Regarding free market solutions to the problem of spam: 1. Email providers that do not give out their customers' names will become more popular, if preventing spam is a consumer interest. 2. Not buying things from companies that use spam or complaining to them. 3. Some spam is good spam- I enjoy getting the first word on sales at companies whose products I like. 4. Creating some technology to filter out spam- maybe the software will accept an email from anyone the first time, but you can put a block on those email addresses you dislike for the future- I guess this software would have to be provided as a service from your email providers as you would want to prevent the space on the server from being filled.
One question is; is spam inefficient? It seems like a public goods problem that suggests it may be (the small number of retailers benifitting a great deal, but perhaps frustrating many with full mailboxes, a group that would be hard to identify) and the zero MC of sending email doesn't help. However, though people may complain that they get it, I am sure some people (like I said above) enjoy getting some of the spam. Just like I consider billboards to be ugly, but they are really helpful when I need to find which exit has the cheapest gas or best place to eat. Jason
