Screwed

It bothers me deeply that I seem to spend more and more of my time being angry. I am, it seems, far more frequently angry, and that anger often escalates into full blown fury. I received a notice from my cable/internet service provider telling me that in their constant efforts to provide even better service to me, their valued customer, they are raising my already-astronomically high rates by yet another "$5 to $6" (care to guess which it will be?), and are in the process of "reorganizing my service package" (read they will be cutting the number of channels I receive), but will be offering a "new" package plan, which I have no doubt, will include exactly the same channels they will be cutting from my regular service at an even higher rate.

Postal rates going up again in May? Gee, that's really a shame. Go find yourself another post office.

I titled this blog entry "Screwed"? My, what a harsh and crude thing to say. Have I no couth? Not when I feel I'm being screwed, I don't. And if you think for one minute you're not being screwed either, just look back over your shoulder at the long line of companies, corporations, agencies, banks, credit card companies and "service organizations" all standing in line behind you, waiting their turn.

And the fury comes from the fact that there is not one single thing I or anyone else can do about it. It will be exactly the same as when I complained to my insurance company that my rates rose by 10-15 percent every year, regular as clockwork--as a matter of fact, I suspect it WAS clockwork. ("Oh, here it is March. Time to raise our premiums.") They, of course, being in business only to serve their customers, were extremely sympathetic. "We understand completely, Mr. Margason. Please feel free to find another insurance provider." The fact that every other insurance company raises their rates exactly the same amount at exactly the same time has nothing at all to do with it, of course. And far be it....FAR, I say....from me to in any way suggest that reps from every insurance company get together at some $900-a-night hotel and engage, over champagne and caviar, in a good old fashioned game of collusion. Collusion is illegal, and we all know that. So of course they would never consider it.

It is the same with credit card companies. If I as an individual were to loan you $100 and charge you 29 percent interest, you could sue me for usury. But credit card companies do it with impunity and no one....no one....sues a credit card company.

When I lived in northern Wisconsin, on the border with the U.P. of Michigan, every time there was a boost in the price of oil, every single one of the eight gas stations in the area would raise their prices by the exact same amount within ten minutes of one another. The fact that the gas in their underground tanks had already been purchased, and the barrels of crude oil with the higher price would not make it to the refineries for weeks if not months in no way dissuaded anyone.

And out of curiosity, when is the last time you saw prices other than the volatile gas pump prices come down once they are raised? And you can have no doubt that if they could have gotten away with it, we would still be paying $4.95 per gallon. (Of course that will never happen again. No, never.)

Oh, Lord, I truly, truly do not like to be this way. I want to see the good in people. I honestly believe that there are companies out there who occasionally look beyond the bottom line. But they are harder and harder to find and I cannot, at the moment, think offhand of a single one.

The anger rests, again, in my feeling of utter helplessness. I know all this fury is not good for my mind or my body, but I seem increasingly unable to deal with it without venting it through these blogs. I do appreciate your bearing with me, and the fact that you do suggests I may not be totally alone.

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