Quote of the Day:
Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day?
That’s where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going – to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won’t stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, and as the years pass we’ll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors three generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!
Source:
Douglas Coupland, “A radical pessimist’s guide to the next 10 years”
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Oct. 08, 2010 6:49PM EDT
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I just learned that my healthcare provider, Kaiser, is outsourcing American jobs to Israel, by changing its medicine supplier to Teva, an Israeli company. Israel is ,of course, an illegal occupier of Palestine , a violator of human rights under International Law, and a non-complier of UN Resolutions. Not good PR for Kaiser. I and other Kaiser members are protesting. We refuse to take medicines from a company that is a part of an Apartheid state that treats non -Jews as second class citizens, keeps Palestinians in Ghettos. We ask others to join us to Boycott Israeli products.
Wow. Just because Teva is an Israeli company, we should stop going to Kaiser? That’s like saying we should avoid all American companies because America started the gulf war. There’s a missing link that needs a lot more development in your logic Pat.
And I’m fairly certain that Teva (and its associated companies) has an international presence. It’s one of the largest producer of generic drugs, if not the largest.
And despite losing millions of jobs to foreign countries which is destroying the middle class, our middle class, I constantly run into other middle classers who believe we need to continue policies such as free trade, low import tariffs, deregulation and tax cuts for the rich and powerful multinational corporations. This type of submissiveness is destroying the America we know and I don’t see it getting better any time soon.
people don’t make buggy wheel anymore either. people adapt. you all are way too pessimistic.
Robert, misinterpretation of my meaning seems to be your error, but if you wish to stop going to Kaiser, OK. I and others have written a complaint to Kaiser. We will not accept any drugs from TEVA. I am returning the one RX that I have for an exchange. It would indeed be a good idea to avoid companies that support war and oppression of others. A conscious that is conscientious is a development that I urge.
I highly recommend clicking on the link to “A radical pessimist’s guide to the next 10 years”. Tasty!
Outsourcing didn’t kill travel agents. The Internet killed them by making available online all the information people need to book travel. No longer did the travel provider have to cough up 10%,plus manuals,plus advertising brochures,plus staff, etc.,to get the crucial data to the end user. In turn we have cheaper fares, more convenience in travel and great transparency in costs. Pretty good deal.
“It would indeed be a good idea to avoid companies that support war and oppression of others.” one would find themselves performing nary an iota of shopping, were that the case.
Well, it would be an interesting challenge for sure! Are you up for it?
I am marvelling at the irony of the Rise and Shine Hawaii on the website above today’s blog entry….I wouldn’t want the TV stations and StarAdvertisers to be the only recipients of the RNC’s largesse….
How will you cope?
“Cope? How could you ask such a question! We’re cats.”
Travel agents didn’t vanish, only the ones that were glorified phone operators did. Ask anyone in the industry. There are still agents out there, they are the ones able to provide real value to their clients. Yes, they mainly service the high end market today, but that’s because low-end travelers (like myself) don’t need/don’t want/won’t pay for the services they can provide.
Meanwhile, 99% of the information that TA’s used to provide is available for free on the Internet. So of course there are fewer travel agents.