Please Help Yourself

As our economy closes in on a possible recession, the end of customer service will only help it slide further 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'll just make the rich richer and put more people out of work.
Jeff Richmond, MONROVIA, MD., U.S.

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

As someone who runs a company dedicated to the automation of customer-service systems, I can say with some authority that 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 also end up more knowledgeable about a company's product than the customer-service agents themselves. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire and retain employees to fill these positions, making customer service inconsistent at best. Technology, when implemented effectively, will fill these gaps and provide a better and more consistent level of service.
John Putters, PRESIDENT, VISIONSTATE, EDMONTON, ALTA., CANADA

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, FLA., U.S.

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, N.C., U.S.

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, WIS., U.S.

The culture just gets more impersonal and isolated than it already is. It's almost like life in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Will we regain our humanity and ability to communicate before the machines totally take over our lives?
Marie Skertic, WILLINGBORO, N.J., U.S.

The Keys to Common Wealth
In "Common Wealth," Jeffrey D. 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, FLA., U.S.

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]. Governments should agree to heavy regulation of any field experiments in their waters, and similar international controls should be put into place. Instead of seeking ways to mitigate the effect of greenhouse gases, policymakers should attack the problem head-on by regulating industry and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The solution to global warming is to stop putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Anything short of this is an imperfect and flawed approach that will ultimately fail.
Alan Foreman, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S.

Land of Peril — and Peace
Since my wife and Ijust returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank, I read "Israel's Secret War" with great interest [March 24]. We were both concerned and encouraged by what we saw of everyday life in that troubled part of the world. While we believe Israel's border checkpoints help provide security that its citizens deserve, we also saw checkpoints located well inside the West Bank that seem to have the purpose of hassling Palestinians. It was encouraging, though, to meet with Father Elias Chacour, a Catholic Archbishop and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who runs a school for Jewish, Muslim and Christian children. We were also encouraged by life in Galilee, whose population is a fifty-fifty mix of Israelis and Palestinians. The city can be a model for peaceful coexistence in all of the Holy Land.
Steve Hawkins, BOULDER, COLO., U.S.