The Death of Personal Responsibility.

I just read this:

Travellers charged thousands for using mobiles overseas.

and I think you should too, just for lols.

If you can't be bothered, I'll summarise for you. It's about people complaining about two things at a parliamentary level. First, that overseas roaming costs are too high. Second, there should be greater transparency with regards to roaming costs.

I'm all for both things. What I don't like is the shirking of any sense of personal responsibility, which seems to be a trend in society today.

Yes, the costs could afford to be more transparent, if you'll pardon the pun. Insofar as they're not RIGHT IN YOUR FACE EVERY SECOND THAT YOU'RE AWAKE.

I'm fairly certain that when you want to roam overseas from Australia, you have to phone up and everything to get it enabled. I mean, I haven't done it, because I knew right from the off that it's a ridiculous rip-off. $20 for a MB of data or something stupid like that.

I mean, it's not screaming IN YOUR FACE EVERY SECOND THAT YOU'RE AWAKE, like your personal assistant would, but it wouldn't be too far a stretch to know, or at least think about the possibility, that roaming overseas would maybe cost a bit more than using your phone at home.

Then again, maybe it's not as common-sense as I think it is. I thought that it was fairly evident that peanuts would possibly contain traces of nuts, but obviously some people don't realise that, so there you are, warning labels. Telling you that there may be FREAKING TRACES OF NUTS IN PEANUTS.

Like peanuts containing traces of nuts, roaming isn't exactly a really new phenomenon either.

Again, I wouldn't know, because I haven't done it before, but I'm inclined to think that when calling up to enable roaming, the operator or whatever would let you know how much it would cost. Or (here we go with personal responsibility again) you could ask. Yes, I know it's not your responsibility to ask, they should tell you, but I just thought it'd be a logical thing to do to avoid any future disputes or surprises. The article and parliament thing makes it sound like the costs are hidden deep in the bowels of the secret files vault of telephone companies. I'm fairly certain that the information is accessible on most phone company websites.

Senator Conroy says: "One of the most common complaints that I hear is from people who return from overseas and are confronted by a mobile phone bill that runs into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars". That's not really a valid complaint. It's like buying a Ferrari, and then complaining that it costs a lot.

Yes, roaming is a monumental rip-off. Yes, increase transparency by sending messages to people when they're overseas how much it's going to cost them if they're not astute enough to realise that it could cost them a bit. But don't go around blaming all and sundry about your failure to exercise a little bit of personal responsibility.

Word of the Day: Responsibility