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One hope of mine, an actual capitalist solution to this problem of capitalism, is that companies start investing in their service employees more as an asset, no

One hope of mine, an actual capitalist solution to this problem of capitalism, is that companies start investing in their service employees more as an asset, not as a disposable automaton (eg, using higher quality service as a differentiation, which I think is even possible in the low margin / low price areas of business). Already in service industries, it seems like current companies that focus on employees more have higher reputations overall, and often have higher growth despite higher expenses on employees. Costco and Trader Joe's vs. Wal-Mart is the frequently cited example of this sort of case scenario, but there are plenty of others. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that a large portion of the investor class is really great for evaluating long-term value, and too focused on the quarter end. (Quite a number of the better service oriented companies are not public owned.) For the same reason, I'll be honest, while UBI is another way around increasing automation, I just can't see the same short-term oriented investor class fully getting behind this concept, at this time. The last time we had a similar scenario (the Gilded Age), it took a lot of unrest for things to get better for the manufacturing worker class. Unfortunately I wonder if a similar future will happen for the service worker class if something doesn't change...

rfrank 11y ago
> One hope of mine, an actual capitalist solution to this problem of capitalism, is that companies start investing in their service employees more as an asset, not as a disposable automaton (eg, using higher quality service as a differentiation, which I think is even possible in the low margin / low price areas of business). A sentiment I agree with, but if the recent Yelp call center fiasco is any evidence, I don't find it terribly likely.
Kalium 11y ago
I think competing on service quality is only possible where either consumers will accept a price differential or you can manage to avoid any kind of price differential. If I'm at a self-service gas station using the self-service pump and paying at the self-service machine, I really don't care if there's good service from the person behind the counter inside. I certainly wouldn't want to pay more for better service from a person I don't ever interact with.
eli_gottlieb 11y ago
>The last time we had a similar scenario (the Gilded Age), it took a lot of unrest for things to get better for the manufacturing worker class. Unfortunately I wonder if a similar future will happen for the service worker class if something doesn't change... Let's say it: it took the Russian Revolution to get the Western owning classes sufficiently scared that they decided to buy wholesale into Bismarckism and social-democracy.

rfrank 11y ago

> One hope of mine, an actual capitalist solution to this problem of capitalism, is that companies start investing in their service employees more as an asset, not as a disposable automaton (eg, using higher quality service as a differentiation, which I think is even possible in the low margin / low price areas of business). A sentiment I agree with, but if the recent Yelp call center fiasco is any evidence, I don't find it terribly likely.

Kalium 11y ago

I think competing on service quality is only possible where either consumers will accept a price differential or you can manage to avoid any kind of price differential. If I'm at a self-service gas station using the self-service pump and paying at the self-service machine, I really don't care if there's good service from the person behind the counter inside. I certainly wouldn't want to pay more for better service from a person I don't ever interact with.

eli_gottlieb 11y ago

>The last time we had a similar scenario (the Gilded Age), it took a lot of unrest for things to get better for the manufacturing worker class. Unfortunately I wonder if a similar future will happen for the service worker class if something doesn't change... Let's say it: it took the Russian Revolution to get the Western owning classes sufficiently scared that they decided to buy wholesale into Bismarckism and social-democracy.