Why I've Had It With Technology

I loved sci-fi as a kid.  I read everything connected to the future, a place we were assured would be better and safer. I read Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein, Dick, Clark (I've watched 2001: A Space Odyssey over 25 times ... Clark wrote the film with Stanley Kubrick), LeGuin, Orwell and later to more recent writers like Gibson, Weir,  Crichton, Vonnegut, Liu and many, many more. As a kid and younger adult I hoped for a better future.

What we got instead is a civilization cut off personally from each other instead fixated on a tiny screen or listening to mindless telephone robots telling you "You are very important and we will be with you in a moment," NOT! I guess we have different definitions of "a moment!" I don't consider waiting 45 minutes a moment. 

And you can't help but realize this is by conscious design. Maybe you'll give up.

Two cases in point today, no, three. I just opened my mail and found a bill I paid July 12, 2024. I went on Eisenhower Hospital's My Chart site and it shows the bill was paid. So time will be wasted, telephoning through multiple menu options to get them off my back. I give it an hour, right?

Because I use an oxygen concentrator for long periods each day I applied and receive slightly better electric rates. It's not much but every little bit helps. SCE sent me a letter asking for an update. Not finding what I needed on their web site I tried calling for three days using a variety of their numbers. I never spoke to anyone. I once lived a few miles from their headquarters in Rosemead, CA and know 100's if not 1,000's of people work there every day and no one can answer a phone in under 35 minutes to one hour? I gave up. I truly don't know what to do.  Write a letter I guess and hope for the best.

Then after that experience I tried calling MetLife. The letter wanted me to confirm a contact person if I was unable to. I called the number on the letter and was greeted by, "Since you have called today you will receive a FREE life lock dongle to wear around your neck, kinda like a dog tag. I didn't want one. I have an Apple Watch that calls 911 if you fall and don't respond. In fact two dear friends died from deadly falls that my watch could have saved. No matter how I tried, every option seemed to have to give me that damned dongle.

Finally I went to the MetLife web site and called the number there. After a few options I got a human but he had to send me somewhere else. We waited another 10 minutes or so while being told it was faster on the web. Maybe if you're 15.

Finally a live person came on the line and said, "Well, you really didn't need to do anything if there are no changes."  I told her that's not what the letter said. LOOOONG pause. She recovered and said thank you and we hung up. That was another 30 minutes gone, maybe more as I really hard to get past the robotic chatty Kathy on the first call.

What have we done with our lives? Fifty years ago when I was say 28 most of the time an operator transferred your call to someone and they actually answered. I have seen first hand many offices where the phone rings and there is a person there.They ignore the ring. I don't even bother to leave a number for a call back. They NEVER call back.  I tried that until after the third callback number mailbox was so full you couldn't even leave a number  Shows you how much they care.

Rather than the future giving us more time to be together it's spread us further apart. It's also been the greatest cause of stress in our society. Remember Southwest Airlines tech meltdown last Christmas? Can you imagine the stress that caused? Or, data breaches that release all your personal data? Everyone felt the meltdown when computers around the word crashed because of a faulty update. Maybe, just maybe we have become TOO reliant on technology. You wonder if its reach is really understood.

I remember NASA spending thousands of dollars to create a pen that would write in space. The Russians, we discovered, found the solution. They used pencils. And truth be told you still need a pencil and paper to write things down while using a computer. The older you get the more you use them too!

I wear a T-shirt that says, "Just once, I want a username and password to say, CLOSE ENOUGH!" I think we all could agree with that!

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed!

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed!

WE CARE, WHEN WE REALLY DON'T: A USPS Saga

On June 25, 2024 I packed a box with 3 books for my daughter and grand daughter who live in Memphis, TN. The next day I took it well wrapped to the Palm Springs main post office. I wrote books on the cover to get the book rate as together they weighed 3 lb. 16 oz.  The box included the following books:

Probably they totaled $50-60.00. So I didn't insure them. I mean what could go wrong, right? When I called my daughter a few days later she said the books didn't arrive but the box did. This is what she received from a caring USPS:

Not exactly what I sent. AND, this is not the first time this has happened. A few years back another book I sent to them was lost. This package came back to me sans book. Someone between Palm Springs and Memphis must like books and is too cheap to buy them.

"We Care" like hell. In fact mail service has been deteriorating since about 2017 when Louis DeJoy, a huge donor to Trump's campaign was appointed Postmaster General by the 45th president. His stated goal is to privatize the post office, an American institution since it was created by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, even before our Revolution. Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster.

The post office department was established in 1792 establishing postmasters across this nation. Being appointed postmaster was a plum job with good pay and often was a reward for party support  DeJoy follows a long list of questionable appointees in our history.  In fact DeJoy's salary of $301,000+ rivals the President of the United States who makes $400,000.

To be fair however, the cuts and slimming down started under the previous postmaster.  It was DeJoy however who closed processing centers, removed mailboxes and ordered new gas powered mail trucks rather than electric vehicles the government was mandating. In fact it was widely believed he did everything in his power to delay or stop mail in voting in the 2022 election. There weren't irregularities at the  polls, it was the bags of undelivered mail hidden or attempted to be blatantly destroyed. 

Service has definitely slowed down as well. A letter that arrived from Memphis say in three days, has recently taken 16 days IF it arrives at all. I have proof. I now date stamp all my mail.

I don't have a good history with USPS, especially since moving to Palm Springs. Finishing a divorce I had to send notarized papers, Priority Mail, from Palm Springs to my lawyer's office in Century City, Los Angeles, CA, a distance of 122 miles, door to door. It took 9 days. I could have driven there in half a day despite the horrendous LA traffic!

Then a few years ago the birthday present I sent my sister was stolen from the McIntosh, NM post office. I didn't believe her until checking her story I read about the robbery in the Albuquerque, NM newspaper. This begs the question of how secure mail really is?

I see First Class stamps are going up yet again from 68¢ to 73¢. Paying more but getting less seems to be a new American trait. Am I wrong? Go say to the grocery store and see for yourself. Or, eat out. You blame the President but never the corporate Republican CEO's that are doing this.

If DeJoy is REALLY trying to cut costs, let's look at what the "Franking Privilege costs taxpayers. For those that don't know many government officials are allowed to send mail to their constituents for free. It seems each Congressman gets a yearly total of 300,000 franked letters while a Senator gets 540,000 a year. They said in 2015 this costs taxpayers $8.3 million. It seems the average cost in contested districts runs about $172.00 for a vote for unsafe districts and $63.00 a vote for safe districts. Let's look at this figure. I would question this at 68¢, the cost we taxpayers pay for a first class letter for "1" ounce. Calculating the cost at "real" prices we pay that comes to :

300,000 x first class rate of 68¢ = $204,000 per Representative x 435 Representative = $88,740,000.00.

This figure alone is 10 times what they said. Wait there's more1

Senators 540,000 pieces x .68 = $367,200.00 x 100 Senators = $36,220,000.00 for a grand freebie total of just Congress of  $124,960,000.00. Remember out cost is climbing to 73¢ July 19, 2024. Better stock up on those forever stamps now. Christmas is around the corner.

Another money draw that clutters up our mailboxes with cheap mailings (10¢ cent on average) has been the proliferation of non-profits begging for money.  You support one and another 100 pleas arrive. And don't get me started on catalogs. I get more than a 100 a month.  Sure I have ordered from a few but 100's? No. If they all paid their fair share there would be a lot fewer and the USPS would be healthier financially.  Look up the salaries of non-profit CEO's and catalog owners. You will be amazed. It's legal snake oil.

What's missed by the powers that be is it costs as much to deliver a free or non-profit letter  or catalog as a first class letter. Repeated damaged mail and 16 day delivery times are unacceptable. Maybe it's time for the postmaster general to be an UNDERCOVER BOSS and see what's really happening!

You want to cut losses then make everyone pay their fair share. It was once the American way!