Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Employees Who Can’t Speak English.
Dear Papa John’s,
I had some unbelievable problems with my order when I called the Lake Ridge, VA Papa John’s to order my dinner this Friday night, which I would like you to address.
When I called to order I was put on hold not once or twice, but four times. When someone finally picked up the phone I ordered two pizzas with two toppings, one with ham and sausage and the other with pineapple and extra cheese. The person who took my order did not seem very alert, and despite that I spoke clearly, I had to repeat myself. When the order was completed he gave me the total without verifying what I had ordered, said the pizzas would be there in about 35 minutes, and hung up on me.
I also put special delivery directions to go around to the back of the house, since I live in the basement of the house. I have never had a problem with this prior. In fact, I rarely have to remind the order taker to put these instructions on my order at all. On this occasion, I did. For the driver’s safety, I courteously left the back door light on since it was getting dark. The front door light was not on.
The pizzas arrived 45 minutes later. When the pizzas were delivered, and despite that the order on the pizza boxes had instructions to go to the back door, the driver knocked on the front door, forcing my girlfriend to run upstairs in a hurry.
When I got them there were two pizzas, one with ham and sausage, and the other not with pineapple and extra cheese, but pineapple and ham.
Normally, I would have just ignored the error, but since I am a vegetarian eating the pizza at all was out of the question.
When I called to complain I was again put on hold nearly a half dozen times. Finally, someone took my phone number again, and recited my order as it was in the computer system. The order they recited was with pineapple and ham instead of pineapple and extra cheese. I corrected her, and was then promptly put on hold three more times.
When finally someone picked up the phone, it was someone whom I can only assume is some manager. I explained the problem all over again and he said what he could do was to “give [me] a 50% discount on my next order.” A lot of good this would do me, since I was delivered food I could not eat. I explained that what I wanted was my actual order as I had actually ordered it. He told me that it would take a hour to deliver the pizza, and he sounded like he didn’t particularly want to correct my order.
I told him to just go ahead and just send me another pizza, this time with the correct toppings. There was a long pause from him, and he finally said, “just send another pizza?”
An hour later, a full two hours since I had first made my order, the correct pizza finally came. The driver gave me the pizza and said he wanted one dollar. The box indeed said one dollar, but I told him that I had already paid for my pizza, that no one at the store told me that I would be charged another dollar, and I wasn’t going to pay more money for Papa John’s to correct my order. The driver then told me, again, that he wanted one dollar.
It suddenly became apparent that the driver had a very poor, if unworkable command of the English language. Finally, after a few moments that seemed like a Texas standoff over a pizza, with a particularly distant look on his face, the driver suggested we call the store to make a clarification. I offered him to step inside for a moment while we made the call, as I didn’t want a huge swarm of bugs coming inside my place, as a large number of them had gathered around my back door light by now. I got no response from him at all other than a dazed-looking stare. I repeated the offer for him to come inside, which again summoned no response at all, but a stare.
My girlfriend called the store and was immediately put on hold. When someone picked up phone, she explained the situation, and a store employee asked to speak to the driver. He put the phone to his ear for a moment, still not saying a word, and then attempted, but failed to hang up the phone. My girlfriend took the phone from him and he just stood there, now with what appeared to be a gawking stare at my girlfriend. After a long moment of just staring at her, my girlfriend finally said, “so, is that it?”
After another very long pause he said, “ok,” but continued to stare at her. We both then went inside, with him still staring at us, and finally turned around and went to his car.
I have personally worked in food service before. It’s been some years now, but I am well aware that mix ups happen from time to time, and that is perfectly understandable. But my experience was so horrible that I am considering a complete and total boycott of Papa John’s.
If I had to make a suggestion, I would think that you should terminate a few of the more incompetent employees at this store. I would also suggest that a management team should be put in place that could more accurately predict periods of high volume, and schedule the employees accordingly. Furthermore, you should pay your employees more money so that you can attract more competent sources of labor. And most importantly, I would make sure that all your employees can fluently speak English.
Regards,
Alva Goldbook.
I had some unbelievable problems with my order when I called the Lake Ridge, VA Papa John’s to order my dinner this Friday night, which I would like you to address.
When I called to order I was put on hold not once or twice, but four times. When someone finally picked up the phone I ordered two pizzas with two toppings, one with ham and sausage and the other with pineapple and extra cheese. The person who took my order did not seem very alert, and despite that I spoke clearly, I had to repeat myself. When the order was completed he gave me the total without verifying what I had ordered, said the pizzas would be there in about 35 minutes, and hung up on me.
I also put special delivery directions to go around to the back of the house, since I live in the basement of the house. I have never had a problem with this prior. In fact, I rarely have to remind the order taker to put these instructions on my order at all. On this occasion, I did. For the driver’s safety, I courteously left the back door light on since it was getting dark. The front door light was not on.
The pizzas arrived 45 minutes later. When the pizzas were delivered, and despite that the order on the pizza boxes had instructions to go to the back door, the driver knocked on the front door, forcing my girlfriend to run upstairs in a hurry.
When I got them there were two pizzas, one with ham and sausage, and the other not with pineapple and extra cheese, but pineapple and ham.
Normally, I would have just ignored the error, but since I am a vegetarian eating the pizza at all was out of the question.
When I called to complain I was again put on hold nearly a half dozen times. Finally, someone took my phone number again, and recited my order as it was in the computer system. The order they recited was with pineapple and ham instead of pineapple and extra cheese. I corrected her, and was then promptly put on hold three more times.
When finally someone picked up the phone, it was someone whom I can only assume is some manager. I explained the problem all over again and he said what he could do was to “give [me] a 50% discount on my next order.” A lot of good this would do me, since I was delivered food I could not eat. I explained that what I wanted was my actual order as I had actually ordered it. He told me that it would take a hour to deliver the pizza, and he sounded like he didn’t particularly want to correct my order.
I told him to just go ahead and just send me another pizza, this time with the correct toppings. There was a long pause from him, and he finally said, “just send another pizza?”
An hour later, a full two hours since I had first made my order, the correct pizza finally came. The driver gave me the pizza and said he wanted one dollar. The box indeed said one dollar, but I told him that I had already paid for my pizza, that no one at the store told me that I would be charged another dollar, and I wasn’t going to pay more money for Papa John’s to correct my order. The driver then told me, again, that he wanted one dollar.
It suddenly became apparent that the driver had a very poor, if unworkable command of the English language. Finally, after a few moments that seemed like a Texas standoff over a pizza, with a particularly distant look on his face, the driver suggested we call the store to make a clarification. I offered him to step inside for a moment while we made the call, as I didn’t want a huge swarm of bugs coming inside my place, as a large number of them had gathered around my back door light by now. I got no response from him at all other than a dazed-looking stare. I repeated the offer for him to come inside, which again summoned no response at all, but a stare.
My girlfriend called the store and was immediately put on hold. When someone picked up phone, she explained the situation, and a store employee asked to speak to the driver. He put the phone to his ear for a moment, still not saying a word, and then attempted, but failed to hang up the phone. My girlfriend took the phone from him and he just stood there, now with what appeared to be a gawking stare at my girlfriend. After a long moment of just staring at her, my girlfriend finally said, “so, is that it?”
After another very long pause he said, “ok,” but continued to stare at her. We both then went inside, with him still staring at us, and finally turned around and went to his car.
I have personally worked in food service before. It’s been some years now, but I am well aware that mix ups happen from time to time, and that is perfectly understandable. But my experience was so horrible that I am considering a complete and total boycott of Papa John’s.
If I had to make a suggestion, I would think that you should terminate a few of the more incompetent employees at this store. I would also suggest that a management team should be put in place that could more accurately predict periods of high volume, and schedule the employees accordingly. Furthermore, you should pay your employees more money so that you can attract more competent sources of labor. And most importantly, I would make sure that all your employees can fluently speak English.
Regards,
Alva Goldbook.
posted by Alva Goldbook at 7:49 PM
10 Comments:
Miami,
you can just not order from somebody. but if you want something done about poor service you have to let the company know that you don't plan on ordering from them again.
I'm not sure what the Democratic party has to do with anything here, but hopefully the Bob Scrum and other incompetitent DLC dems are history.
I don't order from Dominos EVER, because 1) their pizza really really sucks, 2) their larges are everyone else's mediums, and 3) the company gives large amounts of money to domestic terrorist organizations.
Miami,
Dominos gives huge amounts of money to anti-choice groups, which is fine. But it doesn't stop there. They give money to a number of fringe groups who have used violence against American citizens in order to prevent women and doctors to provide safe and constitutionally protected reproduction services, probably including domestic terrorists like Eric Rudolph.
Furthermore, it's not really the company that is paying for this criminal activity, but the customers. A portion of the profits from each pizza sold goes to anti-choice groups, all without the company (much less most of their employees) knowing about it, which is yet another crime...known as fraud.
The best chain-store pizza isn't being made anymore. Back in the late 80's/early 90's Litte Caesar's was the pie to get. Now-a-days, I try to order from locally owned businesses, in order to keep my own community's economic base that much healthier.
I realize I'm straying from the subject a bit...but the biggest problem with Wal-Mart and other chains is that they destroy the communities they orperate in. In Wal-Mart's case very little of the money stays in the community in which they operate. In fact, they leave as little as possible, their employees be damned. Every single Wal-Mart store creates a giant economic suction cup, draining local communities of their wealth and shipping it directly to Bentonville, Arkansas.
Miami,
I am an anarcho-syndicalist. I think our economy should be run democratically instead of autocratically. If this makes me “anti-business” then so be it.
I much prefer locally owned businesses, as they are the bread and butter of what keeps local communities thriving. Small businesses built this nation into an economic paradise that no other nation had ever seen. Corporations on the other hand essentially work to limit our personal rights in order to keep the profits coming.
Actually, I got the information that Dominos gives money to pro-life extremist groups from a none other than their very own CEO in an speech he made before those very groups.
Yes, Wal-Mart gave a lot of donations to the Gulf Coast. Good for them. It also happens to help Wal-Mart’s lagging public image.
What makes you think I’m anti-commerce? You think I would like to live in a society where we barter over eggs, computers, health services? Get real. Am I anti-capitalist? You bet your ass I am. Are corporations mindless entities? Of course not, but they are amoral profit making machines that work to externalize costs to the public (such as pollution) in order to protect the bottom line. Even Milton Friedman will tell you this. Are they some good things that corporations do, and is there the occasional good corporate businessperson? Of course. There were also the occasional nice slave owner. The institution of corporations are a dangerous entity, and if you were even remotely astute in American History you would understand this.
No, Wal-Mart does not supply jobs. Laborers provide Wal-Mart with man power that allows them to make profits. Abraham Lincoln put it best when he said, “labor is prior, and superior to capital.” Those Wal-Mart jobs pay as little as humanly possible, so little that it is well documented that full time Wal-Mart employees have had to collect food stamps just to survive. Additionally, their wages are so low, and their health care so expensive that Wal-Mart has a massive number of their employees who rely on the state to provide healthcare, primarily through Medicade. Those “jobs” (in reality…that LABOR) would be better utilized in more productive and better paid jobs from locally owned small businesses.
I have no problem with someone working in the United States who cannot speak English. However, when his job REQUIRES him to speak the language, and he can’t, then he is UNQUALIFIED to hold the job. I should think that this would be common sense to a conservative…well…on second thought….maybe not. After all, Michael Brown did know quite a lot about liposuction procedures on horses’ asses.
Anarcho-syndicalism is not the same as socialism. It is the control of industry by the participants instead of the bosses. ALL economic exchanges redistribute wealth in some way or another. Our current system VASTLY redistributes wealth from the middle class and the poor to the top one tenth of one percent of the wealthy. If you think there aren’t any economic inequalities, then I suppose you would suggest that there are NO separate classes in America. Sure. Last I checked Bill Gates wasn’t homeless. To even suggest that there isn’t a hierarchy in our economy is to be willfully blind. That hierarchy exists, and 90% of America calls him BOSS….or backwards…double S-O-B.
Yes, some industries, because of certain circumstances, are difficult to do on the local level. Automobiles I think is as good an example as any. However, Henry Ford only succeeded when (at the urging of his wife and lawyer) to pay his workers enough to buy his cars. That industrial ideal today in America is dead. Furthermore, the construction of automobiles could be done cheaper and more efficiently if THE WORKERS controlled the means of production and if decisions were made by collective self management. Democracy, even in our economics, isn’t ideal because it is fairer, but because YOU GET BETTER RESULTS.
Rural electrification was a government program. It didn’t happen until the government stepped in. Enough said. The same is true of phone lines. Those very phone lines are part of what we own collectively, as a people. The ability to PROFIT from those phone lines is not collectively owned by the people…and in this case…is outright FRAUD.
The internet is not run by any business. It is maintained by world governments. The ability to profit from that system is not public, but permitted by government, without asking the people, to make a profit on our collective investment in that system, and our collective ownership of that system. And a small local business would have a easy time providing local access to the internet, probably more so than big business.
Even a remote understanding of US history will tell you that the dawn of the industrial age, that gave birth to the modern version of the corporation resulted in 110 hour work days, child labor, serious occupational injuries, and death. Or have you never heard of the Shirtwaist Fire? That very system of corporate control led directly to The Great Depression. We only became a superpower once MASSIVE CONTROL and LIMITS were put upon capitalism to keep it from destroying this nation. The corporate response to that system of limits (that we now call The New Deal) was to attempt a FASCIST COUP in 1934, funded primarily by Goodyear Tires and JP Morgan. I guess you missed that in your history lessons as well.
Ever had a job? Ever been asked to piss in a cup? Ever been told that you couldn’t discuss your fellow employees’ wages? Ever been told you cannot associate with your fellow workers after hours? Can you find which Constitutional amendments this violates? A choice between being one person’s wage slave and starvation IS NOT A CHOICE. It is as if saying that black slaves were FREE because they always had the “choice” to run away from their masters and risk being killed.
Miami, I saw that meeting on television probably 5 years ago. A simple google search will most likely find you anything you want to know about it. Try the query “Dominos Pizza” and “pro-life groups”.
Wow, I’m an elitist now! I’ll tell my butler to give my limo an extra wax right before I cut his pay. Wal-Mart’s public image has been suffering all over the country, as they are sued for labor violations several hundred times per year. Of course you wouldn’t know that…
And by the way, no, I haven’t visited the Gulf Coast, as I’m too broke to make the trip currently. Last month I seriously put together my personal budget to try to figure it out, and I realized that unless I wanted to go homeless, I couldn’t do it. I’m hoping that my savings will be sufficient enough by next month that I can go.
What the hell does anarcho-syndicalism have to do with being anti-commerce? On that note, what the hell does it have to do with wealth redistribution? Further, when did I even mention wealth redistribution? When did I suggest that anyone should be impressed with any particular term?
The United States is not a bastion of capitalism. Mussolini’s Italy was a bastion of capitalism. Iraq today is a bastion of capitalism. Pinochet’s Chile was a bastion of capitalism. Furthermore, why do you think I would go to another country because I can clearly see how the nation I love could be better? Would you leave your wife and kids (assuming you have any) if you got into a spat over the currently supply of Cheez Whiz?
“We hold these truths to be SELF-EVIDENT, that ALL men are created EQUAL, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS…That whenever ANY Form of Government becomes DESTRUCTIVE of these ends, it is the RIGHT of the PEOPLE to ALTER or to ABOLISH it, and to institute NEW GOVERNMENT.”
You MIGHT recognize those words from the Declaration of Independence…..then again….you might not. But our founders certainly didn’t say that whenever our government becomes destructive of these ends that it is the right of the PEOPLE to buy a plane ticket to France.
Who said that corporations never do any good at all whatsoever? Am I a WILLING participant in corporate consumption? Of course not. Sometimes I am, usually I am not. They indeed are amoral institutions that do massive harm to the public. To that extent, I am interesting in curtailing that effect, and ultimately eliminating all corporations altogether. That doesn’t mean you replace them with NOTHING, but you replace them with democratically run institutions.
Cuba hasn’t been living in a bubble. It has been operating with a constant threat looming over it, and attacking it, namely the United States. Now, I’m not saying that Cuba has an ideal government, actually I have as many issues with it as I do with capitalism in the United States. However, if you were to look at the well-being of the people, despite incredible odds, and far less resources, the Cuban people are beginning to be in a better situation than us Americans. Key indicator is that infant mortality in Cuba is lower than in the United States.
I’m not belittling anyone. Labor is prior to capital. Period. It’s basic logic. That you have met people with MBAs who are homeless only proves my point. Corporate control is destroying the American middle class…and it’s not just blue collar workers, as your experience indicates.
No, my solution would be to allow small local businesses supply the jobs for the goods and services that it can conceivably provide. On average, when a Wal-Mart opens in any particular economy the overall unemployment rate (in the retail sector) goes up. Why? Because Wal-Mart destroys not just one small business, but every small business in that community…and those jobs are then replaced by low wage workers.
Miami, Republicans are the ones who are making it harder for small businesses by keeping business licenses expensive, and forcing them to compete against massive corporations on an unequal playing field. By the way, the United States is the LEAST taxed industrial nation on earth.
Massive corporations are shipping jobs overseas not because of taxes, but because of trade policies that allow them to exploit workers making 10 cents an hour. Nike shoes for instance employees children (13 year old girls) in sweatshops (where they are beaten and sometimes raped by their bosses) who make two tenths of 1 percent in wages in comparison to the final price of the shoes sold. They don’t do this because their poor corporate profits are falling, it’s because they are SOARING, and people all over the world are suffering and even dying because of it.
Insignificant? How about incompetent…which was EXACTLY what he was. Yes, delivering Pizzas requires you to speak English, as my experience APTLY demonstrated. Hell, if you can’t speak English then why the hell do you have a driver’s license? And by the way, Miami, the first driver I tipped 6 bucks.
An anarcho-syndicalism economy would not have inequalities.
I’ve never heard Fidel say any such thing. But if he did, he would be correct. The government’s own statistics show that the vast majority of Americans have seen their incomes drop in relation to the economy….however the top one tenth of one percent has seen their incomes skyrocket.
Nonsense. Economic inequality is a product of our system. It is perfectly possible to eliminate it. No, the Soviets were not successful at it…really, they didn’t really try. Our poor are fat and have cell phones? Really? 5 million Americans have fallen into poverty in the last 5 years. 32 million Americans at some point last year could not afford a meal to eat. Half of all bankruptcies were placed because medical bills they cannot pay. The US is 36th in infant mortality, below that of Cuba, Malta, and Singapore. The US is the only industrialized nation with a vast amount of homeless people living on the streets. I could go on and on and on. Do yourself a favor and read Barbara Erhenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed.
What makes you think I’m jealous of someone who is as obviously maladjusted and mentally ill as Bill Gates? Only a psychopath would want to be as rich as him, and screw everyone else in the process.
Lenin would not be proud of me at all. He would have had me killed. Lenin didn’t want the workers controlling industry he wanted HIM to control industry. And I am not for the elimination of private property…ergo…I’m not a communist.
Nonsense. When private industries take over they ruin it. Enron is a prime example. San Diego didn’t have any brown outs or black outs, and they didn’t see their energy costs go up by 4000%. Why? Because the energy company was the public co-op. The internet grew in potential not because of private industry, but because the technology was advanced enough.
You and I both paid for those telephone lines with our tax dollars. The rights of way of them are maintained by our tax dollars. They are LEASED to telephone companies to make a profit from. Why not instead lease it to a publicly and locally owned co-op? If you did, you would get BETTER SERVICE AND LOWER PRICES.
Nonsense. The government developed much of that technology, and could have developed it more. Similarly, the vast majority of R&D capital into new drugs comes from our TAXES, which is again sold to pharmaceutical companies to make a profit on (in other case of WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION). Isn’t it funny how Canada gets most of their drugs from the United States, but it cost them 70% LESS for them? Gee, “socialism” isn’t so bad after all…that’s why Canadians have LONG LIFE EXPECTANTCIES then Americans.
Never read Pravda, in fact I have no clue what it is. Again, capitalism has only marginally worked when MASSIVE regulations have been placed upon it. I would rather have an economy where I GET TO DECIDE by a vote if the economy will grow or shrink next year. I would like an economy where if it shrinks or has a recession…it’s only if it is planned by the people, and if it does you still won’t loose your job. Or is that soup line looking more appealing to you?
Tell me where in the constitution where it says that corporations have any right to exist at all? NO INSTITUTION…NONE…are above We the People….not the churches…not the government….and NOT THE CORPORATIONS. READ THE 9TH AMENDMENT. If a corporation wants you to piss in a cup, why not REVOKE THEIR CORPORATE CHARTER. It’s called DEMOCRACY.
Explain the difference between chattel slavery and wage slavery? The difference is the wage slave’s labor is RENTED instead of OWNED. Why not control your own labor?
High horse? I buy my groceries at Aldi…where loaves of bread are 59 cents.
The Salvation Army will send you there for free too. But the roof over my head doesn’t go into suspended animation when I decide to go on a road trip…if only it did. Bills have to be paid each and every month.
What the hell does self-doubt have to do with being anti-commerce, wealth redistribution, being impressed with a particular term, or anarcho-syndicalism?
A particular PATRIOTIC American once said: “I love my country, right or wrong. If right it is right. If wrong I am to SET IT right.” A BETTER Republican president said: “"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American Public." Teddy Roosevelt was a wise man.
Was slavery eliminated and were women given the right to vote by having cowardly men saying you’re a “blame America first liberal”? This country was made what it is by millions of people, that we will never know…but people like Martin Luther King, John Brown, Emma Goldman, Mark Twain, and thousands upon thousands of others saying “THIS IS NOT JUST.”
To belittle such efforts is TREASONOUS, and violates every principal this great nation was founded upon. After all, the Revolution STARTED with a little protest and CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE in Boston when we Americans dumped some tea into the harbor, protested the British East India Company.
The last time I did something for my country was on September 24th, when I participated in an effort to bring our troops home.
What democratically run institutions are in Cuba? Seems to be working well enough for Fidel, less babies die over there than here.
Cubans seem to have a better ability to get their people out of the way of hurricanes…and fewer of their babies die. They also train medical doctors for free. Cuba has the world’s most advanced self sustaining agriculture system. Considering that massive efforts the US has made in doing everything possible to turn that tiny nation into a hell hole, that’s one hell of an accomplishment. Is Cuba a paradise? I most definitely think NOT! Is the United States? Try a 15 minute visit to South East D.C. Try to dodge the bullets.
No, people with MBAs are forced to get jobs at Wal-Mart.
I have a Wal-Mart 10 minutes away from me. In fact, I worked next door to it for 3 years.
Yes, I run my own business, but it is very small and I do it as a hobby. Depending on the business, you either have very little local competition or a hell of a lot of it. Specialty shops have very little, and only exist if there is a local demand. All others have been forced to compete with massive retailers who typically run the locals out of town. You can thank your fellow Republicans for that one. And no, I’m sure no Republican has ever voted for taxes on small businesses, much less enforcement of that law, as well as overly complex regulations on those businesses. Idiot.
Miami….shipping costs are negligible, and at their bulk rates, cost pennies. If we were to ACTUALLY compete with China US workers would be paid LITERALLY 10 cents an hour. This is why we…for 200 years…had TARIFFS. That way if a shirt that costs you 10 cents to make in China costs you a dollar to make in the US, then you charge a 90 cent TARIFF on those goods from China. That way US jobs stay in the US. It’s called having a logical trade policy. Currently we have INSANE trade policies, that hasn’t given Americans more jobs, or increased the wages of Mexicans. All it’s done is EXPORT US jobs to Mexico and IMPORT Mexicans here.
No one should be able to have a driver’s license who can’t read the road signs and speak English. Period. And if you haven’t learned the language in 5 years you should leave. Period.
Like I said, the FIRST driver….the one that COULD speak English, was tipped 6 bucks. Having done that job myself I know the average tip is 2.50. As I rule of thumb I tip 30%, especially waiters, because by law they’re not even making minimum wage. The way I think of it is that for the hour that I’m at the restaurant I have essentially personally hired them for one hour of labor. Therefore, I have to pay them decent wage for that hour. I even do this in fast food drive-thrus. Why do I do it? Because I’ve worked those jobs before, and I know first hand that they don’t pay what they should.
I think you two should just skip the courtship and get married...
Choas,
My apologies. If there was any way to block my little blog bitch from commenting, I would do it. I don't mind hearing his opinions, but when you can't tell the difference between a grown adult and a 5 year old snot nosed kid, then it becomes a bit of a problem.
Which societies have tired to implement anarcho-syndicalism Miami?
Those at the top 1% receive the MOST benefits from their tax dollars. Otherwise, THEY WOULDN’T BE IN THE TOP 1%.
It’s worked just fine throughout history, from that day mankind first formed this thing we call a society. I realize you’re not well educated, but go back and read Rousseau.
Similarly, record numbers of Americans are moving to Canada and Europe. And the number of foreign students who are coming here to attend college has dropped like a rock. By the way…Erhenreich wrote a great deal about Key West in that book, where she lives. Just curious, you seen any Haitians down there lately?
Well let’s push the envelop further. What makes you think I want to be rich? Or rather, why the hell would you want to be rich?
Chavez has eliminated private property in Venezuela? News to me. Hugo Chavez is the most brilliant and wonderful leader to come out of South America in a long, long time. He’s already experimenting with anarcho-syndicalist style work places, and guess what? Production has increased by 35% in one month.
When the government was running the internet (as a military application) computers all had black screens with flashing green block boxes as cursors. The most cutting edge game was Pac-Man. Microwaves were the new hip thing. And cable TV offered just your local stations (sans the rabbit ears), plus a hip new channel called TBS. Keep things in perspective.
UPS and Federal Express offers a different kind of service than USPS. USPS has service that is just as good as the others…and they deal with what is probably 500 times the volume…plus they’re open on Saturday.
Private industry did just fine with Enron didn’t? It did a bang up job with Global Crossing. Exxon has been marvelously efficient with their gas prices haven’t they? In Manassas VA there’s two gas stations across the street from each other. Yesterday, the Exxon price was $2.88 p/g for regular. Across the street at Citgo it was $2.52. Citgo is basically Hugo Chavez gasoline.
So let’s try privatizing water! Instead of having the government provide water, let private industry do it. How do you make the delivery of water more “efficient”? By spending less money on making sure it’s clean and drinkable. That way the consumer can just suffer quietly and out of sight. People in Cochabamba, Bolivia found that out the hard way when Bechtel came in, privatized the water, and even prevented common people from collecting that water which fell from the sky.
The people of Cochabamba had two choices. Spend 25% of their wages to Bechtel, to fight for what nature gives them for free.
A Cochabamba activist said:
“At the climax of the struggle, the army stayed in their barracks; the police also remained in their stations; the members of Congress became invisible; the Governor went into hiding; and after words, he resigned. There wasn’t any authority left. The only legitimate authority was the people gathered at the city square making decisions in large assemblies.”
In Cochabamba they assembled an anarcho-syndicalist style workplace to control the city’s water. The activist said:
“We’ve inherited a state company with technical problems, with financial and legal problems, with administrative problems. We are dealing with all of them. If we could prove that ordinary working people are able to resolve their own problems, we could be facing the possibility that all which was privatized, all that was sold, all that is in the hands of the corporations, be returned to the people’s hands. So, I learned that, a very important lesson, that one should never underestimate the power of the people. Seeing the slogan that I always repeated in the demonstrations: ‘the people, united, will never be defeated!’ became a reality was just incredible for me.”
This man knows first hand what you Miami, have forgotten. Common people controlling their own lives is not socialism…but is the very essence of democracy and freedom.
Gee, you would think with those year long wait lines Canadians would have gotten rid of their single payer universal health care system for a private one. Strangely enough 90% of Canadians love their health care system. I can’t think of ANY government service the American people love quite as much.
The reality is the long wait lines are nothing more than a reich wing myth. Canadians time after time have to remind us of this. The only wait for any kind of procedure is an elective ones, such as breast implants or nose jobs. In fact, emergency care in Canada delivers faster service than American emergency rooms, which are so scrapped for funding that many hospitals are closing them to the detriment of the community. And those hordes of Canadians coming over the border for care? They don’t exist. However Congressman Bernie Sanders organizes bus loads of Americans from his home state of Vermont to travel into Canada for cheap prescription drugs that are as much as 70% cheaper than here.
Sure the American people decided…with their votes…to live through the Great Depression.
Read the 9th amendment. My right to a job is right there. In fact, the PEOPLE are the ones who have ALL rights. We can decide to eliminate a right for our collective safety (such as the right to run red lights), but unless the Constitution (federal or state) says that I don’t have the right to a job, then I have the right to one. I’ve seen people come into work intoxicated before. You don’t need a piss test to fire them.
Choosing between wage slavery and starvation is not a choice. “A necessitous man is not a free man”, as Teddy Roosevelt put it, and that is a simple fact that you must learn.
Aldi is a grocery store chain. They only carry generic brands, and they are dirt cheap. A box of crackers is 39 cents. Most food items cost less than a dollar.
The point is that I would be glad to help out on the Gulf Coast…if I could afford to. I thought that was pretty self-evident. Sorry you missed it.
Marx had many things wrong. You can’t eliminate class differences in society without addressing class separation and hierarchy in the workplace. But Marx also had many things right, as he correctly observed, using basic mathematical models, that a capitalist system has every incentive to treat all their workers as worse as humanly possible. He was correct in that observation, as children as young as 12 were at the time working 7 days a week in sweatshops. That was only stopped after the PEOPLE put massive regulations against capitalism, preventing them from doing so.
Communism and anarcho-syndicalism are not even remotely similar, much less synonyms. Communism is a state run economy, planned by a set of bureaucrats, that does not permit the ownership of private property. Legally speaking, there’s nothing in that concept that prevents it from being run in a democratic manner. The Soviet system was not communist in the Marxist sense, rather in a military dictatorship. Trotsky observed, “man is a lazy animal. He must be FORCED to work.”
Anarcho-syndicalism is in many ways the opposite of Soviet-style communism. It is the combination of traditionalist Emma Goldman style anarchism and syndicalism. The leading principal of anarchy is the rejection of hierarchical control over other individuals. The belief is that no one should be able to control another human being against his will. Syndicalism is the principal that workplaces should be controlled by the workers, democratically, instead of the bosses.
If you think this means that just the government controls everything against everyone’s will, then you could not be more mistaken. A modern anarcho-syndicalist government would have very little reason to have any centralized federal government at all, in so much as we see the nation-state of today. It’s unfortunate that I have to explain this rather simple concept to you in some detail. Next time, try a google search when you come across something that you have no understanding of. Or, try a Wikipedia search.
Did the soldier free the slaves or was it the abolitionists? Was it the soldier that granted women the right to vote or was it COMMUNISTS like Hellen Keller? Was it the soldier that eliminated child labor or was it people like Mother Jones? Was it the soldier the won civil rights for all races or was it people like Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks? Was it the soldier that gave you the weekend off or was it the labor unions?
Fredrick Douglas noted correctly over a hundred years ago:
“Freedom is NEVER given: It is TAKEN.”
And the Dixiecrats all became Republicans as soon as Barry Goldwater ran for President.
All those freedoms were won…the right unionize, civil rights, the elimination of child labor, the right for women to vote…all of them came from demands from the PEOPLE. And again, we are doing our PATRIOTIC duty to save our country, and to bring our troops home and out of harm’s way. But then again, we have always been there.
It was the progressives who forced Nixon out of the White House and forced him to bring the troops home then. It was the progressives that worked to win Civil Rights. It was the progressives to risked and gave their lives to end slavery. And it was the progressives who won the United States it’s independence from England. Conservatives have fought us all along the way, sometimes acting in the Democratic Party, but more frequently in the Republican party. And history has shown us, time and time again, that in the end it is the PEOPLE who eventually win.
Indeed, Freedom is NEVER given. It is taken by force, by any means necessary. And we have always been there, to sacrifice, and give our lives, because we love this great nation that much.
By the way Maimi…..I did something else for you to further your education:
Click Here.
Miami finally learned how to link! Yay!
Does Cuban sugar factory workers get to decide how much sugar they are going to make this month, or does Castro? If the workers don’t get to decide, then they aren’t anarcho-syndicalist. I’m sorry you’re too uneducated to understand these things, but I do wish you well in your endeavors to further your meager education.
Of course the top 1% receive the most benefit from our tax dollars. Are they using the social safety net (or what’s left of it) as the poor do? Of course not. But Miami, you’re just not COUNTING what they do use.
1) they use our court system to enforce their legal contracts. 2) They use the FAA for their private leer jets 3) they use our federally backed currency to protect their assets. 4) They use our trade policy to protect their profits, at the detriment of the rest of us. 5) They use public resources (timber, minerals, etc) to make unaccountable profits from. 6) They use the public infrastructure not to just survive, but to turn a profit on. This list could go on and on and on.
I realize you have almost no understanding of basic economics, but progressive taxation was introduced as an American idea by none other than Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson got his influence from Jesus Christ when He spoke of the poor widow’s offering.
Mark 12:41-44
Miami, even the most RETARDED of economists will tell you that if someone makes $50,000 a year and another person who makes $20,000 a year both buys a $20 pizza each of them are paying a DIFFERENT PRICE.
Your presumptuous and extraordinary childish comparisons are so idiotic that it does not merit comment.
I have my doubts that you would see Americans fleeing to Canada or Europe via Southern Florida. Those Haitians are coming by the boat load because Dubya overthrew their democracy.
Miami, I am an anarcho-syndicalist. I don’t judge people by their class. Secondly, I have never attended a day of college in my life. Thirdly, go back and read some Charles Beard. He noted nearly a hundred years ago that not even Rockefeller and Carnegie made it on their own, much less our current high barons. I’m guessing you’re going to tell me that the Walton family didn’t inherit their wealth either?
Actually, it was the BBC that reported that 35% increase in production. I have a question for you Maimi. Why is it bad for the people to decide, via their representatives to distribute their nation’s land in a just and equitable manner, but it’s just A-OK if a capitalist uses corruption, thuggery, and murder to steal peasant land to personally profit from?
Of course the internet was a development of government funding and research. Similarly, microwaves, plastic baby diapers and lasers came from government funding and research in the space program.
USPS has been wonderful for as long as anyone can remember. Fed Ex and UPS offers a different KIND of service than USPS. We have also had private couriers going back to the days of Washington. Fed Ex is the same thing.
Apparently you seem to think that “free market competition” is wonderful and dandy. I suggest you learn two words: “monopoly” and “cartel”. NO big business EVER wishes to compete with anyone. Every possible effort is made to eliminate competition from the market whenever possible. Furthermore, co-ops and non-profits can operate at a LOSS and operations will be perfectly healthy. Try getting a private business to do that during a recession. They reason is that the bottom line of a private business is to turn a profit, while a non-profit’s bottom line is to MAKE OUR COLLECTIVE LIVES BETTER.
Enron is one of the many corporations that have been found guilty of FELONY behavior. If Exxon, Tyco, GE, GM, Microsoft, Wal-Mart and thousands of other companies REALLY were people, they would be facing life in prison, if not execution.
Bottled water is a different product then INDOOR PLUMBING. But feel free to try to take a shower with Deer Park.
Wrong, I do NOT want government controlled industry, I want a WORKER controlled industry. I want an economy that is DEMOCRATICALLY PLANNED by ALL THE PEOPLE. In Cochabamba the people took the water company away from Bectel. But that company was a STATE RUN company. It is no longer a state run company, it is a WORKER RUN company. Why can’t you figure this very SIMPLE concept out?
The only things Canadians hate about their WONDERFUL health care system is how frequently Americans LIE about it. The Canadian system if run by the States, not the federal government. You can go to any doctor’s office you choose. Emergency procedures have a wait time of about one day or less, which is the same in the US…if you have health care. Wait times in emergency rooms now are longer than in Canada. The only part of the system there that is private is some out-patient care, such as care with a recovery therapist.
Apparently you have a very hard time comprehending 3rd grade English. Read the 9th amendment again
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Where does it say in the Constitution that you have the right to eat a ham and cheese sandwich at 2 pm? Are you allowed to do it? Read this VERY carefully Miami. THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT GIVE US RIGHTS. Our CREATOR gave us our rights. You are BORN with the right to do EVERYTHING. What the Constitution does is LIMITS what rights the government can TAKE AWAY, and LAWS are what are used to TAKE AWAY rights. The first amendment doesn’t give you the right to free speech, you are BORN with that right. The first amendment says that CONGRESS CAN’T TAKE THAT RIGHT AWAY. Jesus, why do I have to teach 9th grade civics to a freaking RETARD?
Why would someone not get paid more than someone else? The anarcho-syndicalist economic model called Parecon (Participatory economics) suggests that wages are determined by EFFORT AND SACRIFACE. So if you have two janitors and one busts his ass and the other is a slacker, the ass busters gets more money. If one janitor works more hours he gets more money. If the JOB that the janitor is harder to do, or more unpleasant (such as scrubbing toilets instead of flood sweeping) then the janitor would get more money. Like I said previously, this idea of participatory economics has to date not been tried nation wide anywhere. The closest was Spain pre-Franco. The few businesses, factories, and organization who have tried it have seen amazing success.
If you think the soldiers freed the slaves instead of the abolitionists, just as the sacrifice made by John Brown for example than you have NO understanding of US history. The soldiers gave women the right to vote? How? By invading the Philippines?!?!? Apparently, in your view, we all became free all the sudden by fighting a war. Nobody ever struggled for freedom beyond that, nobody ever fought or DIED for the 40 hour work week, health care, decent working conditions, or the right to be treated as equal citizens. You piss on the graves of MILLIONS of Americans who gave their lives to make your comfort possible. You’re an arrogant vain human being, and your ingratitude and lack of patriotism makes me sick to my stomach.
You mean your term for Marxism? asked miamimiami, in reference to anarcho-syndicalism.
Either you have failed to even try a google search on the subject, or you still haven't enrolled in that reading comprehension class I advised for you.
Willful ignorance is inexcusable.
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