Forget about George Carlin's infamous seven dirty words -- XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and let's not forget XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX, and XXXX, which today are commonplace, but are fig-leafed with a prophylactic 'beep' on broadcast TV and radio.
There are now new dirty words that are rarely brought up in public as they seem to offend many. They are: Honesty, Ethics, Accountability, Truth & Enforcement
Welcome to the New Political Party, "HEAT-E".
With the upcoming political year, we have decided that it was time for a new political party, "HEAT-E" -- Honesty, Ethics, Accountability, Truth & Enforcement.
And we are proposing a new piece of legislation -- "Tell-the-Truth"-- but with a futurist "Internet of Things" solution -- the "Schmuck Device".
Simply put: Whenever you are lied to, deceived, or ripped off, etc., by a corporation --You get $100.00 for every violation.
And when the public is misled or the facts are manipulated, the politicians and corporate management must pay and are personally held accountable.
The Schmuck Device (which is worn by the corporate management and politicians who violate the laws and regulations) is attached via the "Internet of Things" to an Artificially Intelligence (AI) based national database, and the combination makes sure that these laws are enforced. -- I'll get to that in a second.
Today They Can Say Anything and Nothing Can Be Done about It.
A few weeks ago when I mentioned that we had uncovered one of the largest financial accounting scandals in American history, a number of reporters said -- What's new? This happens everywhere. What are you going to do about it?
And when I mentioned that millions of people are paying thousands of dollars extra in overcharging, one person posted:
"Pretty sure we are overpaying for everything -- Health care, Financial services, Phone service. Is there anything we are not overpaying for?"
As I've been tracking the providers of telecommunications networks and services, we find that these companies can pretty much say anything they want without any fear someone is going to do something about it.
For example, AT&T, in an interview with the Washington Post dealing with the wireline fiber optic deployments in cities, claimed the company had spent over $140 billion in six years on the deployment of fiber optics networks. I checked AT&T's annual reports (filed with the SEC) and the total construction budgets (CapX) for all lines of business was only $121 billion, and that included non-fiber optic deployments like U-Verse, which is based on the existing copper utility wires, as well as their wireless network spending. Thus, AT&T actually spent a fraction on fiber optic wiring for city upgrades; inflating the numbers helps get regulatory and policy perks.
In short, the facts are there, but most people, including reporters, don't bother checking the facts.
But forget telecom -- the US Presidential race is upon us, as well as many other elections, and other industries have their own stories to tell about the companies' ability to saying anything and are never held accountable.
'Tell-the-Truth' legislation and the Schmuck Device are designed to bring back actual facts into the conversation -- what a concept. It will force the CEOs and management, not to mention politicians, to 'tell the truth' and it will make sure that in every political speaking event, big or small --'the Truth will set you free'.
High Tech Accountability and Enforcement Made Easy
H-E-A-T-E is proposing not only a new piece of legislation, to be started in telecommunications, as a test-bed for implementation - but we have added an enforcement mechanism-- the 'Schmuck Device' and it runs using the next generation "IoT" -- Internet of Things.
What exactly is the Internet of Things? Wikipedia states:
"The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit..."
Helps Customers Directly: This misrepresentation is not just at the corporate or political level. As we will discuss, in dealing with companies about your communications services, many have experienced the run-around or are told different stories, get different dates for an installation or the delivery never shows or... Under this law, they have to pay you directly $100.00 for every documented violation. Period!
The Tell-the-Truth Legislation is Simple.
There are so many lies, deceptions or simply mismanagement that leads to telling lies that we decided to base the legislation on practical solutions.
- If a Company Lies to a Customer and the customer can document that the company misled them, they get $100.00 per violation, plus the company is hit with penalties, fines, late fees, surcharges, taxes -- and all other made-up add-ons charges per violation -- just like your phone, cable and wireless company bills.
Real Live Example
After the major Sandy Storm hit America's East Coast, the phone lines went down in New York City. Six months after the storm, I was sitting in a parlor room on E9th street, in Manhattan, listening to a room full of distraught people who had not have their service returned yet -- no phone, DSL, etc., from Verizon.
However, these people were told multiple times that they would have their service returned. One woman created flyers and, as you can see from this excerpt, there were two dates that the entire block was to be returned to service. We later found out that since this entire area was still based on copper, management had put a 'code-red' to not fix the copper lines and so some customers waited and waited; management didn't bother to tell the service reps, however, that this was the plan so they kept making appointments, over and over.
Here is a piece of the flyer.
So, in this case, every customer on the block who had lost service would get $100.00 for January 25th, 2013 and another for February 19th, 2013.
Additional Penalties
- ADDITIONAL CHARGE: $50.00 a day, cash, plus the equivalent service, for free, per day: We suggest a $50.00 a day penalty in between, besides a day of free service for every day missed - or the equivalent in cash.
- IMPORTANT: The customer gets directly paid -- and in cash, not 'service rebates'.
- Paid for Time Waiting: If you have a job and you had to take off to wait for someone who didn't show, you automatically get paid for the time spent-- at your normal billable hour, plus the company is charged, taxes, fees and surcharges.
- Formula: If you make $70,000 a year, you divide that up by 365 days... or you are a consultant and bill at $150.00 an hour, you are paid per hour.
- All charges, taxes, fees, etc. are also indexed to the rate of inflation, and any changes will be listed in the Federal Register, (which no one ever reads).
Important: This doesn't absolve the company of any other wrongdoing or monies owed you.
The National Database of Lies, Half Lies and Miss-Truths - The 21St Century Solution
Going 21st Century hip, crowd-sourcing is now a regular part of life and individuals add to the collective story, such as Wikipedia, where people add to the topic and there is a vetting process to make it stick.
In the case of the customer issues, their documentation, which would include recorded phone calls (a must), we have provided a method to 'conference in' the National Database so that what is told to the customer is on record.
With voice recognition being almost accurate, i.e., the machine listens to what you say and even translates and transcribes the conversation; the audio will turn into a searchable text to keep track of what's been said -- provide a transcript and cross-reference all previous calls, documents, etc. Printed documents will have to be scanned as text or mailed and processed.
So, if a customer gets different stories from different parts of the same company, they now have a record of what was said (or lied about) and can use it as immediate evidence. -- No court, no question it wasn't said -- just facts.
Crypto Secured: Security and privacy, of course, will be a must and the use of voice recognition and other 21st Century tech will ensure this priority. And all personal information is redacted when cross-referenced with any other documents. Also, the customer controls what is released, if anything, not the company.
Let's return the 'customer' in the word 'customer service', shall we?
Public Statements, Corporate Information, Testimony, Financial Reports, Etc.
Besides an individual's issues, a more global approach is needed to just eliminate plain untruthful statements made by corporate execs or politicians.
- Crowd-sourcing will be used to collect information to check for truthfulness. However, because of the artificial intelligence capabilities, the Database will have thousands of data feeds of continuous information to use as the baseline.
Can anyone object to this statement? -- Corporations and politicians should always tell the truth to customers and the American Public --Yes or No?
Enforcement of the Individual and Company for Statements
Companies are now individuals so they should be treated as such and be personally held accountable for the statements made by themselves and the companies.
In fact, AT&T stated that the CEO was personally responsible for the code of business ethics.
However, it is hard to take broad-stroke misrepresentation and apply a remedy to customers.
And we don't want to harm the companies -- we just want them to tell the truth. But we need enforcement and thus, the Schmuck Device.
The Schmuck Device
- Enforcement and Installation of a Schmuck Device: Anyone, from politicians to the management of companies convicted of multiple acts and documented violations, besides paying the corporate fines, must wear a Schmuck Device.
This is also a perfect example of the Internet of Things -- how to best use the Internet and wireless technology for enforcement.
- Safe for the Environment and Animals: Animals don't lie, at least that hasn't been documented, and this is environment friendly. But, of course, this must be used with caution, like any device with high voltage.
I leave you with a new tune, "Lies Will Set You Free", from the new album, "Songs for Grown Ups".