Welcome to the Machine

I was then transferred to a lovely woman who was obviously the mediator. "Hi this is Sheryl," she said with a warm and friendly voice. How can I help you today?"

"I want to dispute the balance on my account," I said.

"Let me pull that up for you."

Somehow, she already had my account number, "Hmm, yes I see," she said.

I gave her the synopsis of this saga and explained that we owed for two months, but had proof of the lost payment. She answered, "Including this month, your balance is $482.19, but if you'll get me a payment of $288.50 and send proof of the January payment in the form of a bank transmittal I'll get your Internet back on today."

By my reckoning that was still more than we owed, but when they offer a 40-percent cut, you take it. You plead guilty to the lesser charge because, when the blue caps get tired from beating you they just send in a new fresh team.

Benito Mussolini once said, "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

I agree. This is what fascism looks like, the corporations hold all the power and you don't have a friend in the world. Too many Americans confuse fascism with totalitarianism and think that it involves steel-helmeted soldiers in jackboots goose-stepping through the Town Square.

This is a business account and AT&T will not relinquish this phone number to another phone carrier until the account is paid in full. Most companies couldn't do without the Internet and don't want the hassle and expense of changing stationary and business cards, invoices and all the minutia tied to changing a business telephone number, including business licenses. So what AT&T is practicing is not just bad business or shoddy business, it's extortion.

It's a system designed to make dispute resolution a torture; designed to waste hours of our time. To put us through all levels of interrogation and then once we've been through the mill, to offer to cut a deal if we'll pay them today. And, we'd better take the deal because they hold all the power. There is no government agency or higher religious authority to appeal to. Our corporatocracy is resplendent in these gimmicks and tricks designed to cheat the public out of their money.

Credit cards, cell phone contracts, loan agreements, rental agreements and satellite TV contracts. When Ronald Reagan got big government of our backs by deregulating these industries, they effectively served us up to the wolves.

Mussolini also said, "The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State; of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative."

A government that doesn't defend its people from crime is a tyranny. A ruling criminal class ensconced and bathed in the warmth of government protection.