On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 02:12 PM, Chuck Holtman wrote:
The exact same argument can be made to support drugs and prostitution, with one exception. I would argue that drugs and prostitution provide "valuable goods and services" whereas junk mail does not.
Mr. Marshall states (1) that many, many people make their living from the
production and distribution of junk mail and (2) that the junk mail industry
would not exist if it were not successful at selling products. Mr. Marshall
also states that "the appropriateness of the product" is "another issue."
Junk mailers are thieves. They steal our time and our money. Specifically they steal our taxpayer money by making us store their garbage in our landfills. An estimated 12.2 MILLION pounds of junk mail are hauled away as garbage in Minneapolis. (35.7 M lbs in Hennepin county). For the most part these junk mailers are not located in Minneapolis, do not pay taxes in Minneapolis and do not provide jobs in Minneapolis. They use and exploit our public services without even BEING here.
Further a lot of the junk mail I receive is from very questionable businesses. How many of our citizens are being duped by shady and unethical business practices originating from these mailers.
So I ask our Council Members who are on this list. What does it cost us each year to dispose of 12.2 Million pounds of garbage each year? What are you doing to recover these costs on our behalf? What is being done to locate and prosecute the Spam Lords?
I would rather spend my taxpayer money on rehabilitation of those lured into the world of spam so that they can be productive, honest citizens again. It is a far better use of our money than throwing it into a hole where the acids will leech into our groundwater.
Robert Schmid
Central Neighborhood
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