The American Dream Essay Octopus
Part One
Today’s essay is part of what I call my Essay Octopus. It addresses the numerous problematic tentacles that grew from the chimeric body of The American Dream. The promises of business competition, fair legal and political systems, and a level playing field in education, jobs, and good lives, went askew in practice.
Note: When thinking of names for a blog or newsletter over the years, “Rita’s Rants and Ruminations” always sprang to mind. I prefer to lean toward ruminations, but this one is at least a partial rant.
Part One: Customers win through business competition
The original promise of capitalism was that competition between companies would result in customers getting the best quality products at the best price. You and I were to be the beneficiaries.
For most of the twentieth century, many businesses succeeded by selling items built to last. Products remained under warranty for several years at no extra cost to customers. When something broke, it could be repaired. Businesses cared about their reputations. In general, people expected and received good value in exchange for their hard-earned money.
Customer loyalty was key to business success. Stores cultivated relationships with customers. They knew their names, families, tastes, sizes, and budgets. Customers who were treated well and satisfied with their purchases would return.
It sounds quaint now, but integrity was essential to customer loyalty. Phrases like ‘customer satisfaction,’ ‘the customer is king’ and ‘the customer is always right,’ weren’t just hype.
Somewhere along the line, many businesses stopped trying to beat their competition and instead worked to destroy them. Around the same time, customers became pawns to be trapped, fooled, and manipulated instead of satisfied.
In the 1980s, the monopolistic AT&T phone service (Ma Bell,) broke into “Baby Bells.” That was supposed to benefit the public, but the expected lower prices and more fair practices didn’t materialize. Now cell phone service providers, one or two of which are familiar players, are another problem.
I remember the hype before music compact discs were introduced. They were supposed to be considerably less expensive since they cost so much less to produce. It took a long time to see those fairer prices.
When cable TV and then streaming services arrived, we paid for the service, so they were advertisement-free. Now we often pay for the service and see ads unless we pay more to be ad-free.
Toward the end of the 20th century, companies found an alternative to good customer service. We were locked into long-term cell phone contracts with financial penalties for early termination. Captive customers do not require consideration. Dumping a company required a monetary hit not everyone could afford as well as the frustrations of making the change. Changing carriers somehow often entailed losing your phone number.
Corporations use psychology against us to increase profits. Do I want to click a button with the words, “I don’t care about saving money?” I do not. Companies don’t seem to care about how the stress of dealing with manipulation and coercion at almost every turn effects our physical and mental health.
Abhorrent business practices have become more open, bolder, and egregious.
Jacking up prices before “lowering” them for a “sale.”
Selling cheap goods.
Greenwashing.
Expensive products with built-in obsolescence. We used to be able to perform maintenance and make many appliance and car repairs ourselves. That gave us control, cost less, and kept items in use instead of in landfills.
I remember the first time I received a paper business letter that didn’t contain a company’s phone number. The letter informed me of a change (in the company’s favor of course) that I had questions about. I was shocked at the audacity of this one-way communication. Removing their phone number from their letterhead seemed to signal that they wanted mute, passive recipients of whatever they dished out.
No-reply emails, texts, and voicemails from businesses seem equally outrageous.
When that letter arrived a few years ago, I had a “pricking of the thumbs, this way evil comes” realization that has played out. After that, stores replaced human cashiers with machines and customer service agents with automated systems, website chatbots, and AI. Some greedy decisions are being reversed now, but only because companies are losing money.
Grocery stores seem especially manipulative. It feels like a constant shell game for customers.
I see the same size and price package with less product.
They replacing popular brand items with the store’s brand, leaving the only other choice a much more expensive item.
Self-service is no customer service. While American stores replaced people’s jobs with machines, Jumbo supermarkets in the Netherlands opened slow lanes to combat loneliness. Cashiers are encouraged to take longer to scan and bag so they can chat with customers. The supermarket chain also created conversation corners, where Jumbo supplies the space and coffee so seniors can sit and talk.
Most big businesses I call have surveys that only target their customer service agents. Customer service people are usually great. My beef is with a company’s unfair policies and practices and there is no easy way to voice my anger and frustration. As long as they don’t lose too many customers, they don’t care how their policies affect us.
Would we have anything to do with a friend or business acquaintance who treated us in the offensive, manipulative way many companies do?
Don’t get me started on airlines. My fully refundable ticket does not mention those words unless it is in fine print. Why isn’t that $140.00 purchase itemized clearly on my receipt? Evidently, that isn’t required by law.
Corporations in many industries have their lawyers draft legislation and hand it to congressional representatives whose campaigns they funded to be passed into law. The entire system seems skewed in favor of the business gods in this country. Yes, we all know that, but it isn’t right.
One day I fully expect an airline to ask how many breaths I intend to take on a flight and if I’d like to purchase an extra supply of oxygen. Of course, there will be a surcharge if I wait until I run out of oxygen during the flight and have to purchase more.
Ads are so omnipresent that I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime soon a business finds a way to play ads on the inside of our eyelids while we sleep. I shouldn’t give them ideas.
The term “customer service” has become a euphemism right up there with the American Department of War being rebranded the Department of Defense. Only the term customer service came first, then lost meaning in many areas. For big business, it is more about fending off the customer, pretending to care about the customer, and frustrating the hell out of us hoping we’ll go away. Resistance to the corporate borg is fruitless. It’s up to us to change that.
Potential New names for “customer service”:
Customer frustration central.
Customer manipulation and coercion department
Customer Disservice.
If many companies were honest, their on-hold recording would keep repeating, “We couldn’t care less about your call and hope you’ll give up”.
Alternative more genuine “script” “Thanks for continuing to be our customer no matter how badly we treat you. We couldn’t keep terminating jobs, doing less, and making unprecedented profits without your low expectations and passive cooperation.”
Sometimes I am so frustrated at wasting a couple of hours of my life on hold or in a useless system that I wonder if someone hasn’t invested in an empty insame asylum and are hoping to drive us off the edge to fill it.
Corporate brass should have to answer customer service calls themselves for a full day every month. Right now, all they hear is cha-ching. They need a dose of reality and accountability to the public.
What can we do?
We the people are in charge and need to start steering this ship. We need to vote everyday with our dollars and our feet for more caring, equitable business practices.
We have to stop allowing corporations to benefit from illegal or unethical practices. If they profit even after fines and settling or losing class action lawsuits, where is the deterrent?
If we take our business elsewhere, those companies will change their ways or go under.
Too few companies play fair with us of their own volition. When the big players of an industry adopt greedier practices, there is no real competition and we are trapped. Unless we are willing to do without of course. By the same measure, all it takes is one company with good products or services treating us fairly to change an industry's practices for the better. If more ethical companies thrive due to their caring practices, we might have competition for most ethical businesses.
My Car, homeowners, and health insurance companies all have great customer service by humans. (Not that I’m a fan of the insurance industry.) My phone company is wonderful. I still deal with companies with long waits, or poorly designed automated systems. Companies should compensate us for the lost time.
It can take time to research businesses that treat us more fairly, but when we choose well, we only have to do it once. Is the best option always clear? Not even close. Does a company have a good environmental record, but doesn’t treat employees and growers well? Are they greenwashing or wokewashing? If enough of us do what we can, we can create a people-focused business culture.
I put a reminder in my phonethe date of calendar a month before a new payment is due or the date of an annual choice. Then I schedule research time and switch companies. I can’t always make a positive change, due to finances or the number of hoops involved.
Every day, in small and big ways, I vote with my dollars and my feet. I try to avoid rewarding bad behavior by companies just as I would in a kid or a local small business that doesn’t play fair or seem to care.
Seed Pods for what else we can do:
The ethical move pledge for businesses involves "transparent, responsible, and honest marketing."
You can take the pledge for your ethical business here.
If you own a business you can take the Ethical Move pledge and use their emblem on your website. That will help others who care about being good business citizens find you and will spread the word.
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Wow, I'm so impressed with this article and all the valuable information provided. The number of times I've had a pleasant Customer Service experience can be counted on one hand, lately. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Thanks, Judith! I've had unusual number of good experiences with telephone customer service representatives lately. I mean the people, not at all the process involved in reaching those people.