$8 and hour? This is what's wrong with America, guys. What we think of as 'middle class life' depends on the existence of legions who work for less than what it takes to be middle class.

Something's got to give. If we keep wanting it now, cheap, and to a high standard, we require armies of people who are virtually slaves-no more life serfs. We're going to have to be willing to pay more and have less for the non-essentials. The strength of the American economy is in it's middle class, yet the number of poor people that the middle needs to exist seems to keep on growing.

So Ritz Camera is cutting corners by paying it's employees crap and delivering service that looks good but isn't? Blame yourselves.

And face it. America's a serf economy. The different between serfs and slaves, if you're wondering, is that masters had the responsibility to see that slaves were fed, housed, and had some for of medical care. People who use serfs can command their labor, yet give them so little they rot, sicken and die out in the cold.

And that's us, folks, the serf-using class...

I've only had one experience w/Costco, and it was great. I bought something, didn't like it. They said bring it back. I did. No hassle removing the charge and they were nice about it.

Why not simply put a bag over it?

Put a bag over all of them in a line as they sit in the parking lot. Tie 'em tight. Who's going to bother taking them off? Not the underpaid cash register guys.

And why can't homeless people pry off the electronics?-sell 'em.

Where's your imagination, folk? This is achin' for some civil disobedience.

I had a couple of unauthorized charges on my credit card. The company in question was rather nice and told me when they were made, and with that info, I realized it couldn't have been me.

I have a nice credit union, and spoke with a representative there. She sighed and said that a few bogus charges, usually for small amounts, were how identity thieves often 'tested' credit cards. They'd make a small charge or two, wait, then make a larger one. If nothing happens, they take that as a green light.

I had a hole in my ceiling that dripped water. The landlord never fixed it.

After several months of this, and bunches of ruined stuff, I called the city of New York. They sent someone to look at it. And finally sent someone to fix it. I imagine they sent to the bill to the landlord.

BTW, my building is owned by West Realty Group, and they're a bunch of scary people. First time I called the City of New York, the landlord threatened me over the phone. Once when I complained about the super not doing much, he called me white trash to my face. (I went to an Ivy League school.)

Don't rent from them.

Well,

Something not on the list that should be is ADA-compliant, which the iPhone isn't.

The American Council of the Blind looked into suing Google because their software required visual passkeys that the visually impaired couldn't use.

Google has this habit of putting out software and then making it ADA compliant after the fact. Apple is so barely ADA-compliant, most people who need speech software go with PCs.

Hi,

I received one, too. Or rather, one came for the person who used to live in my apartment.

I know a bit about her: immigrant, nurse, nice person. But not necessarily the sort with the ability to read the fine print.

Could this scam be making money off people whose English skills are poor?

I've taught college on-and-off, and have noticed that tuition costs and the strain it places on students means love-of-learning is mostly a thing of the past. I'm not sure if that's true at Amherst, but it's true in smaller colleges.

I've had students angry at me for giving them poor grades for shoddy work, and then they tell me the extra jobs they have to take to pay for school, the shifts they work... Some have children. They just don't care about learning. They want the degree because it's a necessary hurdle. That's all.

Even those who start out with a love of learning, most lose it soon.

A few years ago, I got a new telephone number from AT&T when I changed appartments. The former owner of the number was apparently wanted for debts, and I would receive upwards of 50 calls a month at times.

Each time the debt people called, I'd ask them to remove my number, as I wasn't the person they were looking for. They'd ask where she was, and telling them I'd been assigned this number randomly from AT&T didn't convince them. The same people kept calling back, often starting by yelling at me in Spanish, which I don't speak.

It all ended when I got a new number, but I was amazed at how the problem persisted for two years--took me that long to figure out it wouldn't go away. My bad.

I'm a journalist, and know a bit why this goes on. If you're staff, you're expected to put out a certain number of articles a year. The real investigative stuff costs--not just travel and research time, but in the legal dept.--real investigative reporting has to be vetted by lawyers because the media is fearful of getting sued.

If you're working with a company on a piece about their product, there's less chance of this, and the stories come ready-made.

Now, consider the plight of freelancers--who make $250 - $400 for newspaper stories, and 75 cents to a dollar a word for national magazines. They have to put out 1-3 articles a week to make a middle-class wage. These 'prepackaged' stories look good to them because they're stories they can sell with not a lot of work. Freelancers have the added burden of both sides of social security, and if they're soley freelancers, they have to pay quarterly taxes--which is as lot of book-keeping, meaning time spent not making money.

A good example of prepackaged journalism is book reviewing (I'm a book reviewer). We receive the galley copies and press releases months in advance, do out little author interviews, and then the book review comes out on the publication date. No one seems to mind this.

Most journalists want to save the world. At least, that's how they start out. Then the realities of the business settle in. Most compromise with a mix of fluff stories, prepackaged deals, and the real McCoy.

The best defense of prepackaged journalism is that, if it didn't exist, journalists wouldn't wouldn't have the time and space needed to focus on real investigation--especially the way media has been cutting staff lately. Fewer reporters means more work for those left.

For prepackaged journalism to stop happening so much, four things would have to happen:

1)Media companies need to hire more reporters.

2)Magazines and newspapers need to pay freelancers a decent wage--one that rises with inflation.

3)Laws need to change so that big businesses will think twice about suing responsible media.

4)The tax code needs to become more friendly towards freelancers.

You get what you pay for. If you don't like prepackaged journalism, ask yourself, 'How much do I pay for the journalism I receive?'