Salon has an interesting article on what the new regulations for the telemarketing industry will mean for the economy.

I must admit, I had never really thought about the ramifications of the new national do-not-call lists to the bigger picture. While I certainly don’t feel bad for the telemarketers, all of us will feel the result of the do-not-call lists, and I don’t mean just a quiet phone during dinner.

The industry heads interviewed in the article obviously want to play up their case. They claim millions of people will be laid off in the coming year. Perhaps. I’m sure many more people will find themselves out of work. That will hurt the economy. But I’m not really interested in the telemarketers….I’m more interested in the politicians that pushed this throught.

First, note this about the do-not-call registry — political groups are exempt. That’s right, your local Republican/Democratic/Green/Libertarian group can still badger you during dinner, and there’s nothing you can do about it, besides tell them to go pound salt. So, let me get this straight — telemarketers can’t make a buck by annoying us with phone calls, but our politicans can? Interesting. Fortunately, a few smart politicians tried to change this aspect of the bill, but that opposition was promptly shut down.

I don’t want to rehash the whole article, so go and read it. It’s worth sitting through the ad to get a Salon Premium day pass. The article changed my mind a bit about the whole telemarketing issue…

I did sign up for the do-not-call registry. But, thanks to the marvelous invention of caller ID, we rarely ever speak to a telemarketer. 99% of time, their phone numbers come up on the screen as “Unavailable”, so we don’t even pick up the phone. If it happens to be someone we know, they’ll leave a message, and we’ll pick up. In retrospect, I should be more troubled by our government being so intrusive in the business world. I guess the citizens of nation want something like this, but shouldn’t everyone be concerned with more pressing issues? Perhaps the $4 billion a month bill from occupying Iraq? Nah, we’re more concerned with getting bothered with a phone call during dinner.

Posted on 15 July 2003