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jtimson@globeandmail.com

For just a moment last week, I thought we might see something unique in this country: thousands of people out on a Toronto street, loudly protesting the fact they are being gouged.

But no, they were all just waiting for shuttle buses to take them home Wednesday after a construction gaffe had shut down the subway system. Which is pretty embarrassing, considering we've just found out we're getting another fare hike. According to Toronto Transit Commission chairman Adam Giambrone, who wisely hustled his butt over to Yonge and Bloor streets to apologize for the delay, "crowd management went remarkably smoothly."

Well, I am sorry to hear that. I'm not demanding an out of control, howling mob, but where is the consumer rage?

Where is the anger over the fact that anyone who depends on public transit is now going to have to pay a hefty $3 a ride? Or if they get a Metropass, it will increase by $12 to $121 a month. Where are the pointed questions about money management at the TTC, or absentee rates of its employees or even priorities of the city and other levels of government that subsidize transit in Canada's largest city? After all, if you can't provide reasonable public transit that takes you into the heart of a great city, that city will wither.

Oh sure, there were some resentful TTC riders who voiced their dismay. But in general there is a quiescence in this country when it comes to having our pockets picked.

As consumers, we may squeak a little, but then we pay. Especially when it comes to what we see as necessary services. And those who set the prices know this.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is probably about to throw consumers under the bus when it comes to that war between cable companies and local television, ruling to ensure the broadcasters' survival - which means viewers will eventually have to pay more for the same content.

Our cellphone rates are among the highest in the world. My occasional mandatory exercise in anger management occurs when I have to deal with my cellphone provider, which recently told me there would be a $400 fee to cancel my daughter's phone while she is out of the country. My very lively half-hour interaction with a series of service reps - I was "escalated" several times, which means I was moved up the food chain to speak to one supervisor after another - left me in a state for the entire day.

It turns out there's an "emergency" provision that will allow a minimum payment on the unused phone for a few months, but to even find that out I had to badger them senseless.

And even when we submit to the nickel and diming, that's still no guarantee we'll get what we paid for. A friend told me of his experience with a cable provider who three times scheduled a house call to install an equipment upgrade. Three times, the cable technicians arrived at his house without the new equipment, entirely unaware of what they were supposed to be doing. When my friend called the cable company, he was "escalated from Boston to Bombay," until he finally reached a supervisor. The response: "Sir, haven't you found you can't always get what you want?"

His experience reminds me of that classic storefront sign: "No shirt, no shoes, no service." But in this case, it's "no service, you'll lose your shirt and forget about your shoes because 'walking' to another company isn't worth it - it'll find another way to screw you over."

"Who's got the energy to keep fighting?" asks one man I know. Who's got the time to research new plans, identify the loopholes and start all over again? Samuel Johnson got it wrong - it isn't a second marriage that is the triumph of hope over experience, it's signing on to a new cellphone provider.

My twentysomething kids, no longer students, need to use transit. They will be lifelong riders, but now when they need it, they don't get a break. My husband religiously takes transit to work, but we wouldn't dream of taking it at night to see a movie - why should we when the fares for the two of us are double what we would pay for evening parking?

Of course there are always nuances - broke governments, recession-weary companies and our own sometimes unreasonable impatience with the cost of modern living.

What we really need are more Ralph Nader-style advocates who make it their full-time passion and profession to stick up for consumers. To help us find out what's wrong at the heart of many of our transactions. After all, when someone tells you they simply can't afford to offer you a necessary service at a fairer cost, they are making a choice, not always just for profits, but because they can get away with it.

In the meantime, we squeak and we pay. But if we don't start squeaking more, we'll never get to pay less.