This is an outgrowth of a thread started here:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showth...196#post103196

The OP asked about stopping offers they were receiving for credit cards.

One of the suggestions made was to use the Business Reply envelopes and just mail them back empty. The idea is supposedly that this will cost the mailers more in postage and make them stop.

I say this is just petty vindicativeness. The only thing that will happen is the companies will just pass the extra costs onto the consumer. It will do nothing to stem the tide of such mail.

Its similar to insurance fraud. Insurance firms just raise their rates to compensate for fraud so it winds up costing everybody a little more, not so much the insurance company.

Another factor is that 3rd class mailers subsidize 1st class rates. Third class mail makes up the bulk of what the Post Office delivers. Reduction in such mail is only going to mean raising other rates, again costing the consumer.

Vindictiveness is, In my opinion, a base emotion. Its intention is to cause hurt to another party in retailiation. It seems hardly to be the Christian thing to do (Turn the other cheeek, etc.).

Anyone else want to opine?

Scott<>

My father in law went through his mail and pitched unopened anything not marked first class. I think some of it went through the shredder. You made some good points Scott. Maybe we need to look at it like commercials, print ads, banner ads, etc. Much of our entertainment and news is paid for by advertising. As you point out, so is our mail delivery. The post office has lost much of its volume to the net and other electronic means. I still get all my traditional bills in the mail except for Vonage that emails my saying they charged my Discover card. However most of our routine bills are automatically deducted from our checking account. We seldom mail checks back. The Post Office is still very convenient for this and that, a lot of non routine stuff. So let them pick up a few nickels on stuff I can just pitch.

Now, about telemarketers and spam. Neither one pays a penny toward my news and entertainment or mail delivery. I also resent the time I spend on them. Various state and the federal laws have reduced telemarketers to a minor nuisance. Don't see why we can't do the same with spam. Heard about some proposal to make email cost. Suppose Road Runner knocked $5 a month off my bill and started charging me $.05 per email per address. I would break even at 100 a month. Might cut out the mass forwarding of jokes too.

Lab,
That's why I specifically delineate between PO 3rd class and spam. The PO is the only entity that will deliver to just about every address in the US. If we don't give them some patronage, that could end.

Telemarketing is somewhere in between Spam and 3rd class mail. Telemarketers do pay for their phone calls, and their volume probably does help keep other rates down, though not without the impact of 3rd class mail. On the other hand telemarketers are much more annoying and intrusive then 3rd class mail.