The problems created by a consumer society

[XemaSab]

will NEVER be solved with a consumer response.

[tabatha]

1. exactly

Unfortunately, we are stuck in it, everything is based on it, and only a complete catastrophe is going to change it.

[Populist_Prole]

2. Never could understand it. It's all "second money"

Of course now, with the ever earlier come-ons to the holiday season, we're apt to notice it more right now, but the main problem was/is always structural.

The whole "consumer capitalism" model seems to focus too much on 2nd money; That is, money that is ASSUMED to be already earned/held from gainful employment. Yank enough cinder blocks from the producer society foundation, and the consumer society house is bound to crumble.

While I'm at it, allow me a rant: I never hear any politicians ( right OR left ) speak any more of citizens. We're all "consumers" now, or the evenr more cliched "The American People".

[laughingliberal]

3. +1 nt

[XemaSab]

4. I applied for a passport a few weeks ago

and the passport agent had to call another office to ask them what forms of ID I needed (because the name on my birth certificate isn't the name I go by).

He referred to me on the phone as a CUSTOMER.

Um, :wtf:

[Petrushka]

7. Doctors and hospital employees referred to my husband as a "consumer" and a "customer"---even after

I reminded them that he was their "patient".

[Heddi]

9. I'm a nurse--I refuse to call my patients "customers" or "consumers" Better believe that they are

seen as that, though! Patients are now looked at as consumers of medical and health services. We are asked to function in hospitals as if hospitals are any other kind of "business". It is not. There is a level of customer satisfaction that Macys, say, can provide that a hospital never ever will, just by the nature of what a hospital is and how it functions.

In addition to being a critical member of the bedside medical team, I am expected to be a customer service agent for every visitor and person walking down the hallway. I am to greet *each* one of them and provide any manner of assistance at any time, for the length of time required by that visitor, er, customer, regardless of what patient care functions I am on my way to provide when stopped. Rather than have, say, volunteers (VOLUNTEERS...they're FREE!) to help visitors, I'm asked to be a nurse to 5-7 very ill patients at a time AND be a secretary, message taker, direction pointer, water and coffee getter for every visitor in that department. In the middle of passing medications when the gentleman waiting on his wife's discharge wants some coffee? Put those meds down and get that man cofee! Don't forget to ask if he likes it with cream and sugar....

CEO's of banks and retail chains are now the CEO's of hospitals. People without **ANY** medical training or knowledge are running hospitals and expect us to function like a bank or retail chain.

And they see *you* as the same, whether you are in a hospital or a bank or a retail chain. You are a customer, a consumer.

It is very frustrating.

[XemaSab]

11. Seeing it as a commercial transaction

is probably why HC reform failed. :(

[MadMaddie]

13. You have explained why the Medical Apparatus in this country

should be Non-Profit. Currently it's all about maximizing profit instead of delivering quality care and allowing you to do the job you were trained for.

Last Friday my spouse just had jaw surgery and nurses like yourself treated me with respect and treated my spouse very well.

Thank-you for the work that you do!

[the redcoat]

5. More like...The problems created by a corporate society

will never be solved with a corporate response.

[XemaSab]

6. Touche

n/t

[delightfulstar]

8. We're all numbers to them...

I can't remember the last time I dealt with a corporation, and was actually called by name. It's always "Ma'am" or "Madam," and then after my 15-minute wait, they give a canned or scripted response telling me how much they "value" me and my business. (Sure...) Would it kill them to at least call me "Miss (X)," since my name is probably right in front of them?

And please, don't get me started on some of the retail places, where everything is mass-marketed and impersonal (like that place I won't name, with a "*" by their name - you know the one).

[XemaSab]

10. Thanks for the response

and welcome to DU. :D

[delightfulstar]

12. Thank you!

I was actually a member/donor here a few years ago (before the 08 election), and lost track of my old username, which was under my old e-mail address. It's good to be back, and always good to be among like-minded people. :)

[leeroysphitz]

14. We ate our way into this mess. We'll just have to eat our way back out. n/t