Recall or Return
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By Alison R.G. van Diggelen "Democracy should represent the will of the people, not the whim of the people." One thing I love about the United States is how easy it is to take things back. Have a change of mind about that macho high-powered shop vac you bought last month? Back it goes. “Certainly sir,” the assistant says, re-crediting your account with nary a second glance. No questions asked. No explanation necessary, other than an implicit, I changed my mind. Perhaps you take this freedom for granted, but if you come from anywhere else in the world, like I do, it seems almost too good to be true. In Great Britain, there’s nothing great about the return policy of most stores. You virtually need an act of parliament to take anything back. The checklist is endless: receipt (without it, you’re married to the item for life); original tags, bag and folds; affidavit from your lawyer, another from your granny and preferably not more than 12 seconds should have elapsed since your purchase. Even with all this, you’ll be lucky to get store credit. Over here, places like Nordstrom are legendary…we all know the story of the woman who successfully returned a pencil skirt, five years after purchasing it, simply because she wanted a new look… Easy returns are good for the economy. Knowing that you can take an item back if it doesn’t quite fit with your décor, color scheme or post-holiday hip measurement makes your impulse-buy much easier. So…we tend to buy more. But is this easy return policy encouraging us to make flippant purchase decisions? And is this flippant consumer attitude translating into a frivolous attitude towards politics too? Perhaps the recall mess in California is the result of extrapolated consumer attitudes. Are we so fickle that in eight months our minds have changed into a burning need for a new leader? Do we think a “new look” in Sacramento will solve everything? Is Gray Davis just like the beige sofa we bought last year, and have now decided it really doesn’t fit with the russet-red walls? Gray Davis made many mistakes and we have countless reasons to be disgruntled at the state of our economy and our budget. Many of those budget cuts are painful, and our state’s credit rating is shameful. But is this costly election really the answer? As the Economist Magazine states, “Mr. Davis did not cause California’s woes all by himself; the dotcom bust did most of that. If running big deficits were a recallable offence, few state governors (not to mention presidents) would be left standing.” Now that Schwarzenegger’s team has won control, what’s to stop us deciding after a few months that he has to go? Arnold has put together a top-notch team led by Warren Buffett and George Schultz to design our state’s economic recovery. But maybe wall-to-wall Arnold merchandizing from San Diego to Eureka and endless quips about “hasta la vista, baby” to anyone who crosses him will grow tiresome. Change can be a good thing. But will serial new administrations not just add to our economic woes? Uncertainty is very costly. Too much change can be destabilizing: partisan spite may just breed more partisan spite. Perhaps Davis can’t be “exchanged” as easily as a boring sofa to make everything “work” again in California. Whimsy may oil the wheels of the consumer world. But whimsy adds fuel to the fire of politics and may simply burn a larger hole in our massive deficit. “I know how to sell something,'' Schwarzenegger said when he announced his candidacy on Jay Leno’s Tonight show. “I had to sell bodybuilding when nobody knew what bodybuilding was in this country ...And I had to sell myself as an action hero, which wasn't easy when everyone said, `Hey, your name is Schwartzenstein' or something like that…I did it, because I sold myself to the American people.” “And the same is here,” Schwarzenegger said, referring to the governorship. “It's up to me to sell to the people and to convince the people that I can do the job.'' But Arnie, don’t forget that the American people, especially Californians, know how to return what’s been sold. You'd better deliver the goods, and quick. We're all paying close attention! Author Alison R.G. van Diggelen is editor of siliconmom.com and columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and Silicon Valley Biz Ink. She hales from Bonnie Scotland and now lives in sunny California with her long suffering husband and two rambunctious children. © siliconmom
