Irrationality of Rationality: Caught in the Heavy Machinery

Irrationality of Rationality: Caught in the Heavy Machinery

Irrationality of Rationality: Caught in the Heavy Machinery

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The irrationality of rationariry takes severar forms. . . . credit cards are sup_posed to offer greater efficiency but sometimes are quire inefficient. Take, forexample’ the Discover Card’s program to allow its cardholders access tosprint’s long-distance service. To make a long-distan.. .uri*iir, rhe card,”all you need do is diar sprint’s 11-digit access number. Then 0. Then a10-digit phone number. Then the tiaigit account number from yourDiscover card. Then a four-digit ‘personal Ac..r, coa..lJ’a lrigt ty irr.ni-cient sffing of 42 digits -,rrt b” .r,t.red just to make one long-distance tele_phone call. To take. anothe, .*rrrrpl., the credit .;J-;’r;;rnies aresupposed to fun*ion highly predictably. Thus, for example, or. b,r, shourdbe error free’ However, brilirrg .r.o^ do find their way into monthly state-ments’ For example,,thle may be charges that we did not make or theamount entered may be incorrect. ‘ ‘ ‘ The credit card world is arso highly dehumanized because peopre gen-erally interact with nonhuman t”.hrriogi.r, with such products as bilrs oroverdue notices, or with people whose itio^ or decisions are constrainedif not determined by nonh,man technologies. Horror stories abound ofpeople caught in the “heavy machinery” of*the .r.ai, *J .”-plnies. pitythe poor consumers *ho get charged fo, ,fri.rg, they did not buy or who aresent a series of computer letters with escalating threats because ,h. .o-prr.,erroneously considers them to be derinquent in their payments. Then thereare the many complaints of peopre who get turned down for credit becauseeffoneous ipformation has crept into their credit report, Tril;; get sat-isfaction from the technologies, or from trreir often robotJike representa-tives, is perhaps the ultimate in the dehumanization associated with arutionalizing society.

‘ ‘ ‘ computerized credit approval is associated with a greater likerihoodof delinquency and defaurt thu, *h., rir”rr.iut irr,irotio*’*pt-oy more tra-ditional methods. credit card compa”i., ;;” willing ro accept these risksbecause of the relativery smalr ,-oori, i”r.rr.a in credit card loans and thefact that credit cards in general are so ,-firrUt.. Sr.h l;;r;;;.. frrratynoticeable.

Chapter 24 (

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