Now in the UK, there is an added twist to all this, specifically, that customer service call centres are subsidised by massive taxpayer bungs and are used to fill back-to-work quotas. It is actually not in companies' interest for problems to be resolved quickly; they will lose government grants, and the public sector will lose the PR props they get from using call centres to massage unemployment numbers.

So we have a bizarre situation where problems are deliberately perpetuated and made unnecessarily complicated in order to create busywork jobs, paid for by you and me.

The media only recently began crying indignation over this, when the credit crunch started. Which is pathetic, because for years they did not question or challenge the RSA system at all. They just joined in regurgitating feelgood press releases about X hundred of jobs coming to Glasgow courtesy of the system, without ever questioning why an American investment bank that turned a $30 billion profit that fiscal year needed a £6 million handout from the Scottish government.

I had a temp job in a call centre very briefly for five weeks - it was admin support (I wasn't wearing the headphones.) Regarding my three supervisors there, there are very few people in this world I would wish harm on. They are near the top of the list. God knows they wish it on others, and see it through with delight.