So I got my new credit card bill today, and I almost threw it out because it looked like a fraudulent photocopy. There was an insert in my bill explaining the new “better” bill. The truth is they’re cranking these things out on some high speed laser copier instead of using the more expensive color printed forms. Some sniveling sycophantic VP somewhere probably suggested getting rid of color to save .05 cents per bill. Nevermind that the VP’s will probably earn bonuses exceeding the savings from the cost cutting forms. To celebrate their new found savings, the board probably uncorked some Cristal while passing out gold-plated BlackBerries and raising their APR another 10%. Meanwhile everyone over the age of 40 is straining to make out the difference between a . and a , on their now hard to read grey-scale only bill. Of course this comes right after they reduced my terms from net 30 to net 15. Just today I read this great article in Slate about how cheaping it out is now SOP. The ironic thing is the vicious cycle this creates.
10 Corporations cut costs which hurt their middle class employees. 20 Middle class is economically squeezed and must resort to reduce spending 30 Corporations are squeezed to reduce costs to meet middle class price demands 40 goto 10
This is what happened to the U.S. MasterLock employees who were layed off when MasterLock was pressured by WalMart to move production to Mexico and Taiwan. Thus forcing the former MasterLock employees to shop at WalMart to lock what few possessions they had left with cheap Taiwanese-made locks. Ah the cycle of life. I’m sure those of you who are trained economists are probably screaming and tearing your hair out over my oversimplified and possibly dead wrong analysis. But then again if you’re a trained economist what are you doing reading this? At any rate I can’t wait until the rich have cannabalized the middle class to the point where this formula doesn’t work anymore, but I fear the amount of pain the middle class is willing to take is fairly high - almost equal to the amount of greed that the wealthiest can impose on them. The Slate article points out how stupid these cost cutting measures are because they cause lost profit/productivity/loyalty through resentment from their customers and workers. The corporate schills keep taking the shirts off our backs and then come back to take our shoes, and everytime we keep letting them take what they want. As for my next bill? I fully expect to get charged postage for the privilege of getting my bill delivered to me.