How robots paved the way for Donald Trump

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. Everywhere I go service is utterly horrible, even with companies once known for service.

1) people don’t listen. No matter how clearly you state an order, explain your need, people don’t listen. I’m not just talking about fast-food-—it’s everywhere. I spent hours with a saleswoman for a new home we were building. I stated again and again, “We have plenty of money for a down payment, but my monthly payment CANNOT be more than $X”. Again and again she would mindlessly print out a document only to have the final number be $X+ something. I said, “You aren’t LISTENING. I can put down as much as needed, but the monthly number must be $X.” After several attempts, she finally got it.

Now, some of this is the attention span issue. But another big part is the computerization of everything. People who take your order are so anxious to get to their next stock question they don’t even let you finish ordering because they are tapping on their screens.

2) The roboticization of products is getting to the point that once anything breaks, you cannot fix it. Our tv system in our house is fully prompted (”Watch a DVD,” “Watch DirectTV”) but if anything happens, you can’t even turn the TV on-—or if you can, you need to keep 4 separate remotes, fully programmed and up on batteries-—for every single device.) Cars are getting to where you can’t drive without the seat belt bell driving you nuts. I’m not stupid, but when I rent an unfamiliar car, it takes me 20 minutes sitting in the lot just to figure out how to change radio stations, turn on the air, etc.

3) Devices supposedly for our “safety” are now utter nuisances. Who has had a smoke detector start chirping, but it’s so high in a vaulted ceiling you need a hook-and-ladder truck to reach it? I’m having all mine ripped out and replaced with the (expensive) 10 year devices so that I just don’t ever have to change them. Hotels have heat and air pre-set so you can’t cool a room.

4) Need a product replaced? Good luck. My wife bought Sur la Table plates. These are not cheap. She needed 10. ALL TEN arrived broken or chipped. She reported it. “Oh, that’s ok, we’ll send you new ones.” She said, “Wait! You MUST pack them differently. Only paper separated them.” No one listened. Next set of TEN arrived, all broken. Once again they replaced. This time she got four. On and on til eventually, after four orders and probably 40 total plates, she got 10 not broken. What did this cost the company? If they did this 100 times, the costs would be massive.

Or consider this: we bought a sofa set at Ashley Furniture-—not a high end store, but decent stuff and good prices. There was a “throw” on the sofa, so my wife said, “Can we just take the throw with us and then you won’t have to deliver it?” Salesman said “fine.” He marked it on the sheet.

When the sofa was delivered, there is another throw. My wife said, “We already got this.” The guy looked at his (uncorrected) sheet and said, “No, you got a throw coming.” We (stupidly and honestly) insisted he take it back. Two weeks later we went to buy another large dining room piece3, but this time our Ashley credit card was tapped out-—because instead of just deducting the throw, the wizards at Ashley placed a whole NEW order on the system (charged to our card) then deleted the previous one . . . but the previous one didn’t come off the card yet!

What’s my point in regaling you with all these stories? It is that I think a human revolution is brewing. We see it in politics, we see it in the economy, we see it everywhere. I think soon we will see a massive resistance to a great deal of automation/roboticization and a return en masse to human made goods, QUALITY human service, the removal of computer “answering systems”, etc. (Just try having a problem with your credit card and not knowing a pin number.)

I’m not sure exactly when we’ll see this, or where it will show up first, but the times, they are a changin’.

When "American manufacturers" Carrier or GE as an example manufacture their products off shore, aren't those included in the "US manufacturing output" statistics?

I thought so.

If I buy a GE refrigerator manufactured in Mexico is it an imported refrigerator or an American product?

The Great Shift Toward Automation and the Future of Employment
http://hubpages.com/business/The-Great-Shift-and-the-Future-of-Employment

I get you. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve gone to the supply house and had to ask about 5 times for something. People do not listen anymore.

ALL TEN arrived broken or chipped.

Orson Scott Card recently wrote, one thing he likes about Amazon.com is that they got it right on how to ship books.

I totally concur with your post. I thought automation was supposed to *help* us in our daily lives, not complicate things. I hope your prognostication comes true since I make handmade custom banners for parties as a sideline business.