It is Hell to be a Consumer

Today's headline reads consumer confidence is down! Way down!

No kidding? I wonder why?

Could it be that for years the consumer was merely the toy of the commercial world's affections? Yes, they drool all over us with promises of flash and delight in advertisements whose budgets rival those of most indy films. They lure us in, trade our piles of cash for their latest gleaming object and nanoseconds later, when the wonder gadget goes kerput the seller is far too busy moving on to the next great design and finding places to stuff their mounds of money to give you the time of day, unless of course you paid for the magic maintenance agreement!

I waited and waited for my dream kitchen. Just 5 years ago I went for and did the major remodel. I spared no expense, figuring this is a once in a lifetime thing, and went for top of the line stuff. Plus I was so jealous (yes, I admit to this sin) of the many, many museum kitchens I had encountered over the years: state of the art in the home of a person who never cooks. This irony was nearly too much to bear.

Almost immediately things started going wrong. The glass in the microwave/convection oven shattered; the $4,000 refrigerator went on the blink; the water chiller reservoir failed to fill. These were all annoyances during the warranty period that you chalk up to chance. Then the pop up mixer shelf sprung. Then the steamer blew a fuse. (Oh my god, that is a Kafka novel in itself-it is a Gagennau appliance--and it has been 9 months and I am still waiting.) Now the garbage disposal is on its last legs and the microwave has a new problem.

In 2002 I bought a pocket PC. Great machine; works fine. Then I upgraded my desktop computer only to learn that it is no longer compatible with the pocket PC and good lord 5 years have passed so why in the world would the company support the software on the thing any longer--it has reached antique status! This, despite the fact that it worked perfectly. Well, no bother, I had to get a new phone anyway in order to get my work email on the run and now the features of the pocket PC are all in one machine. But there is nothing wrong with my old phone either. In fact I still have it and can still use it.

And now the airlines. Have you ever seen a bigger group of dopes just begging to be regulated? They have effectively stripped all the customer service out of the entire flying adventure, including checking to see if the plane can even fly!!!!

Why have we devolved into a bunch of spend happy replacement consumers of low quality high priced crap? The answer is volume. Sheer volume.

Now that we have reached an economic bump in the road suddenly everyone is edgy and not buying. Well, personally, I see this as an opportunity. Consumers need to take back the night as it were. We need to stop replacing things because it is easy and force the manufacturers to stand behind their products without making us pay extra for it. They should jump when we complain but more importantly they should build things to last in the first place.

This all devolved when we started shipping manufacturing processes to low cost labor markets. This never really helped lower prices for consumers. What it did was enable several layers of middle persons to add cost to the price in exchange for no actual value added other than the logistics of matching up distant labor with distant markets. Now the price reflects the commissions of all these interim sales people (who make a bundle and spend lots of time at resort golf courses all around the country schmoozing one another just to make a sale). And with the increasing cost of fuel there goes another jump in price.

How do we respond? Well, first of all most people stop buying, which is not such a bad thing. How much of the junk stacking up in your house do you really need anyway? Does it really matter how stylish your flatware is that you have to change it every season?

A corollary to stopping buying is that when something breaks we need to get it fixed. This gives rise to employment opportunities for the repair sector. If only you could find a way to solve the problem of spare parts. I seem to recall lots and lots of machinists losing manufacturing jobs, maybe they need to get back in the game. Cottage industries may be seeing a resurgence.

And think of what you can do with all the time you save not shopping. Too bad this downturn didn't coincide with the TV writer's strike; we might have seen a return to the long lost art of visiting. You remember; when you were a kid and people would pop in for 45 minutes or so for a chat and a cup of coffee?

Come on by, we have a french press-no electrical parts, nothing to break, I promise it will be working; but I can't make any promises about the instant hot water tap, but as long as we have natural gas and the stove works we can get hot water and if that breaks there is always the gas grill and if that goes on the blink we can light a fire-oh, wait, we never bought one of those backyard fire pits like everyone else. Well, we can drink tap water if you don't mind a few pharmacueticals.