It’s important to first make the distinction that these are not the views of the Undergraduate Student Government; however, they are the views of me personally.

A grand point is being made by last week’s article “The human touch, missing from modern business.” In occasional random conversation, I refer back to my freshman year when I was in my English 112 class. In that class, we read about shopping malls and talked about how shopping has transformed itself away from what it was once. If you think back, it used to be all about the people who were giving their money! It was a business-oriented system, if you will. Now, it’s a very business-oriented system. The editorial talks about a key point; however, I’d be willing to argue that there are VRUs (voice response units) that have the ability to be very life-like and productive.

However, they are more expensive and thus companies stray away from them.

Yet, the point to look at today is what our society has done to itself. We want to have the opportunity to have convenience, but at the same time, we are losing levels of that convenience regularly. You go in to a store to make a purchase and at this point, you’re “greeted” by an individual who clearly does not want to be there and then subsequently makes you not wish to spend your money there! What do we have to do to get our capitalist society to remember exactly who it is they should be conforming to?

Don’t get me wrong, I love capitalism. The issue is not capitalism itself, it’s the fact that this capitalist society forgets the fact that you should be getting what you pay for. If the product sucks, the least should be friendly and considerate customer service in every setting. In some cases, this is because employers do not pay their employees enough for them to want to be friendly. Or the work environment is not conducive. All of us in quasi-managerial roles need to be able to realize that it’s a top-down effect that determines all of the above.

Businesses are a tough area to get into. There are a lot of things to consider: training, morale, comfortability, etc. One day, companies will realize exactly what needs to be done and we will see an influx in business operating manners. It’ll become the way it once was.

Johnnie Lewis, junior, criminal justice and political science

Lewis is the 2007-08 president of Undergraduate Student Government