Feeling stressed out? Overworked with a million little annoying things to do? It's not your imagination. The D.I.Y. society has you performing jobs that older generations had done for them by someone paid to do it -- and was better at it, too. Every upward tick of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is fed by the rising stress and anxiety caused by corporations schluffing their work onto us.
I would like to think that the market will self-correct by inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs to build businesses predicated on old-fashioned standards of service. But there's no sign of that -- not for ordinary people. Only the wealthy command bespoke attention, and only from luxury brands.
It is hard for most Americans to grasp how unpleasant the DIY society has made our lives because few of them travel overseas. If they did, especially to the developing world, they would find overstaffed restaurants and stores. Because labor is cheap in those countries, there is always someone available to wait on you. They can't afford automation so the human touch dominates. Travel agents, for example -- if you're too young to remember the pleasures of having a professional work out a complicated multi-city itinerary and score you a great hotel deal via a personal relationship, you should try it when you go to the developing world. It's a wonderful vibe and I miss it terribly stateside.
Our only hope is individual resistance.
It's already begun. Many shoppers refuse to bag their groceries. Others are boycotting self-scanning checkout lines to save the jobs of flesh-and-blood cashiers. "They're trying to basically herd everyone in, get everyone used to the self-checkouts to continuously cut down on staff," a Canadian named Dan Morris explained to the CBC. "Machines don't pay taxes, they don't pay into the pension plan." Only 11% of Canadians use self-checkouts.
On that United flight fewer than a third of passengers watched a movie. Who wants to clutter their device with an app for every airline they fly? I will avoid carriers like United and American that eliminate seat-back TVs, favor those like Delta that are not, and so should you.
Any time a company gives you a choice between human and machine, like at BK, choose the person. Pick full-serve over self-serve. Patronize businesses that keep people on the payroll and avoid automated BS.
The DIY society will probably win. But we shouldn't go out without a fight.
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