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[Ben Scott]

On 3/7/06, Python <python at venix.com> wrote:
> However, the unwillingness to customize and tailor the service to fit
> customer needs is mostly laziness and the expectation that they
> can get away with it.

  I seem to recall there's this theory in free market economics that
says if there is a significant demand for a service, it will be
provided.  Alternatively, if there is not sufficient demand, no such
luck.  The big provides see the rare exceptions as not worth their
trouble.  While I don't have access to their budget sheets, I suspect
they're right.  The profit motive just ain't there for them.

  How many people here use AOL?  I'm guessing few to none, because
they suck.  Yet they succeed very well in providing a barely usable
service to a large number of people who neither know nor care for
anything better.  AOL is more-or-less happy to let people who want
more go elsewhere.  Wal-Mart does not want to compete with
Neiman-Marcus.

  Of course, cable companies *are not* a free market, since they've
been granted a monopoly by the local government in the local area.  I
suggest that the solution *there* is to fix the root cause (granting
overly broad monopoly power), not bitch about how lousy the resulting
monopoly is.

-- Ben