America's Corporate Brain Drain

“Press ‘1’ to listen to five more phone menus. If this is an emergency, please hold forever for the next available operator….”

If you hate phone menus, you’re not alone. When big companies saw data proving that up to 70 percent of callers press “0” to reach a live operator, they did exactly what you’d expect. Instead of getting live operators to answer the phones, they disabled the “zero out” function.

From gas-guzzling SUVs to free checking accounts that charge for checkbooks and offer point...