I'm not a Peggy Noonan fan, but because I read too much and like to be exposed to a multitude of opinions, I don't turn a blind eye to her writings or those of other conservative pundits. And I've got to say that a portion of this column really hit home for me. Mostly, she goes on about the Enron situation. But in the middle, she talks about how life has become complicated by too many choices. Too many phone companies. Too many cable companies. Too many decisions and too much investigation placed on the shoulders of consumers.
Excerpt:
When I went down to Houston, I met with Enron's No. 2, Jeff Skilling, and told him I felt Enron would have a big problem in persuading the American people to support deregulation. The reason? Two words: Too complicated.
He told me that deregulation of electricity is certainly not complicated.
Well, I said, maybe you're right, but this is how I see it. American consumers have a myriad of choices on almost everything now, which is wonderful in the abstract but often hellish in the particular. For instance, telephones. When I was a kid you got a phone from the phone company. There was only one phone company, so you didn't have to do research. They came and put in the jack and you called your friends. You didn't even choose the color of the phone when I was a kid; all the phones were black. Everyone had the same kind of phone and the same service. It was easy.
Now there are 50 phone companies, 50 kinds of phones, 50 kinds of service, 50 package deals, five different phone bills every month, phone companies calling at dinnertime to sell their wares, secret codes to get our messages. And it sometimes makes you feel like you wish there could be one big phone company again, and one black phone.
I told him that it is fabulous that we have such choice, such progress, but that it's burdensome too. I sometimes miss the simplicity of the old, limited world. And I thought if I did, some others did too. Asking people to make individual decisions about what local electric company to use just might be one item too many on the average consumer's Daily Decision List.
Mr. Skilling got a sort of dark look as I spoke. And finally he said, impatiently, that phone deregulation has made telephones not more expensive but less. "Do you know what it costs to call London now compared to the way it was?"
I said I didn't, and thought: Most people even today, in 1997, aren't calling London all the time. That's not how normal people judge progress. And anyway it's not the point. Life has gotten too complicated for a lot of people, that's the point.
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Should I have another drink? I forget. Now that a Dutch study has shown that alcohol may ward off Alzheimer’s, earlier studies have described "The French Paradox," the positive effect of wine on heart attack prevention, and still other studies have shown the beneficial effects of moderate drinking on stroke reduction, I plan to begin my liquid therapy in earnest. If I can only remember where I put the damn corkscrew.
iMac LoJack? Jump Back Jack--Get iMac Back! If you are at all geeky, this will get your juices flowing. Some guy's sister's iMac was stolen in a burglary. Thanks to some cool and creative work with AppleScript and a remote control program (Timbuktu) running on the stolen machine, this amazing saga posted on MacSlash and @ macscripter.net shows how he got it back for his grateful sister. Never mess with an inventive AppleScripter!
How Are YOU Getting Across The River? The choice is more than Roe vs. Wade. Happy 29th Anniversary pro-choice folks. The end is only one vote away. If you care, DO something.
Spam O' the Week: I have no idea where this stuff comes from, but in case you have ever had a recurring problem with ear-burns, help is at hand (or at head).
Would you Like Onion on that iMac? As usual, the good folks at The Onion have done it again, turning their rapier-like wit toward new iMac buyers who are apparently snapping the little sucker up at an amazing rate.
