Trump tariff I would wholly endorse (rant)

In my experience, that has been even worse. They'll ask you a question, you type your succinct answer, hit enter. Two minutes later they begin typing their next question (because they are helping 4 people at a time). Canned responses and in many cases ending with "for further support on this issue you require, please call us at 1-800-xxx-xxxx." Followed by a tirade of f-bombs I shout at my monitor.

 

Are there more than like 5% of American corporations (let's define corporation as companies with over 1,000 employees) that don't offshore their external support? Hell, most of them offshore their internal support for their own employees nowadays. My point being, it's not like I can easily shop for products that have only onshore support. I reckon if an American company advertised "all customer service calls are kept onshore", they'd be crucified by accusations of racism. (ie the true manifestation of "socialism" here). In fact, I bet there are a number of American companies who would LOVE to market in BIG FAT LETTERS that they are completely American owned and operated, but something tells me the Karine Jean-Pierre types would find fault with this. Hence, yes, it is a Biden problem.

 

A small little tag or decal on the inside of a shirt is not even remotely close to saying "we'll make sure your call doesn't go offshore. All of our customer service reps are in America and English is their first language."

Yeah, because they don't already do this. Please tell me you were kidding. Surely, you understand that many companies already throw that line out there. They just leave out the "in Bangladesh" part after the words "real person."

 

False equivocation for $100, Alex.

 

This gets into a broader problem. That is, corporations essentially banding together to make this sort of thing the "industry standard." Americans deserve better. We both know it used to not be this way. There was a time when gas stations actually pumped gas for customers. Small businesses, on the other hand, are more indebted to the American customer experience, because losing one customer hurts a small business much more so than it does a large corporation. A large corporation can simply outrun a lousy customer experience by mass producing product/service and marketing. I always have a better experience working with small businesses, even if they are web-based or not within reasonable driving distance for me. Small business owners have more on the line and typically, their own capital on the line as well.

So to answer your question, obviously, corporations have determined their bottom line works out better if they offshore. I don't think I ever questioned that. There are a lot of things companies are not allowed to do either by law or regulation that would improve their bottom line. I don't think that's a healthy standard, necessarily, in all cases. And it doesn't hurt if corporations are banding together to make it the industry norm. (ie the "people will get over it while we enjoy our record bonuses"). But it is not at all a socialist idea. If you force companies to staff customer service here in the States, inevitably it will generate more competition and in the end, yes a better overall customer experience. Having boundaries isn't socialism. See the border.

Fact is, we've lost a lot due to outsourcing. We are in tremendous debt. The only way it continues working is if our currency is the default reserve for most of the world. If that ever shifts in a large way or changes completely, we're f****d in more ways than one.

 

Core PCE has been running at a 4.8% clip the past two months and rising. MoM inflation has been rising since October 2023. You're looking at YoY rates which have the benefit of some bad months rolling off. If you look at the treasury market, it's portending higher inflation to come. PPI just hit a 12-month high. Inflation cooled in fall 2023 and leveled off, but started roaring back in December. If you think we're out of the woods, you're thinking wrong. As long as unemployment is where it is, inflation is going to be an issue. Historically, the UE rate has not run this low for this long. Believe it or not, the Fed would prefer UE be a little higher than it is right now. It's an inflation driver.