#497 No Cost Obligation

There are few things more annoying than junkmail. Unasked for advertising is the scourge of American commerce. But at least with junkmail you know the sending companies are limited by the economic resources they can bring to bear on your particular mailbox. The internet version of junkmail, spam, is one of those things that actually is more annoying. And it’s out of control, because it doesn’t cost anything to the sender to send it. If advertising is free to the sender, why wouldn’t they flood you with offers for weight loss, penny stocks and cheap Viagra.
I worry about people who send out annoying advertising. As if anyone would buy anything from someone who makes every morning an email hell. When I have to wade through hundreds of spams to get to one possibly important message, which nowadays I’m likely to inadvertently delete anyhow, I am one unreceptive individual. But I really worry about the 1% of people who actually do buy something from a spam advertisement. Has our educational system failed that horribly? I mean, think about it. Is buying drugs from a spamming company a wise decision? Ingesting something from an unnamed and untraceable source is a hell of a lot more dangerous than eating green onions at Taco Bell. Yet, presumably, there are thousands of people each and every day forking over stiff cash for a cheap Viagra stand-in. Without even knowing the firm that formulates the pill in the first place.
But you know what’s the absolute worst in advertising? Junk Faxes. Or Fax Spam. We get them at the station all the time. Offers for mortgages and free trips to Mexico and what not. Fax spam is even more insidious because it still costs the sender nothing, but the receiver has to pay for paper and ink. Talk about adding insult to injury. I mean, it’s like having to pay for the privilege of having people advertise at you. It’s like my fax machine’s suddenly hooked up to, um, cable. It’s spam-tastic!
America, ya gotta love it