If readers are worried that a lecture on homelessness or poverty follows, I can assure them that depersonalization in industry, commerce, politics, government and non-profit organizations affects most of us, including the well off. At the root of the problem is a passionate interest in the “Bottom Line,” to the exclusion of other values. Let us start with what might seem trivial on first blush. Our local telco used to own the Yellow Pages; the classified directories were in one volume and the alphabetical directories, personal and business, in another. After the telco sold most of its interest in the Yellow Pages, the list of businesses in alphabetical order was added to the classified listings, producing a volume which weighs five pounds (2.23 kilos). I cannot handle this book with one hand. The innovation is a definite nuisance for every one but particularly for elderly or arthritic subscribers.

When we moved, we left our garden composter behind. The new owners were pleased and we avoided a messy disposal. I went to the local Home Depot and found that they had sold out of composters. I wanted to contact the nearest Reno Depot, a competitor, to see if they had one in stock. However, all the stores were now served by a regional number and it was impossible to contact a particular store. The regional operator came on without delay and told me that neither prices nor availability could be given over the telephone. With the boundless price consciousness of customers, it is understandable that prices cannot be given out, but availability? The only way to find out whether a composter waited for me at Reno Depot was to drive there, a round trip that would take the better part of an hour. Interestingly, I wound up buying two composters from a municipal “Eco Centre,”— one for us, and one for our neighbor. Montreal has a world famous Botanical Garden which includes a large arboretum of North American trees as well as trees that grow in other countries that experience severe winter weather. The entire terrain is large and around the perimeter is a road used by maintenance vehicles and by a passenger train powered by a truck engine called La Ballade. I have a friend who has never been to the Japanese Pavilion and adjoining garden. She is somewhat handicapped and I wanted to find out whether la Ballade ran during the autumn months. I called the Garden and listened to a very long menu as well as announcements of forthcoming events. Because there are very few, if any, steps to the greenhouses or the various outdoor environments, there was no information for handicapped visitors. I waited until the recording was over and then dialed 0 for an operator. A recording advised me that there was no operator to answer my question. Translation: “ If we have not anticipated your question, it’s tough luck.”

This policy of letting individuals scramble in order that the providers of goods and services save money is not confined to North America. Several years ago my wife and I were planning to leave Dublin by ferry after a memorable tour of the southern and western portions of the Irish Republic. We were staying at a B&B and planned to leave for Britain on the Sunday. There are two terminals and two different companies whose two ferries do not land at the same place - one goes to Wales and the other to Liverpool. I called both companies and received recordings about arrivals and departures for Saturday only, and there was no way of bypassing the system. I told our hostess, Mrs. Kelly, about our problem and she told us to leave it with her. After a last day of Dublin sightseeing, we returned to our quarters and found all the details regarding Sunday departures in our room. We had been staying in various Irish B&Bs for about ten days and found the hosts of these places outstanding – an especially friendly and helpful group. Without Mrs. Kelly, we would have simply had to get to one of the terminals on the assumption that the Saturday and Sunday schedules were the same, which is often not the case. All of these examples have one thing in common: The Bottom Line causes the inconvenience.

Now we get into more serious territory. When the Museum of Modern Art on Manhattan’s 53rd Street reopened after a long period of expansion and reconstruction, the entrance fee had risen to $20 for adults, $16 for seniors, and $12 for students. Children under 16 are admitted free, a laudable provision for family visitors. On Friday nights, a commercial sponsor, the Target Company underwrites the cost of admission. This latter arrangement will certainly benefit many students and others who are capable of arranging their visits to suit the Target program. Unfortunately, thousands of New Yorkers and tourists will be turned away by the $20 adult fee because they either cannot afford it or the fee represents what is known as “sticker shock.” In general, commentators who wrote about the re-opened Museum failed to mention the problem. One person who questioned it was told that it costs a lot of money to run a museum like MOMA. Since one of the cardinal purposes of any museum is to reach the public and to bring the benefits of art to society, losing a greater than necessary segment of that public is deplorable. However, it is apparently good for the Bottom Line.

In the bad old days, individuals who wanted to be college teachers, chose a subject in which they were schooled themselves, and then sent out resumés and went for interviews. To be sure, not all MA’s and PhD’s found employment, but many did. Today the employment situation has changed drastically in that very few candidates are hired and most wait in so called “Pools” from which they are beckoned to teach courses on a contract basis. One such swimmer tells me that he has thousands of colleagues in southern New England in the Pools. It is wonderful for the colleges, giving them maximum “flexibility.” To put it another way, it is good for their Bottom Line since the institutions do not have to worry about benefits. But the people in the Pools are in a precarious position because they cannot count on continuous employment, even if they belong to several Pools. Saving for retirement is very difficult if not impossible for them. These problems apply to self-employed persons in general, except for a significant minority. Newspaper articles often feature the self employed, making plenty of money and enjoying their so-called freedom, but a detailed analysis of these individuals would not be newsworthy. I have seen statistics indicating that this group makes substantially less money than those in a traditional employment situation. The self employed as a segment of all those who are employed continues to grow. This growth and the employment effects of Free Trade are generally regarded by editorialists and other punditry as “acceptable” costs for a rising Gross Domestic Product. Human beings suffer big losses and big anxieties, but they are no longer important in the “new economy.” In fact, for officers and major shareholders of business corporations, the smaller number of traditional employees the better.

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Fifteen years ago many top executives of large corporations believed that they had three constituencies: shareholders, employees and the communities in which they operated. Such ideas are no longer in evidence since they would be dismissed out of hand as laughable. As always, there would be problems in turning back the clock if we were to institute a Free Trade system that gives attention to wages and working conditions on a worldwide basis. For example. General Motors claims that the cost of its employee health care benefits adds $1500 to the price of every car it produces. This kind of generosity is probably impossible in the best international- trading system we can devise. But one must hope that the infatuation of a “Dog Eat Dog” system that at the moment brings a measure of prosperity to some less-developed countries and creates a large underclass in the United States and Canada, will eventually be questioned. The current approach to economics and society is as much “God Given” as the Gold Standard once was. But we are told “nothing can be done.” To quote Sportin' Life, one of my favorite characters in Porgy and Bess: “It ain’t necessarily so.”

N.B. A Canadian investigative reporter, Linda McQuaig, has written a very serious book challenging the myth that we are powerless to change approaches which harm large groups of citizens.

(The Cult of Impotence) Penguin Books Canada Ltd, Toronto

October 2005