Death To Junk Mail

An e-mail thread came to me a month or so ago, via Vicki and other nefarious stops. It was loosely attributed to Andy Rooney (in the Subject, at least) but the gist of it was that people who say they hate junk mail (and telemarketers) have some simple options open to them to show their disgust. The one that really jumped out at me was the notion that, when you receive unsolicited crap in the mail that includes a postage-paid return envelope, use it! Cram it full of whatever paper they sent you, or other unwanted stuff that arrived in your mailbox, as long as it doesn't have your name on it. Part of the rationale for doing this is that the sender only ends up paying postage on those envelopes if you return them, so why not make it more expensive for them to waste your time? Plus of course it makes work for the Post Office, which is a good thing (hey, I like the Post Office, even if they won't offer a cheap way to add a tracking number to a light package!)

Anyway, I think this week I'm going to put this into practice. I've gotten two pieces of junk mail so far that look like viable candidates: a financial service that wants me to join up with them - despite me never expressing any interest in it - and a dating service that thinks I - or my wife! - may be just the sort of person they're looking to help! I won't use this response for charities, as I think they're at least trying to do good work... but the for-profit jackasses that keep mailing us stuff we don't want had better watch out! I'm about to hit them where it hurts (or where it would hurt, if more people did the same).