Charles McMillan: September 2007 Archives
Now I'm no fan of the iPhone. I'm quite attached to my Blackberry Pearl with awesome Microsoft Outlook Integration and push email services (for the life of me, I cannot figure out why Apple doesn't support Microsoft Outlook)! But I really do have to weigh in on the current debate over unlocked Apple iPhones.
You see, some customers think that just because they buy a product, they can go ahead and use it in any old way they want, even in a way that hurts the company they bought it from. Apple very generously produced this product with the expectation that users would sign up with AT&T. Perfectly reasonable deal–you want an iPhone, you sign up with AT&T.
But a small group of malcontent users has decided to hack the iPhone to avoid signing up with AT&T, which hits both AT&T and Apple where it hurts: the bottom line. These customers are nothing more than consumer terrorists, breaking the rules to put their own best interests in front of others.
Apple would not be a good corporate citizen if it allowed these terrorists to go unchallenged. And as we all know, you can't negotiate with terrorists. If Apple doesn't render their phones useless ("brick" them, in the internet vernacular), the consumer terrorists have already won.
Well, it's happened again. The UAW has dealt another blow to a once powerful symbol of America. This time, 73,000 workers walked out of GM plants across America and forced the company to the bargaining table over healthcare costs. In the end, GM was powerless to fight the coup and had to commit $35 billion to fund healthcare for the UAW.
So have you heard about the massive recalls of toys made in China? I take product Quality Assurance seriously, so when I heard about this, I wondered what had gone wrong. Were the toys broken? Did the toys suffer from some kind of manufacturing defect which renders them unusable? Did the packaging not match the color of the toys inside?
As it turns out, it was none of these things. It turns out that crybaby consumers are getting worked up over something that they cannot even see. Something that does not affect the "playability" of the toys in any way. It turns out that consumers are up in arms over something the toys are made with: lead.
Surely by now, you're shaking your head–How can that be? But sadly, it's true. The toys look fine. They function fine. They smell just fine. But now some know-nothing consumers are up in arms because they don't like the way the toys are made. They say that the lead is poison. Well don't eat it, genius! The glass and steel found in modern households are also dangerous if you eat them, but come on! Show some common sense and some Personal Responsibility.
Look, I'm all for customer safety. At my former position as Northeast Manager of Food Distribution for one of this nations top snack food producers, I vigorously supported the "no-glass" guarantee policy. But this is lead we're talking about. You cannot cut yourself on lead. You cannot shoot yourself with lead. You cannot trip and fall over lead. It is an all-natural chemical that is all around us.
If you've got a portfolio anywhere close to the size of mine, you know that the past couple of weeks have been a real roller coaster. A stalled housing market and rise in foreclosures have economists talking about a global credit crunch. All the gloomy news sent stock prices spiraling. Fortunately, the Federal Reserve's cut in interest rates has stopped the bleeding, at least for now.
Who is to blame for all the turmoil? Once again, we need look no further than ignorant consumers who have gotten in too far over their heads. This time, these morons have taken enormous loans that they cannot possibly afford. What these customers don't understand is that their decisions affect the economy at large. When some moron customer takes a loan he cannot afford and ends up in foreclosure, he can just walk away from the house scot-free with no ill effects, right? Wrong. When thousands upon thousands of these irresponsible borrowers all make the same bad decision, the economy suffers.
Which means that business suffers. Which means that we all suffer.
The biggest victims of these simple-minded consumers are the banks which offered them the loans. These lenders are American Heros, selflessly providing every citizen the chance to live out the American dream of home-ownership. That is, until their generosity is taken advantage of, and they're put out of business by irresponsible consumers. These people are martyrs.
What our society is missing is Personal Responsibility. As consumers we have the responsibility to make intelligent decisions which will support the growth of our economy. To not consider the impact of your financial decisions on others would be selfish.
