You`re right-it`s reality, stupid! Problem is, the coming age of deregulation, complete with the "do whatever it takes to get the sale" mentality of the retail world, is not going to improve these reliability concerns.
Bottom line-oriented companies will take their chances and pray that they are spared a summer heat wave instead of spending millions upgrading something that works 99 percent of the time.
I sense your magazine-which is very good, by the way-is promoting the concept of open markets, deregulation and customer choice. RELIABILITY will suffer in this world. Tearing down what has worked well for the past 100 years in the United States in the name of customer choice (I call it IOU greed) is not in the best interest of the country as a whole. Customer choice means two things. Industrial customers may get to choose their supplier. (I personally don`t believe most residential customers will save much, if any in the long run). "Choice" also means companies get to choose who they want to service. That`s the definition of choice deregulation advocates don`t talk about.
(Name and address withheld)
