Anastasia Mironova How the consumer turns from the kingdom to the oppressed class 03/15/2024, 08:00

Today is World Consumer Rights Day. It turns out that John Kennedy brought this up when he made a statement about them. These rights are very simple: to safety, to information, to choose, and to be heard. The last one is beautiful.

In general, it is not surprising that consumer protection was born in the United States, which gave us a consumer society. This at some point gave birth to the literal kingdom of consumer lawlessness. It all started there. Do you remember how we used to tell each other stories with astonishment, for example, about our aunt who sued McDonald’s for millions of dollars for allegedly not warning her that the coffee in her cup was hot and the coffee burned her? Now the chain’s cups in the US say the coffee is hot and you could scald yourself. This obviously increased the price of this coffee.

And the late Mikhail Zadornov’s joke about a doomed microwave salesman who did not warn the customer that he could not dry a cat in the oven? I still don’t know if this is true, but I willingly believe it. Because years have passed and consumer terrorism has appeared before us, albeit in a more moderate way.

I recently learned that one of the most profitable legal specializations in Russia is consumer protection. A whole category of win-win and money cases has emerged, as well as numerous areas of consumer claims bearing the hallmarks of terrorism.

For example, shareholders’ demands. They say more than 70% of all claims against developers regarding construction quality bear signs of consumer terrorism. I don’t know what to think about this: The construction here is really bad. But the townspeople are not sleeping and are on the alert to collect money from contractors due to poor finish. You then sell low-quality doors and windows through an advertisement. The developers responded by demanding the return of materials judged by the court to be of poor quality.

Terrorism is also common among drivers. A common method is to hand over a car for repair to an official dealer shortly before the end of the warranty period, and then delay the repair period in every possible way, including criminal penalties for going beyond the warranty. And – to the court, demanding a new car at current prices, compensation and penalties. Or they deliberately damage something in the chassis in order to cover the full cost of a new car even though they used the old one.

The appearance of reviews on online maps and online stores created general chaos. I have seen situations where a person came up to me and asked for free coffee, immediately threatening to write a bad review about the coffee shop. The restaurant requires free meals. Jokes about bringing with you a cockroach that can feed the whole family are no longer jokes in Russia: you release a cockroach into the soup and call the waiter. “If we don’t get a free dinner, I’ll post this photo on your page.”

Inspections, as well as courts, have become an instrument of political terror, feared not only by monopolists. Giant companies don’t care about reviews. Delivery service movers damaged my locker in transit – zero response. But if this were at a small company, they would be worried that I would write a bad review about them or post on social networks.

And if they were faced with a customer who wasn’t harmed by them in any way, but just wanted a discount, they’d be nervous. There are many of them, sometimes they destroy small businesses.

For a while, the consumer, that is, the customer, began to dominate among us. His ascension to the throne took place gradually. We have adopted the norm of “the customer is always right”. Meanwhile, major companies both in the West and here are now starting to refuse. Since the customer can be quarrelsome and eccentric, he may insult your employees, especially when it comes to the call center. Employees will become anxious, they will resign, you will face the need to hire and train new ones, and you will begin to experience losses. “The customer is always right” is now an outdated norm.

The idea that the customer is a king and a god is becoming a thing of the past. The consumer did not reign for long; he is no longer a king. Thus he tramples on the remnants of his former greatness. Did you know that a new term and a new idea of ​​the oppressed class has emerged in leftist ideology – consumerism? A class of consumers who are oppressed by consumption for precisely the root cause. It forces him to consume more and more, and for this he has to work harder. Yes, yes, modern leftist thinkers see excessive consumption as a means of exploiting the masses. The masses are no longer free and independent; They are forced to consume more trash and garbage. Those who do not have such a desire have no other choice: Irons that break easily, batteries that explode, clothes covered in pills are made for them.

It would be more profitable for the average person to buy a wool sweater for, say, 6,000 rubles and wear it for five years. But according to the new class theory, it is more profitable for the exploiters to sell ten sweaters for ten thousand five hundred each. This will break down quickly. It is not profitable for the average person to spend a lot of money and time to choose and buy ten sweaters. But how else can you get money from him?

According to leftist theory, today’s consumers are not just small extras whose money is deducted, that is, obtained by deception and sweat and blood. Consumer, in the language of Marx and Engels, is a class that includes exploiters. In general, there is a lot of room for conversation here. In short, the point is that there are a lot of people in the world who have nowhere to settle according to the current liberal economic model, who cannot find jobs for them, and finding jobs for them can only be done by reducing profits. De-optimization of production. In this case, the burden of supporting people with a surplus of the economy falls on the shoulders of citizens who are forced to buy scrap, broken equipment and impose unnecessary goods; This is a way to provide jobs for those displaced by the pandemic. Sunday. You buy a broken piece of iron just because someone has to support the people who made it. Otherwise they will fall into poverty: the economy of liberal capitalism does not need them.

In this sense, of course, consumer laws and various protections greatly interfere with the so-called big money. Because they don’t allow us to put the burden of having extra hands and mouths entirely on the consumer. Who’s still kicking and doesn’t want to buy an iron every six months?

It is noteworthy that in the USA itself, in this consumer paradise, consumer protection does not work very well compared, for example, with Russia and even Scandinavia and Germany. According to my observations, even in the UK the consumer is better protected. Because these are countries with a slight socialist tendency. And we are a left-leaning country. Our legal and law enforcement systems work worse, but overall there are greater standards for consumer protection than in the United States. It is not possible to carry out various inspections regarding the quality of the goods cheaply and free of charge, it is not possible to return them within a certain period of time without a reason, and it is more difficult to return the goods under warranty. The situation varies from state to state, but generally they are in a period of overconsumption, which is the basis of the economy.

Today, our consumers need to be protected from unauthorized advertising, unnecessary services, and encouraging consumption. And this is not being done. In the West, the situation is exactly the opposite. For example, in many countries, it has long been prohibited to place products that attract children’s attention at children’s eye level. Search by ad. Play ads through speakers.

A difficult situation. If you make a consumer king, he becomes arrogant. If we allow our dissatisfaction to go unanswered, we will become a disenfranchised donor class. I would like reconciliation but there doesn’t seem to be one yet. The business world tries to convince the consumer that it is a king and a god, but in fact it completely robs him through overconsumption. Therefore, on such an important day for the protection of consumer rights, it would be nice to remind that in the modern world, it is necessary to protect not only the right to consume, but also the right not to consume and not to turn into a cash cow.

The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.