US - A Service Economy? (#308, Topic B)

Our oceanfront condo needs new carpet. Though carpet in our unit has been replaced many times in the 30+ years of our owning it, we never know/knew the exact footage of areas requiring carpeting -- somehow, it is considered trade secret to which we are not privy. This time is no different. But, with our regular carpet installer having retired, we had to shop around. Clearly, before anything can be done, our unit needs to be measured. I never realize that it is so difficult to arrange for a service such as this. The standard elapsed time is at least three days, which is more time than we have planned to stay in our unit. During our second visit, we were advised of a cancellation, so we lucked in. Our measurer came very much on time, at 8:30. I thought we were his first assignment for the day. Not so; we were his third. He acted very professional, though he used only a measuring tape and a clipboard. The clipboard, as it turned out, is a lap-top without a keyboard -- he showed it to me, with a sketch showing the exact shape and dimension of one of the bedrooms he measured. I asked him whether he would be the installer as well. No. He is a professional measurer -- he does this between 20 and 25 times a day. He is not an employee of the store with which we contracted, but an independent contractor. I do not know how much he is paid, but I know that the store charges us $35 for this service. Assuming he gets $25, his daily income is between $500 and $625, or between $12,000 and $15,000 a month. Not a bad profession to be in. Our condo is also wired for DSL service -- but, being on the 12th floor of a high-rise, the reception has been poor. On this trip, I decided to call Verizon, our local telephone service provider, to have our unit separately wired. The standard installation charge is $199, not unreasonable, since I spent more than that when a consultant did the wiring of our unit in the retirement community. What surprised me was the long wait. I called on Monday, January 15, but the first opening for a Verizon technician to visit us to do the wiring is February 23, a solid 6 weeks away! If this is not bad enough, the following day, I received a call from Verizon to the effect that my appointment had to be moved forward another week -- to March 2. Since I am not handy, I really had no choice. Tom Friedman, in his The World is Flat, talks about job security in the service industry. These two instances exemplify this point vividly.