Tioga Herald

Spectrum: Is there Good ROI?

Capitalism is truly about return on investment, supply AND DEMAND, and balance in economics. It is being sold by the wealthy autocrats as being supply side economics which favors the wealthy monopoly over the demand side. It results in lousy return on investment, or ROI.

I am not able to express my criticism and complaints for the purpose of fixing the problems because of one lousy thing which Spectrum and most American businesses have today: automated answering systems. Speaking to computers rather than human beings.  But we know that computers have more rights than humans do, so silly me.  Silly me for having such high expectations of American business, just because I lived at a time when there WAS good service from American business so I could say we had good ROI from American business, as a consumer on the demand side of the market. Thus, it is difficult to call and easier to write a diatribe to Spectrum News.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest, why am I writing about ROI with respect to Spectrum? Here is the reason.

With Spectrum streaming services, it is the only way to receive local broadcast channels here in this rural area. So we have Spectrum streaming. I would prefer to have an antenna on my house in order to pick up the local channels and I can dumb Spectrum streaming. But try to get services in this area to install it. They are also rotten examples of business in America because they either don’t exist or they don’t want to touch local broadcast channels.  And it is difficult for me to work with the lousy digital broadcasting today with signals weakened by the FCC so we can have lousy mobile phone service instead.  All in the name of PROGRESS?  Is this PROGRESS or just a “trend” created by the fat pigs (in the late 1800s, the newspapers called them “fat cats”). 

With this being said, would one not expect better services from streaming than one would receive with FREE broadcasts from the air? Would one not have an expectation for watching ON DEMAND, rather than LIVE REAL TIME when there are times in the early morning when there is little to choose for programs, as Food Network and many others do nothing but stupid infomercials?  Is this expecting too much to be able to view ON DEMAND of programs from the past hours or future hours? I have tried it. Not available. Shall I explain how much I spend on Spectrum and Spectrum streaming? Without explaining how much, just believe me that the CAPITALIST ROI ROTS.  It is lousy.

On top of this, how many times have I viewed local broadcast channels on Spectrum streaming and found the video and audio synchronization to be way off? Need I tell people how many times this has happened? Typically, I can synch the video and audio by re-loading the pages. Not this morning. Nope.

So who am I going to call? Ghost busters?  My frustration over lousy American business practices today leads me to writing this note to Spectrum News and copying others on what I write. What choice do I have? Fill out a survey as to whether or not the people at Spectrum are doing a good job? Why is there never an option for feedback to the CEO, CFO, executives, or the board which runs Spectrum? Why is there never a feedback on how well the corporation is doing. Only to fill out a feedback about the LABOUR, so as to fire one of them if they are not doing a good job.  As a lifetime member of unions, I find this all a disgusting situation and want to speak out and tell people about it. Spectrum: you (as the stupidity of the SCOTUS Citizens United puts corporations as human individuals) suck.  And Spectrum is not the only “individual” or corporate entity which sucks.  There are some good ones out there, but many of them are not trying to buck this trend for being lousy freaking entities on the side of supply side economics, ignoring the demand side of economics so as to line the pockets of the wealthy CEOs which have salaries and bonuses increased astronomically from the Reagan era, by more than 1000%, while labour has languished and the Middle Class has been ruined.  The Middle Class is the best means of supporting democracy, too, so one can see what is happening with a strategy for supply side economics in order to destroy balance not only in economics, but balance in government democracy. 

My frustrations might emanate from me. But I don’t speak only for myself, but for many Middle Class people from a class of people which is being destroyed.  Too many people, including lawyers who think they are doing a good job for America by taking on big insurance but don’t work for the overall picture and consideration which I address.  It does take a village of those who want supply AND demand, wish to preserve our democracy by means of a Middle Class, and to bring peace AND justice for all to America.  ROI? Who gives a damn about ROI these days, right? ROI is another practical part of capitalism. You wish to hear more about what I think about ROI? I am willing to explain, but not now.

There is lousy ROI with Spectrum and Spectrum streaming. When we had “cable” television regulated by local authorities, we had a better ROI than what we get from Spectrum today.  Since the FCC has regulated this business, like a central Politburo in Putin’s world, the commissioners there have lined their pockets, too, from the big corporate conglomerates of the supply side Reaganomics.  That is called corruption and it is corruption at the highest levels, due to supply side Reaganomics. What if we, once again, had a good ROI and not just in the industry in which Spectrum is involved?