for 9 January 2001. Updated every WEEKDAY.

Tim Cavanaugh
Special Guest Editor

Terry Colon
Art Director

Heather Havrilesky
Senior Editor

Joey Anuff
Publisher

Good column, as always. I work for a large ISP, and a lot of what you said resonates with me. When I started here two years ago, I thought that I was getting into the sweetest gig ever. This was my first "New Economy" job -- I had never worked for a company whose primary focus didn't seem to be making huge profits. When this ISP opened up a call center in my home town, a lot of semi-skilled workers thought that this alone would deliver us from a lifetime of food service jobs.

Two years, and one merger later, I've seen a lot of "Old Economy" style re-orgs, which has flattened the structure of the company. It's now harder than ever to get a promotion, and annual raises are rarely higher than 2%. Many of my co-workers feel like they are trapped in a situation where they aren't making any progress in their careers. They resent being left to stagnate within the company.

Consequently, many of us (at least in Tech Support) are grumpy. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if our customers looked at us as being at least has helpful as PacBell when it comes to getting any assistance. When you are the equivalent of the McDonald's counter worker of the internet economy, it can be difficult to muster any enthusiasm for your work. And if the economy goes south you'll see a lot of us down at the EDD collecting checks to support addiction to expensive coffee and cheap weed.

I'm not sure whether or not most people who work for utility companies are affected by economic downturns, but I think it's pretty safe to say that they are not floating on an economic "bubble" that's threatening to burst. At least they have a union.

Thanks for your time

--Brent Sullivan
<brents@flashmail.com>

Actually, the employees we contact during First World Communications' now-almost-weekly service outages are generally a pretty polite and sympathetic bunch — a strong indication that no union is involved — but they are unable to provide any information or actual help, and this happens often enough that it is pretty clear this stingy policy comes from above.

We did think it worth noting that a major ISP in the heart of the internet provides service worthy of the Peruvian postal service: These outages, if continued unchecked, will eventually have a deleterious effect on Suck itself. More generally, it makes you wonder how the government ever thought the internet was going to survive a nuclear attack by the Russians.

yr pal,

Magua

The problem with "deregulation" is that it was the form, not the fact, of regulation that was modified. "Deregulation" in this case appears to me to be one of

a) a well-intentioned idea badly implemented, as the majority of California legislators are not acquainted with how markets actually work. b) a sneaky attempt to get rich quick on the part of certain legislators (rumors abound that some of our solons have equity positions in the power generation companies, where there are no limits on price/kW). c) an attempt by state Democrats to discredit the label "deregulation". d) an attempt by Greens to force energy conservation by bollixing power generation and making it impossible to create new capacity.

My bet is on (a), personally. One thing I've discovered is that stupidity is more common than malice. The other reason (a) is most likely is that no legislator wants to be associated with price increases for ANYTHING. It strikes me that California's politicians wanted to ensure they came out looking good, so they passed a law saying that prices could only go one way -- down. Unfortunately, this was not what happened.

Rob McMillin
<rlm@pricegrabber.com>

You're probably on the right track, Robert. But the question remains. How can a service like electricity ever not fall into the hands of a monopoly? It's not control of the means of production that matters here (though the fact that PG&E offloaded actual generation is apparently the main reason raw prices are high). It's control of the means of delivery: Is Magua Power and Light really going to build all new pipes and wires to Walnut Creek and Hollister in order to compete with the big boys? This is not the way of Magua. Magua will put them all under the knife.

yr pal,

Magua

Hi there!