In Lesotho, in a hillside village beset by famine, an old man named Elliot tugged at Fritz's sleeve and took him to see his home, a tiny mud hut.

FORBES: All His Children

When Victoria Kingscott's cable went on the fritz, the 25-year-old senior analyst at a financial services firm in New York says Time Warner Cable told her she couldn't get a Saturday appointment for three weeks.

WSJ: The Wait-Time Misery Index