Class Warfare, Bit by Bit
How odd. I just read a fascinating article by Blake Fleetwood ("A Nation of Frequent Flyer Junkies–25th Anniversary", The Huffington Post, 2 May 2006) about frequent-flyer awards programs. His thesis, which seems all correct and in order to me, is that these programs have created a hidden, two-class system in air travel, working to build loyalty towards vendors whose products are basically indistinguishable and providing privilege and kickbacks (legally shielded from their employers and the IRS) to corporate travelers. It was well worth reading.
It wasn't the piece that was odd, it was my reaction to it. As I read, I kept thinking that beneath the overt layer of meaning about frequent-flyer programs, there was an ironic layer beneat the surface in which Mr. Fleetwood was using frequent-flyer awards programs as a very clever metaphor to explain what would happen to the internet if the big telecom companies get their way in coercing congress to ditch the idea of "net neutrality" (for a summary of issues and links, see, e.g., Adam Green, "Mike McCurry — Hurting The Internet, Hurting His Admirers", The Huffington Post, 2 May 2006). The hidden, two-tiered structure of "preferred" customers, the "better" class of the "same" service offered to all, the kickbacks, the hidden costs — it's all there.
I waited for him to reveal the correspondance in an emotionally and intellectually satisfying "ta da!", but he never did. How odd.
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on Thursday, 4 May 2006 at 03.13
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I think the Internet phenomenon disturbs the corporate mind in very fundamental ways, beginning with lack of control.
That corporate types would try for a two-tiered service level, if not more tiers, is inevitable. We are probably headed for a time when a whole lot of people had better be prepared to do a whole lot of pushing back, politically, economically and in the form of good old raising hell.