Entry tags:
can we get realistic?
There's a difference between "do not call" registries, the "do not call cell phones ever" laws, spam, and junk mail.
That difference: cost. more specifically the cost to who, and whether or not they can endure it without having to massively change their infrastructure to deal with it (in the SHORT term - i understand the "green" factor but that's too long term a view right now).
Do Not Call registries support the idea that it costs us money in productivity if we're interrupted for marketing calls. The phone companies like limiting it because those calls are usually made on fixed-cost unlimited local plans that cost them a bit to support if they're flooded. Local calls are actually not very profitable and like with cell phone plans, the cost to the customer is based on "average" usage, rather than flooded usage by one customer - local phone companies get much of their money from serving calls for the long distance companies.
Do Not Call Cell Phone law benefits are two-fold. The customer base likes them because it costs them money to receive a call. The phone companies like them because it keeps their cell lines clear for the real phone calls (and phone-web traffic) and thus keeps them from having to add more cells and more expensive lines to the towers.
Do Not Spam laws are beneficial for similar reasons: they flood the networks of companies that pay fixed and usage costs, and flood the mail boxes of users with limited disk space, especially corporations that would rather have their networks available for their job.
Junk Mail? It's paid for, by companies, to the government. It's a major piece of what keeps the USPS in business. By being paid on a per-item basis (the ultimate in profitability, unless that per-item cost is a loss, which it (barely) isn't). It makes up for the fact that generally as far as personal mail goes, the only profitable month of the year is December (just like retail sales and Black Friday).
If you take out junk mail, you take out a major cash-cow for the USPS and guess what: we're already subsidizing them in tax dollars.
All you'd be doing is stopping companies from wasting money and making the tax payers pay to keep the USPS afloat (and competitive with FedEx and friends) instead.
NO government is going to go for that, no matter what party and no matter what the "green" effect might be.
Best you could hope for is a law requiring all 3rd class and below (junk) mail be done in 100% recycled paper.
That difference: cost. more specifically the cost to who, and whether or not they can endure it without having to massively change their infrastructure to deal with it (in the SHORT term - i understand the "green" factor but that's too long term a view right now).
Do Not Call registries support the idea that it costs us money in productivity if we're interrupted for marketing calls. The phone companies like limiting it because those calls are usually made on fixed-cost unlimited local plans that cost them a bit to support if they're flooded. Local calls are actually not very profitable and like with cell phone plans, the cost to the customer is based on "average" usage, rather than flooded usage by one customer - local phone companies get much of their money from serving calls for the long distance companies.
Do Not Call Cell Phone law benefits are two-fold. The customer base likes them because it costs them money to receive a call. The phone companies like them because it keeps their cell lines clear for the real phone calls (and phone-web traffic) and thus keeps them from having to add more cells and more expensive lines to the towers.
Do Not Spam laws are beneficial for similar reasons: they flood the networks of companies that pay fixed and usage costs, and flood the mail boxes of users with limited disk space, especially corporations that would rather have their networks available for their job.
Junk Mail? It's paid for, by companies, to the government. It's a major piece of what keeps the USPS in business. By being paid on a per-item basis (the ultimate in profitability, unless that per-item cost is a loss, which it (barely) isn't). It makes up for the fact that generally as far as personal mail goes, the only profitable month of the year is December (just like retail sales and Black Friday).
If you take out junk mail, you take out a major cash-cow for the USPS and guess what: we're already subsidizing them in tax dollars.
All you'd be doing is stopping companies from wasting money and making the tax payers pay to keep the USPS afloat (and competitive with FedEx and friends) instead.
NO government is going to go for that, no matter what party and no matter what the "green" effect might be.
Best you could hope for is a law requiring all 3rd class and below (junk) mail be done in 100% recycled paper.