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blew me right away the first time i tried to cash a $100 mo at the local po and was told it was a no go. especially when you know they ought to and do have more than $100 just to open the doors everyday-some moron's idea of how to keep robbers away. but blaming the gov't. is way off the mark here. in case you haven't noticed; no one is doing what they are doing. 'bakers' don't bake a loaf of bread to sell anymore; they put together the cheapest facsimile of a 'loaf of bread' that can be merchandised as a 'loaf of bread'.
services are promoted as solving a particular problem or satisfying a particular need, but, in fact, service the promoter first and foremost, leaving the purchaser to work it out on his own; ala the mo. even the sick are rousted from sleep, or what peace they can grab in a hospital, and scheduled into the 'caregiver's' routine so that 'production' will not falter, and billing can proceed.
i worked for the po long ago, and i can tell you that at that time, service to the customer was paramount-no bullshit excuses why mail was late, lost or mistreated. you could then add 25cents or so to the postage and have a guy personally deliver the letter as soon as it reached the po in the addressee's town. i knew very few people there who didn't take what they did seriously.
now the only thing taken seriously is 'how much can we get and put out as little as we can. a buddy called me today to ask my opinion on a guy who did some work for him. changed a termocouple on the pilot light of his basement space heater-$150 plus parts. i told him that no, not that much work was involved but that those guys have to make several hundred a day or they'll drown, so they really don't want to come out for much less than a couple hundred. then he said the guy just does this on the side-not his real gig, and that he had previously replaced the bathtub faucet(valves, spout and showerhead w/ two 12" supply pipes replaced for $650 and tokd my buddy he was getting it 'cheap'. i told him time to find a new guy-this one figures he's got the goose that laid the golden egg. my point really is that we've somehow engendered a society wherein doing things right or well is irrelevant; what counts is maximizing the take and upping the volume. hence, we've wound up w/cars that cost more than my first house and have not a fraction of the substance which used to be 'standard ' on a common chevrolet. the knowledge of a better time and way does not last much more than a generation or two-'special d' is just an elvis tune to a diminishing portion of the living.
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