Blog reader Joe Dee warns us:
Be ready to pay $5 – $10 per stamp when business mail is outlawed.
Question: who’s outlawing business mail?
Joe may truly be under the impression that business mail is at risk of becoming illegal, and if so, it’s probably because the junk mail industry loves to spread the rumor that somebody wants to make junk mail illegal. Check junk mail’s chief lobbyists at Mail Moves America:
Mail Moves America has been making progress the public debate against extremists determined to ban advertising mail at the expense of thousands of jobs.
Who are these extremists? ForestEthics has been working on junk mail for quite a while, and I couldn’t name a single group that is calling for a ban on junk mail.
As for us, ForestEthics’ Do Not Mail campaign seeks to give Americans the enforceable choice to opt-out of receiving junk mail. Anyone who wants to keep receiving it is free to do so.
The junk mail industry’s characterization of this as a ban isn’t honest, but it’s understandable: if they were to acknowledge that all we’re seeking is the simple choice not to receive junk mail, then it would be clear that our side is far more reasonable and less extreme than the industry, which is fixated on delivering junk mail at up to 400% of what consumers are actually demanding.
89% of Americans support the creation of a Do Not Mail Registry, but if you lied to them and said that Do Not Mail seeks to outlaw junk mail, support would probably be much lower.
And that’s their strategy: misrepresenting the facts. I could easily turn this into a joke about how junk mail quite often misrepresents things, but I’ll refrain from piling on for now.
