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Thursday, Mar. 27, 2008
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Please Help Yourself
As the U.S. economy closes in on a possible recession, the end of customer service — one of the 10 ideas you said are changing the world — will only help it slide into one [March 24]. While shopping might become quicker and more convenient, what about the jobs that will be lost? Companies will make more money without needing to pay as many employees, but will that really make the world better? I'm no economist, but I feel it will just make the rich richer.
Jeff Richmond,
Monrovia, Maryland

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As someone who runs a company dedicated to automating customer-service systems, I think your article should have been titled "The End of Customer Service — As We Know It." Thanks to the Internet, not only are people more empowered to access information on their own, but in many cases, they end up more knowledgeable about a company's product than the customer-service agents themselves. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly difficult to retain employees, making service inconsistent at best. Technology will fill these gaps and provide better, more consistent service.
John Putters, President, Visionstate,
Edmonton, Canada

I'm 71 years old, and it's hard enough to lift the heavy grocery bags, let alone do all the work the checkout clerk is being paid for. The same goes for pumping my own gas. Sometimes I yearn for the good old days, when an attendant would not only pump gas but clean the windshield and check the oil too. Companies are more interested in saving money by replacing employees with machines than in making things more efficient for consumers. Anything that makes life simpler and easier is fine, but I don't like the idea of doing the work of employees without being paid.
Mary Lou Bryden,
Wilmington, North Carolina

Faster, cheaper and better constitute the holy grail of technology solutions, but most attempts achieve only the first two aims. Technology can simplify and facilitate a transaction, but good customer service is required to deal with the unique and personal aspects of it.
Bob Livingston,
Los Angeles

The dark side of corporate efficiency and cost savings is the consumers' stress, frustration, anger and wasted time spent attempting to resolve a problem. The interminable wait for a phone representative, the incomprehensible English from India or the Philippines and an unsatisfactory conclusion are all beyond endurance.
Bernard Sussman,
Longboat Key, Florida

I have not found one person who likes automated customer service. It's sad to see human interaction being replaced by computerized interaction. Computers cannot solve a problem, smile or tell you to have a nice day. I'm curious to know where the saved dollars are going: Are they lowering prices for the customers, or are they padding CEOs' retirement funds?
Betty Kroupa,
East Troy, Wisconsin

The culture just gets more impersonal and isolated than it already is. Will we regain our humanity and ability to communicate before the machines totally take over our lives?
Marie Skertic,
Willingboro, New Jersey

Stuff They Don't Need
Re "The New Austerity," most adults I hear from claim that their spending on bigger homes and more cars and stuff is for family [March 24]. But as a high-school teacher, I have never had a student write an essay on the wonderful big home, the two cars or any of the other stuff showered on them. Instead, students write of their parents' absence — due to busy lifestyles or divorce — and the sense that they are disconnected from their peers. I hope your article spurs readers to free up time for friends and family.
Christopher Adams,
Indialantic, Florida

Two Wrongs?
It seems foolhardy and arrogant to push forward with geoengineering processes that would result in alterations of climatic and marine systems [March 24]. Instead of seeking ways to mitigate the effect of greenhouse gases, policymakers should attack the problem head-on by regulating industry. The solution to global warming is to stop putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Anything short of this will ultimately fail.
Alan Foreman,
Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Keys to Common Wealth
In "Common Wealth," Jeffrey Sachs stated that the Millennium Development Goals are to cut extreme poverty, hunger and disease by 2015 [March 24]. Cutting poverty and hunger means more people consuming. Cutting disease means more people. Working toward these goals is meaningless as long as we do not reduce world population. People need to have fewer babies. Anything else produces an endless fight with no chance of winning.
Rodger Skidmore,
Sarasota, Florida

Radical Rethink
Thank you for the article on "Reverse Radicalism," in which you interviewed repentant terrorist Nasir Abas [March 24]. Muslims should listen to him when he says the Koran forbids killing civilians. He could have gone further and stated that Osama bin Laden and others who advocate terrorism are bad Muslims.
Titus Steenhuisen,
Upper Moutere, New Zealand

A Crusader Crashes
All the psychoanalyzing about what drove former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to risk his career by conducting illegal extramarital entanglements seems pointless [March 24]. I doubt such urges in elected officials are different from those of ordinary people who engage in such risky behavior. My heart goes out to Spitzer's family, who have to endure publicly what others suffer privately.
Nadia El-Badry,
Dobbs Ferry, New York

Modernizing Morality
Nancy Gibbs nicely delineated the different kinds of sins that plague our society [March 24]. Believers and nonbelievers have a moral duty to do what is right, an obligation that stems not wholly from religion but more from a universal moral law. There is a higher voice that speaks to all of us every time we commit a deed that is contrary to our place in the world. Why not do the best we can while we are here on earth?
John J. Pino,
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

Is There a Doctor in the House?
I was pleased to see the article examining Hillary Clinton's role in her husband's Administration [March 24]. A brain surgeon's wife doesn't become a brain surgeon by watching her husband operate, even if she was the nurse handing him the scalpel. Clinton may have more knowledge than Barack Obama because she has been in the operating room, but I'm not certain I'd want her handling the scalpel.
David Wilson,
Carson, California

Obama's Abstractions
While everybody has been gasping in admiration of Barack Obama, I have been trying to find out what his policies are [March 17]. His website and his speeches and interviews contain much fine rhetoric, but so far I have found a total of zero realistic policies. Change is a fine slogan, but for the most powerful position in the Western world we need more than slogans. We need realistic policies. Until Obama can provide them, he doesn't deserve to be President.
Neil Wagstaff,
Ashwood, Victoria