Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Junk Mail

Legislation being proposed in the State House would create the equivalent of a do-not-call list for junk mail in Illinois.Democratic Representative Careen Gordon of Coal City says she sponsored the bill after hearing from senior citizens concerned about deceiving junk mail.The idea is modeled after the federal telemarketer do-not-call list.

People are concerned that some of their junk mail is deceptive so they are going to get rid of all of it?  If someone doesn’t want junk mail isn’t it easier to just not read it?

First, getting rid of junk mail is easy – stop subsidizing bulk mail.  In this day of e-mail and digital communication is bulk mail really necessary for commerce anymore (if it ever was)?  The only type of junk mail I receive is Pre-Approved Credit Cards, catalogs and the odd political campaign flyer.  I am reasonably certain that life would go on if we stopped spending tax dollars on delivering them and the money saved could likely go to better uses.

Second, why are only senior citizens complaining about this, or is it just a tactic so that Ms. Gordon can accuse opponents of not caring about old people?  If the practices are truly deceptive there are plenty of “truth in advertising” and fraud laws that would make prosecutions a trivial matter.   Unlike spam, we know where all of this crap is coming from.

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