@keunwoo yes, i think this is mostly it. businesses observe that the elasticity of sales to skimping on customer service is low — especially in consolidated industries, where most competitors observe this more strongly if they observe it together. they just follow a profit minimization gradient blindly towards crappy customer service. they could still "afford" the expenses they used to afford, but why pay them? 1/

@keunwoo plus, in a capital markets sense, they can't "afford" expenses their competitors don't take on. share prices, continued access to credit, etc depend upon not underperforming their peers, so even if they might have the cash wherewithal to cover the traditional expenses, once control by capital markets is taken into account, they cannot. 2/

@keunwoo and then control by capital markets now often takes the form of insuring firms are highly leveraged, so they are ruthlessly focused on generating cash flows. then if this is the case, they no longer even have the cash wherewithal to cover the traditional expense, not because they are less successful as businesses, but because creditors and shareholders are more insistent about draining them of cash. /fin