Published: February 15, 2008 02:58 pm            

Capitalism at its worst

Larry Jones, Democrat Columnist

Maybe it’s just me, but lately it seems that businesses that provide either goods or services have become even greedier, pushier and more determined to separate me from my last dollar. The schemes and shenanigans they offer seem to be without limit. Some of the worst offenders appear to be telecommunications companies, financial institutions and auto dealers. Unlike the oil companies who hit you in the face like an armed robber, these other weasels merely try to slowly bleed you to death through chicanery and fine print.

It’s a shame they don’t use the efforts of so many obviously talented and intelligent employees to improve their product instead of conjuring up schemes to take advantage of the unwise or unrestrained consumer.

Instead of becoming successful by providing a quality product or service at a fair and reasonable price, today’s entrepreneurs seem more focused on the modern mindset of “creating wealth,” irrespective of technique. This is much akin to the methodology of the Muslim terrorist — any means whatsoever to achieve their bloody goal of Islamic domination of the entire world.

The biggest part of my “sea duty” in the Navy was spent in squadrons tasked with antisubmarine warfare. In this regard, we worked diligently to develop and refine our skills in detecting, tracking, and, if necessary, destroying Russian submarines. As part of this training, what better group to work with than our own U.S. Navy submariners — sub-mariners or bubble blowers as we called them. Not to be intimidated, they arrogantly professed that there were only two types of naval vessels — submarines and targets. Similarly, I read a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics that labeled consumers into two groups — “sophisticates” and “myopes.”

The sophisticates are the careful shoppers. They exploit the “come-on” gimmicks and never pay a penny in interest or fees. They are always alert for making sure they know what the bottom line is going to be. They use credit cards in order to get cash back on their purchases, accumulate frequent flyer miles or other perks, but they never pay a penny in interest or other charges.

Sadly, the overwhelming majority of American consumers are myopes. They blunder their way through life making unsound financial choices, paying exorbitant prices, and slowly bleeding to death from interest charges and fees. Whether a result of stupidity, lack of self discipline or distraction, these consumers are the ones the greedy corporations “zero in on.”

Despite careful maneuvering through the consumer minefields, savvy shoppers sometimes get taken advantage of, as well. A good example is the purchase of what might appear to be a reasonably priced printer for your computer. What’s not addressed up front is the ridiculously over priced ink cartridges that may cost $30 or $40 a pop, and have to be frequently replaced. Oft times the manufacturers even cleverly devise techniques to prevent viable after market replacements from being available.

Another marketing strategy that I particularly despise is the bundling or packaging of services. A flagrant example of this technique is employed by cable or satellite TV providers. There are very few television channels that I can stand to watch, and yet to be able to receive these few favorites, I am forced to buy an expensive viewing package that has hundreds of choices that I wouldn’t watch on a bet. Telephone service providers are also notorious for using similarly confusing or biased “service” plans. The governmental oversight agencies that should be looking out for consumers do nothing because our politicians are bought and paid for by the telecommunications companies.

Another highly deceptive practice that businesses use to exploit consumers is that of hiding or disguising fees and charges in billing. Phone companies are the masters of this deceit, although auto dealers and mortgage companies can run them a close race.

What can we do? Not much, but we can start to pay more attention to our shopping habits. Become the sophisticate consumer and quit playing the other guy’s game. Carefully screen your bills and become the “squeaky wheel.” Demand your rights as a customer. Last but not least, watch how your elected officials vote on issues relating to their campaign donors. You’ll be nauseated by what you see.

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Larry M. Jones is a retired Navy Commander and aviator who raises cattle and hay in the Brock/Lazy Bend part of Parker County. Comments may be directed to nowhearthis @pwhome.com. Columns submitted to The Weatherford Democrat by guest writers reflect the opinions of the writer and in no way reflect the beliefs or opinions of The Weatherford Democrat.

        

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