I’ll Bite on Telemarketers

We are on the No Call list, and nonetheless somehow receive a large number of calls each evening. Lately, Discover has been particularly active in trying to get our business. I have nothing against telemarketers themselves — they are just people trying to support a family and earn a living, or work part-time through college, or burn their way through 20 years of purgatory, whatever their reason might be for doing what they do. Sarah already made a key point as to why some no-call lists need to be allowed: fax machines. Unsolicited faxes have a direct cost in paper and ink to fax machine owners, and as such are not merely some random inconvenience.

I do believe in some type of hard-to-define right to privacy. I like No Call lists, and do not feel they are an intrusion on free trade or a right to work. They are a voluntary listing of people who choose not to receieve calls, and should be respected by telemarketers in the same way "No solicitation" signs on doors should be respected.