Your unions let you down. To the tune of billions of dollars. And that's my fault HOW?
No, it's not just the unions. And, No, it's not your fault as an individual. However, in a very general sense, the consumer is partly to blame for a lot of shoddy merchandise and service in this country. Some consumers will buy only the cheapest product. This has resulted in a race to the bottom, as the supply of cheap labor streaming across our borders and the jobs streaming to third world countries. And, as with so many countries, the high birth rate of the cheap labor segment of our population adds to this.
It has reached the point where I have difficulty finding a product made with care or a store with good help. Friday I had a discussion with two middle managers at Lowe's, and they told me that they were helpless. The store had laid off help because of declining sales. So, now, more customers say, "this is my last trip to this store", and sales will decline even further. That store has had six managers in either two or four years, I forget. One of the managers in the conversation put it quite delicately, saying that "The company is hiring people with very little sense of responsibility." Circuit City fired all the higher paid clerks and offered them their jobs back at lower rates. Nardelli did rather the same thing at HD. Nardelli actively courted managers with military officer experience. Many of them left when they realized how his management style portended a shipwreck. He fired the better help and hired street people. Walmart hires the cheapest help they can get. They do try, but are strictly
non compos mentis. The managers are too harried to do a good job, and their hands are tied, or they are just plotting their next promotion. AA has drastically lowered their hiring standards, as well.
I used to be able to fix my own VCRs with a new belt or idler or such. Now, if I can get it open, I find everything is weak and failing, and parts are non-existant anyway. The major manufacturers no longer make their own stuff, they just farm it out to several factories that put a decal on their own junk. Or, they contract a factory to make something of their own design. But each factory makes the product a little differently, and also sells the product under different names, which are then copied by yet another company. The consumer accepts all of this and is resigned to poor quality with very limited durability and zero product support. Most of our immigrants are from countries where poor quality is the norm, so the trend grows. As an example, not immigration-related, China sells a lot of cars in Africa, where there is a lesser expectation of quality. Fiat tried to make cars in Mexico, but the precision required just didn't happen.
So, to end this rant, it is not just our union or just the customer, but goes way deeper into our society. Economics, demographics, consumerism, MTV, Atari, you name it.
Don't take it personally, and don't ask how you are to blame. It's not just you.
But, you knew that.