A few days ago, UNCG Professor David Wharton wrote an Open Letter To Robert D. Marcus, President of Time Warner Cable, Inc.In it he expressed concerns with customer service that ultimately cannot be solved because Time Warner holds a monopoly on the services they provide in neighborhoods like David's and my own.
Having had several relatives who have been employed by Time Warner over the last 30 plus years I can tell you the echo David's concerns having seen the company from the inside, some of them at some rather high levels locally. And yet they were powerless to do anything about it.
Keep reading, I'll get to local government in a minute, I promise.
Any number of friends and family members currently work for big defense contractors, some of which are also the only ones who do what they do. Defense contracting is one of North Carolina's largest industries. One friend found that a replacement part had been manufactured incorrectly for Trident Submarines for the last 30 years. Did his employer thank him for this discovery? No, they moved him to another department where he no longer has access to blueprints for fear he might find more mistakes they'll have to cover up too.
At Time Warner and at these defense contractors there exists a country club atmosphere. Don't rock the boat. No, not all of the jobs there are that way. Most of their employees work their asses off, do a great job and want to see things done right but because these monopolies and near monopolies can make absurd profits without really worrying about doing the job correctly or caring what their customers think they can just let the slackers do as they please. Besides, in the case of Time Warner you've got to give their Public Relations department a reason to exist, right?
(The first words I spoke this morning were, "Yeah, right!" when I walked past the television and a Time Warner commercial told us to come on back because they've changed.)
Anyway, that brings me to local governments. My conservative friends, of which Professor Wharton is a conservative, often suggest that government should be run like a business but I'm thinking liberals and conservatives agree we don't want governments run like Time Warner runs their business when in fact that's exactly what we have. I'm thinking conservatives mean more like small businesses who actually have to compete to stay in business. Once your neighborhood is incorporated into a town or city that town or city doesn't have to compete for your business. A few folks can move but most of us are stuck right where we are. Even if you do move, if someone else buys your house and it's not abandoned then the city loses nothing-- no sweat, no reason to care. And why should we have to move when the government is the problem in the first place?
I'm not saying it's ever going to happen and I certainly don't know how to make it happen but what if entire communities could vote to become part of another city? What if, for instance, the neighborhoods near the Piedmont Triad International Airport got fed up with Greensboro and voted to become part of Kernersville? Could you imagine the horror on Mayor Perkin's face? I bet he can't ride his mountain bike enough to prevent that heart attack.
What if the parts of Greensboro south of Interstate 40 could vote to become part of Pleasant Garden?
What if my East Greensboro community voted to become a part of Gibsonville along with Sedalia, McLeansville, Montecello, Brown's Summit and others?
What if the folks living along Battleground Ave and New Garden Road voted to become part of Summerfield or Oak Ridge?
Greensboro would be devastated, that's what. Let any one of those communities vote to remove itself from the city tax base and the City of Greensboro would see an economic implosion. Let one leave and soon all would have to leave as the city would be bankrupt. Why absurd as it seems, Downtown Greensboro might opt to become part of Durham. Of course then they wouldn't need GPAC. Or would they still? Who knows?
But you know, as crazy as it seems, if municipal governments had to face that reality each and every day, some of them would get very good at their jobs. And government corruption? Well, with that kind of competition going on it simply couldn't be afforded.
Having had several relatives who have been employed by Time Warner over the last 30 plus years I can tell you the echo David's concerns having seen the company from the inside, some of them at some rather high levels locally. And yet they were powerless to do anything about it.
Keep reading, I'll get to local government in a minute, I promise.
Any number of friends and family members currently work for big defense contractors, some of which are also the only ones who do what they do. Defense contracting is one of North Carolina's largest industries. One friend found that a replacement part had been manufactured incorrectly for Trident Submarines for the last 30 years. Did his employer thank him for this discovery? No, they moved him to another department where he no longer has access to blueprints for fear he might find more mistakes they'll have to cover up too.
At Time Warner and at these defense contractors there exists a country club atmosphere. Don't rock the boat. No, not all of the jobs there are that way. Most of their employees work their asses off, do a great job and want to see things done right but because these monopolies and near monopolies can make absurd profits without really worrying about doing the job correctly or caring what their customers think they can just let the slackers do as they please. Besides, in the case of Time Warner you've got to give their Public Relations department a reason to exist, right?
(The first words I spoke this morning were, "Yeah, right!" when I walked past the television and a Time Warner commercial told us to come on back because they've changed.)
Anyway, that brings me to local governments. My conservative friends, of which Professor Wharton is a conservative, often suggest that government should be run like a business but I'm thinking liberals and conservatives agree we don't want governments run like Time Warner runs their business when in fact that's exactly what we have. I'm thinking conservatives mean more like small businesses who actually have to compete to stay in business. Once your neighborhood is incorporated into a town or city that town or city doesn't have to compete for your business. A few folks can move but most of us are stuck right where we are. Even if you do move, if someone else buys your house and it's not abandoned then the city loses nothing-- no sweat, no reason to care. And why should we have to move when the government is the problem in the first place?
I'm not saying it's ever going to happen and I certainly don't know how to make it happen but what if entire communities could vote to become part of another city? What if, for instance, the neighborhoods near the Piedmont Triad International Airport got fed up with Greensboro and voted to become part of Kernersville? Could you imagine the horror on Mayor Perkin's face? I bet he can't ride his mountain bike enough to prevent that heart attack.
What if the parts of Greensboro south of Interstate 40 could vote to become part of Pleasant Garden?
What if my East Greensboro community voted to become a part of Gibsonville along with Sedalia, McLeansville, Montecello, Brown's Summit and others?
What if the folks living along Battleground Ave and New Garden Road voted to become part of Summerfield or Oak Ridge?
Greensboro would be devastated, that's what. Let any one of those communities vote to remove itself from the city tax base and the City of Greensboro would see an economic implosion. Let one leave and soon all would have to leave as the city would be bankrupt. Why absurd as it seems, Downtown Greensboro might opt to become part of Durham. Of course then they wouldn't need GPAC. Or would they still? Who knows?
But you know, as crazy as it seems, if municipal governments had to face that reality each and every day, some of them would get very good at their jobs. And government corruption? Well, with that kind of competition going on it simply couldn't be afforded.
