from a really fabulous, read-the-whole-thing essay by @adamkotsko on the increasing illegibility of what passes for capitalism these days. https://itself.blog/2024/06/15/what-is-the-economy-even-for/
Text: Now businesses increasingly take actively customer-hostile actions — locking up products, replacing paper menus with cumbersome QR codes, and of course chronically understaffing everything, which is the root of all of these issues — and insulate themselves from any feedback. This claim may seem paradoxical, since businesses are continually clamoring for a certain type of feedback. I feel like I am asked to rate dozens upon dozens of transactions a day on some kind of five-point scale, and higher-stakes encounters (like medical visits) result in repeated demands to participate in a full-dress, multi-step satisfaction survey. Even the public bathrooms in Chicago Union Station have built-in devices for patrons to register their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the level of cleanliness. Whenever I receive one of these demands, I want to shout in Don Draper style: that’s what the money was for!