--- description: Please Help Yourself title: Please Help Yourself image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) # Please Help Yourself by [TIME](/author/time/) Apr 2, 2008 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Apr 2, 2008 4:00 AM CUT As our economy closes in on a possible recession, the end of customer service will only help it slide further into one \[March 24\]. While shopping might become quicker and more convenient, what about the jobs that will be lost? Companies will make more money without needing to pay as many employees, but will that really make the world better? I’m no economist, but I feel it’ll just make the rich richer and put more people out of work. _Jeff Richmond, MONROVIA, MD., U.S._ Faster, cheaper and better constitute the holy grail of technology solutions, but most attempts achieve only the first two aims. Technology can simplify and facilitate a transaction, but good customer service is required to deal with the unique and personal aspects of it. _Bob Livingston, LOS ANGELES_ As someone who runs a company dedicated to the automation of customer-service systems, I can say with some authority that your article should have been titled “The End of Customer Service — As We Know It.” Thanks to the Internet, not only are people more empowered to access information on their own, but in many cases they also end up more knowledgeable about a company’s product than the customer-service agents themselves. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire and retain employees to fill these positions, making customer service inconsistent at best. Technology, when implemented effectively, will fill these gaps and provide a better and more consistent level of service. _John Putters, PRESIDENT, VISIONSTATE, EDMONTON, ALTA., CANADA_ The dark side of corporate efficiency and cost savings is the consumers’ stress, frustration, anger and wasted time spent attempting to resolve a problem. The interminable wait for a phone representative, the incomprehensible English from India or the Philippines and an unsatisfactory conclusion are all beyond endurance. _Bernard Sussman, LONGBOAT KEY, FLA., U.S._ I’m 71 years old, and it’s hard enough to lift the heavy grocery bags, let alone do all the work the checkout clerk is being paid for. The same goes for pumping my own gas. Sometimes I yearn for the good old days, when an attendant would not only pump gas but clean the windshield and check the oil too. Companies are more interested in saving money by replacing employees with machines than in making things more efficient for consumers. Anything that makes life simpler and easier is fine, but I don’t like the idea of doing the work of employees without being paid. _Mary Lou Bryden, WILMINGTON, N.C., U.S._ I have not found one person who likes automated customer service. It’s sad to see human interaction being replaced by computerized interaction. Computers cannot solve a problem, smile or tell you to have a nice day. I’m curious to know where the saved dollars are going: Are they lowering prices for the customers, or are they padding ceos’ retirement funds? _Betty Kroupa, EAST TROY, WIS., U.S._ The culture just gets more impersonal and isolated than it already is. It’s almost like life in _Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines_. Will we regain our humanity and ability to communicate before the machines totally take over our lives? _Marie Skertic, WILLINGBORO, N.J., U.S._ **The Keys to Common Wealth** In “Common Wealth,” Jeffrey D. Sachs stated that the Millennium Development Goals are to cut extreme poverty, hunger and disease by 2015 \[March 24\]. Cutting poverty and hunger means more people consuming. Cutting disease means more people. Working toward these goals is meaningless as long as we do not reduce world population. People need to have fewer babies. Anything else produces an endless fight with no chance of winning. _Rodger Skidmore, SARASOTA, FLA., U.S._ **Two Wrongs?** It seems foolhardy and arrogant to push forward with geoengineering processes that would result in alterations of climatic and marine systems \[March 24\]. Governments should agree to heavy regulation of any field experiments in their waters, and similar international controls should be put into place. Instead of seeking ways to mitigate the effect of greenhouse gases, policymakers should attack the problem head-on by regulating industry and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The solution to global warming is to stop putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Anything short of this is an imperfect and flawed approach that will ultimately fail. _Alan Foreman, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S._ **Land of Peril — and Peace** Since my wife and Ijust returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank, I read “Israel’s Secret War” with great interest \[March 24\]. We were both concerned and encouraged by what we saw of everyday life in that troubled part of the world. While we believe Israel’s border checkpoints help provide security that its citizens deserve, we also saw checkpoints located well inside the West Bank that seem to have the purpose of hassling Palestinians. It was encouraging, though, to meet with Father Elias Chacour, a Catholic Archbishop and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who runs a school for Jewish, Muslim and Christian children. We were also encouraged by life in Galilee, whose population is a fifty-fifty mix of Israelis and Palestinians. The city can be a model for peaceful coexistence in all of the Holy Land. _Steve Hawkins, BOULDER, COLO., U.S._ **A Crusader Crashes** All the psychoanalyzing about what drove Eliot Spitzer to risk his career by conducting illegal extramarital entanglements seems pointless \[March 24\]. I doubt such urges in elected officials are different from those of ordinary people who jeopardize their families and careers with such behavior. My heart goes out to Spitzer’s family members, who have to endure publicly what others suffer privately. _Nadia El-Badry, DOBBS FERRY, N.Y., U.S._ In considering Spitzer’s resignation, I can’t help recalling Bill Clinton’s impeachment. While the underlying circumstances of the events are different, they do share some common elements: marital infidelity and alleged criminal acts (perjury for Clinton and violation of the Mann Act for Spitzer). Isn’t it curious that, at the end of the day, Clinton stayed in office because of his popularity, and Spitzer got thrown under the bus for his lack of it? It’s small wonder the public has so little regard for elected officials. _Scott Thompson, DALLAS_ We skewer Spitzer for hiring prostitutes and hurting his family terribly. But who else was hurt? No one. Meanwhile, two high-level political executives — responsible for the deaths and terrible injuries of thousands of U.S. service personnel and tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, trillions of dollars of debt, total disruption of the Middle East and destruction of our nation’s good name — sit safely in their offices, unthreatened with even impeachment and ready to escape into retirement without a scratch when their term ends. Payment for sex is apparently far worse than the losses of blood, treasure and our nation’s reputation. American values? They’re in the toilet. _William Majors, WOODLAND HILLS, CALIF., U.S._ **Modernizing Morality** Nancy Gibbs nicely delineated the different kinds of sins that plague our society \[March 24\]. Believers and nonbelievers have a moral duty to do what is right, an obligation that stems not wholly from religion but more from a universal moral law that guides free men and women everywhere. There is a greater voice that speaks to all of us every time we commit a deed that is contrary to our place in the world. Why not do the best we can while here on earth for a short time? _John J. Pino, NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA., U.S._ The Catholic church seeks to modernize standards of morality, but it is an offending institution that fails to modernize its own house: it continues to ban women from the priesthood. The Vatican has cast a moral dilemma to today’s faithful. When we are silent about the church’s discrimination against women, are we complicit in a new sin? _Judy Alves, FORT MYERS, FLA., U.S._ **A Long Slog Ahead** Seldom do I become irritated, but Simon Robinson’s “Feeling the Spirit” left me seething \[March 17\]. Nobody should underestimate the enormous job the next U.S. President will have in restoring America’s reputation, which has been damaged so badly by the current Administration. Here in Austria there is a huge feeling of anti-Americanism, not just because of the Iraq war but for many other issues as well. And judging from the comments of colleagues and friends throughout Europe and farther afield, it seems the whole world is laughing at the U.S., a country that re-elected the most absurd President in history. The arrogance of Robinson’s article is an example of exactly what is wrong. If you believe the U.S. election can restore the world’s faith in America, then you are sadly wrong. It will take a lot more than that. _Andy Deakin, VIENNA_ **Needed: Fuel for Humans** Having read “A Furious Hunger,” I sadly experienced déjà vu \[March 17\]. As a food technologist, I daily receive disquieting information on availability and rising prices. Several companies I deal with are becoming desperate as stocks of flax and corn, to name but two examples, are virtually extinct. You were certainly correct to cite biofuels and bad harvests as the key reasons for this scarcity. Several of our suppliers readily admit they have sold their stocks of sugar, corn and rapeseed to biofuel manufacturers simply because they can make a lot more money that way. I wish you had cited the declaration of Jean Ziegler, the independent U.N. expert on food, that biofuels made from foodstuffs are a crime against humanity. _Maarten Molenaar, VEENDAAL, THE NETHERLANDS_ **A Campaign Comeback** How can Hillary Clinton look at herself in the mirror after trying to cajole people like Howard Dean to include Michigan’s and Florida’s delegate votes \[March 17\]? The Democratic primaries have turned into a contest to see who can manipulate the system to gain advantage — and both candidates have become political chameleons. We want to see their true colors, not the ones they think are going to get them elected. _John Gardiner, LAKEWOOD, COLO., U.S._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6684231/please-help-yourself/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6684231/please-help-yourself/"},"headline":"Please Help Yourself","datePublished":"2008-04-02T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T10:25:11.836Z","description":"Please Help Yourself","url":"https://time.com/archive/6684231/please-help-yourself/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6684231/please-help-yourself/","name":"Please Help Yourself"}}]}] ```