Editor’s note: Russ McGuire is the online director of Business Reform Magazine. Each issue of Business Reform features practical advice on operating successfully in business while glorifying God.
Big government forces have found a new friend in unsolicited commercial email. You know it better as spam. You hate spam. I hate spam. But I’m guessing that, despite what they say, pro-regulators love spam.
You see, consumer outrage over spam has opened the door through which legislators like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-California) can sneak new legislation to impose complex restrictions on how American businesses and consumers can use e-mail. Of course, this will require new government agencies with new government employees, and undoubtedly significant capital budgets to peek into every piece of e-mail crossing the Internet to determine which is spam and which is not.
Schumer is planning to introduce legislation with three levels of penalties against spammers. Lofgren has proposed legislation that would require companies to classify and label messages differently depending on the existing relationship they have with each recipient. Senators Conrad Burns (R-Montana) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) have introduced a bill that establishes penalties based on addressing mechanisms. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants the authority to examine whether subject lines match the message body and whether claims are true.
Don’t get me wrong – I want to wipe out spam and all deceptive advertising as much as the next guy, but spending tons of taxpayer dollars isn’t the answer.
According to panelists at a recent spam summit hosted by the FTC, about half the spam arriving in our mailboxes originates outside this country, and that share is growing. Passing laws in the U.S., hiring people to enforce them, and buying sophisticated computers for those regulators isn’t going to make much of a dent in the real problem.
The real problem with spam is that it is too financially attractive to the spammers. According to a recent report by the ePrivacy Group, unlike postal direct mail, which typically costs at least $1 per recipient, emailed spam costs less than $100 per million messages. For a $20 product, it takes a 5% success rate on direct mail to break even. For spam, it takes a 1/10,000 success rate (that’s 0.01%) to break even.
For “legitimate” companies who are concerned about their public image and brand, the backlash against spam is a serious issue. In effect, the intangible “cost” to these companies of using spam greatly outweighs the other financial benefits. That’s why you rarely or never see spam arrive touting a brand, product, or company with which you are familiar. This self-selection process further taints spam in the eyes of the general public.
But – it still makes lots of money for the spammers. And until that reality changes, spam will continue to flood our inboxes.
Historically, it has been logically conceivable to shut down such activity through regulation. In effect, by enacting new regulatory requirements on those participating in certain behaviors within this country, the high cost of regulatory compliance takes away any financial benefits to them and they stop that behavior.
However, as I’ve already mentioned, the growing majority of these spammers aren’t in this country and can’t be forced to comply with our regulations. They continue to enjoy the economic benefits of spam no matter what federal or state laws we choose to pass.
However, as those laws are passed, they do impact those in this country. A small effect would be that slimy con artists would leave the spam trade to their foreign brethren while moving onto their next, as-yet-unregulated scam. The much larger impact will be on legitimate businesses who have found valuable ways to serve their customers at lower costs using technologies such as email. Effectively communicating with customers and potential customers at low cost is a good thing for all.
There’s a vast distinction between the local radio station sending out notices about upcoming concerts to interested listeners who have opted-in, and the supposed former Nigerian defense minister begging for help with a bank transaction. We know the difference without regulators spending our tax dollars to tell us. Please don’t burden the radio station with costly regulations that the Nigerian spammers can ignore.
Are there better solutions than government regulations? There always are, and spam is no different. The right solutions will find ways to change the economic equation – make it slightly more expensive for anyone to send me an unsolicited e-mail – or find ways to significantly reduce the take rate among all targeted recipients. These solutions involve innovative technology and implementation by individual citizens and by industry.
Yes citizens are up in arms about spam. And they should be. But let’s arm those taxpayers with competitive solutions from which they can choose to effectively defend their own homes and businesses rather than spending their taxes to build an army incapable of even slowing the attack.
Russ McGuire is Online Director for Business Reform. Prior to joining Business
Reform, Mr. McGuire spent over twenty years in technology industries, performing various roles from writing mission critical software for the nuclear power and defense industries to developing core business strategies in the telecom industry. Mr. McGuire is currently focused on helping businesspeople apply God’s eternal truths to their real-world business challenges through Business Reform’s online services. He can be reached at [email protected].
This might be the dumbest anti-hate campaign ever
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