Reagan 'Greed is Good': Broken Airplane Doors, On Hold for Hrs, Walmartification, T. Hartmann
💲How Reagan's Embrace of Greed is Good Brought Us Broken Airplane Doors, Being on Hold for Hours, By Thom Hartmann, Daily Kos, Jan. 29, 2024. -Ed. (355 Recs, 197 Comments).
A Boeing 737-Max9 lost a side door during flight, and commentators in the industry point out the plane manufacturer used to be run by engineers, but now, at the insistence of Wall Street, is run by bean-counters looking out for profits. One of my kids bought a new American-made car last year. While driving on the highway it died, complete with smoke coming out from under the hood; she barely made it to the shoulder where a tow truck could pick her up.
The dealer held the car for months before she hired a lawyer who — after more months — finally forced them to take back the car and give her a partial refund under Oregon’s lemon law: at every turn, she was stonewalled by both the manufacturer and their dealer here. Apparently this has happened to a lot of Americans. And then a friend had the same thing happen with a different US automaker 2 weeks ago; his lemon is still stuck with the dealer.
Every day, millions of Americans are frustrated as they wait on hold for hours to get help from giant, monopolistic corporations that don’t seem to give a damn about their own customers.
Some big banks are even charging if you want to talk to a human being when you call. Stores are jettisoning checkout clerks and cutting staff to increase profits for shareholders. Try getting quick or personalized service at your local pharmacy (which is no longer locally owned, but instead a billion-dollar cash cow for Wall Street). You could jump out of an airplane and land in any random town in America and have no idea where you are because the local businesses — from banks to restaurants to hotels — that used to carry the town’s name have all been replaced by massive national chains.
It wasn’t always this way.
In 1933, a handful of plutocrats who ran the largest companies in America conspired to kidnap or kill President Franklin D. Roosevelt: the so-called “Business Plot” that was exposed by retired Marine General Smedley Butler. FDR called them out, raised their taxes, and increased regulation on their companies to protect the public good. In response, from 1934 until 1981, the morbidly rich backed down: most large American corporations and their CEOs didn’t involve themselves in politics. Instead, they attended to the 5 realms every company’s senior management had to consider when doing business: customers, workers, the local community, the institution of the corporation itself, and the shareholders..
Prior to the Reagan Revolution they attended to the needs of their customers...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/29/2220215/-How-Reagan-s-Embrace-of-Greed-is-Good-Brought-Us-Broken-Airplane-Doors-Being-on-Hold-for-Hou
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