will continue to provide poor quality service/products. Nothing really changes, except I am forced to travel an extra couple of blocks to get a cold drink. No big deal. And the store isn't really affected by one or a handfull of customers leaving dissatisfied when the store itself is apart of a corporate entity that suffers nothing noticeable by losing me and maybe a few other customers.
But I feel this lack of attention to customer care evidences something more substantively wrong, and perhaps even ultimately destructive, in our mercantile culture, perhaps an ambivelance extending beyond the mercantile arena.
Am I just unduly bitter over drinking a warm orange soda for lunch?
Or do other people see a trend emerging, perhaps a trend that emerged long ago and is still worsening, wherein corporate giants that are able to so easily influence governmental policy becoming larger and larger, and more and more desensitized to individuals needs and concerns that overall quality of life, at least for most people, actually experiences a decline?
