Your article on telemarketing reflects some of my own frustration with telemarketing.
While I am all in favor of free speech, I also am in favor of being free to answer my phone without the fear of being sold some good or service.
I frankly don’t care how many jobs the telemarketing industry wants us to believe would be lost in the event of additional restrictions on telemarketing.
These companies would just have to diversify their activities away from telemarketing and toward other ways of marketing their goods and services that are less intrusive.
History bears me out. Marketing methods evolve continually in response to a changing business climate. When was the last time any of us purchased a vacuum cleaner or an encyclopedia from a door-to-door salesman?
Do people still purchase vacuum cleaners?
Are there not even more encyclopedias on the market (including electronic) than before?
Marketers have adapted to changing regulatory environments as well.
When was the last time any of us saw advertisements for cigarettes or hard liquor on television?
Do not fear, marketers will continue to adapt to our ever-changing world regardless of whatever additional regulations are imposed on their activities.
And regardless of whatever phony numbers they (or their consultants) conjure up to scare us into believing that an economic Armageddon awaits in the wake of additional restrictions on telemarketing.
