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If a low-level employee of a large corporation can make former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich feel like "a chump," what chance do the rest of us have dealing with these behemoths?

Reich recently moved from Massachusetts to California, and he was trying to transfer his money from his Massachusetts bank to a California bank:

The nice young man who was sitting there at a computer in the California bank told me I’d have to wait two weeks for my check to clear.

We’re in an electronic age. Money moves from Boston to Bangkok in two seconds. My car and furniture got moved from Massachusetts to California in ten days. Why should it take two weeks for my money to move from Massachusetts to California? The nice young man, sitting behind the computer, explained that Massachusetts was a different state from California, I was new to California, and, well, various things had to be looked into.

The bank clerk's lame excuse is typical of what customer service reps of large corporations find themselves doing day in and day out — defending the indefensible, like minor-league Scott McClellans. The excuse didn't fool Reich — he knew the bank was simply getting free use of his money for two weeks for no good reason whatsoever. But this once powerful member of President Clinton's first administration was powerless against this "nice young man" and the arrogant colossus he represented.

The bank in question is Bank of America, which reached megabank status by acquiring other banks — in my neck of the woods, Fleet, which acquired Bank of Boston, which acquired BayBanks and, I'm sure, some minnows, too.

Is this big-fish-eats-little-fish method of growing a business really good for America? The answer is Yes, if you happen to be a Borg or a Borg wannabe. Otherwise, not so much, as customers like Reich will attest. And speaking as one who has been assimilated by the Borg of the computer industry — yes, resistance was, indeed, futile — it's not so great being a drone inside the collective, either.

How is it good for America for a General Electric to own NBC? For Altria (nee Philip Morris) to own Nabisco, Kraft, and General Foods? For Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to own American TV and radio stations, book publishers, film studios, sports stadiums, and sports teams?

I am Locutus, of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us.