CHEAP P.e.r.s.o.n.a.l E.m.a.i.l A.s.s.i.s.t.a.n.t. Needed

from the a-modest-proposal dept

A classic "modest proposal" written up by Christopher Kenton in Business Week about a way to solve the spam problem. Kenton has been pointing out all the same things lots of people have been pointing out about why all of the various spam laws won't work - and he's been getting slammed by angry emailers for it. One assumed that he is against these laws because he has a personal assistant who screens his spam for him - which is when he had his brainstorm: to help solve both the spam problem and the job situation, everyone should hire "personal email assistants" who can manually scan their email for them. He points out that not only does this solve the basic problem, but it has a nice balancing effect. Part of the reason there's so much spam is that the economy hasn't been great, and companies are forced to market more aggressively - such as by spam. However, if we put everyone back to work by making them email scanners, then the need for such aggressive marketing decreases - and the system balances out. Not only that, but now we all know the best way to help find yourself a personal email assistant: just send some spam. After all, under the new US anti-spam law, it's perfectly legal.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.