|
Grex > Agora56 > #144: A sampling of junk mail to Republican friends | |
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 42 responses total. |
happyboy
|
|
response 7 of 42:
| 
Mar 2 18:49 UTC 2006 |
re5 ditto
|
nharmon
|
|
response 8 of 42:
|
Mar 2 18:58 UTC 2006 |
I still get calls every few months from some FOP organization saying
they still didn't get the $15 I promised in 2004. I just say "let me
check into that, can hold on?", then I put them on hold and wait to see
how long it takes for them to hang up.
|
marcvh
|
|
response 9 of 42:
|
Mar 2 19:23 UTC 2006 |
I've always thought that a clever (if ethically dubious) way to exert
political influence would be to pick a cause that you disagree with
and send them $5. They will now waste about $50 sending letters
asking for more.
|
twenex
|
|
response 10 of 42:
|
Mar 2 19:24 UTC 2006 |
Hey, great idea...
|
mcnally
|
|
response 11 of 42:
|
Mar 2 19:49 UTC 2006 |
I have my checks printed with an abbreviated form of my name,
no address, no phone number, no other identifying information.
Among other things that gives me the ability to send a check
to a charitable cause without volunteering enough information
about myself to cause a deluge of junk mail.
Next time I order checks I'm thinking of even leaving the name off.
|
kingjon
|
|
response 12 of 42:
|
Mar 2 19:54 UTC 2006 |
I've been told (though not experienced this myself) that there are businesses
that won't accept checks without your name printed on them.
|
tod
|
|
response 13 of 42:
|
Mar 2 20:04 UTC 2006 |
re #11
I send money orders in those situations where I dont trust the recipient with
my personal info.
|
marcvh
|
|
response 14 of 42:
|
Mar 2 20:27 UTC 2006 |
Re #12: yes, but usually those are businesses where you are writing a check
in person, which is something of a rarity these days.
|
twenex
|
|
response 15 of 42:
|
Mar 2 20:32 UTC 2006 |
I haven't even heard anyone mention "cheque" in a non-metaphorical sense in
years over here. I did have to send a postal order last year.
|
aruba
|
|
response 16 of 42:
|
Mar 2 20:48 UTC 2006 |
Thanks for posting this, Sindi. It's easier to see how people come to
opinions that you disagree with if you see what they're being constantly
exposed to.
|
keesan
|
|
response 17 of 42:
|
Mar 2 22:55 UTC 2006 |
Thanks Mark, this was my intent. I don't like the fund-raising tactics of
any of these places - trying to make people feel they owe something after
being sent unsolicited address labels, etc. One of my main objections to junk
mail is the wasted paper. I also got my friends off a mailing list for a
publication advertising tattoo removal and cosmetic surgery, which took a few
phone calls, but everyone was really helpful. The local coupon mailer
insisted they needed my name to send in to a national list and could not
remove the 'occupant' address. I have found it helps to call and complain
to the local advertisers. Eventually if you get off enough lists, it saves
time over recycling most of your mail. Today we got just one junk mail, from
a local store that had no idea where they got our address but will try not
to mail us again.
The one place that had no web presence sent a yellow and black envelope. Is
this typical of the worst of the junk mailers? Like poisonous insects and
snakes?
|
mcnally
|
|
response 18 of 42:
|
Mar 3 00:02 UTC 2006 |
re #12, 14: I almost never pay by check except when I am (a) dealing
with someone I know personally, or (b) mailing the check away to a
distant recipient. I've never had anyone refuse my check in the former
case and in the latter case by the time they receive it it's usually a
little late to ask me to write my social security number, ATM PIN, and
genetic profile on it the way many retailers want you to..
|
johnnie
|
|
response 19 of 42:
|
Mar 3 01:50 UTC 2006 |
(a Christian group running a program called DAM-IT? Really?)
|
klg
|
|
response 20 of 42:
|
Mar 3 02:22 UTC 2006 |
This is interesting. When a private group sends a solicitation letter
asking you to send money for a particular cause you to which you may
voluntarily contribute, it is offensive and you can choose to ignore it.
When the government sends you a tax bill to fund some boondoggle public
transit program you're not going to use or benefit from, you have to pay
it whether you like it or not, that is totally acceptable. RW, where is
the outrage?
|
keesan
|
|
response 21 of 42:
|
Mar 3 03:50 UTC 2006 |
The city sends me tax bills and I am happy they are making it possible for
people to travel without cars, which is to my benefit because it should mean
less pollution (though in our case it probably means more because there are
stinky buses running around all day with 5-6 passengers in them and 2 cars
would pollute less). I don't have to live in this community and receive
property tax bills, it is voluntary. What I really object to is having to
pay for all the road paving and maintenance, which causes more cars to pollute
and make noise and generally get in the way, but I understand that is a
requirement of living in this town, even though it is a big waste of money.
|
nharmon
|
|
response 22 of 42:
|
Mar 3 04:30 UTC 2006 |
I don't see roads as a waste, because they are necessary to our
transportation infastructure. Without roads, food would get from the
train yards and airport to your grocer's freezer.
|
keesan
|
|
response 23 of 42:
|
Mar 3 04:38 UTC 2006 |
Food could be transported by rail to the stores, and people could take trams
to buy it.
|
marcvh
|
|
response 24 of 42:
|
Mar 3 05:26 UTC 2006 |
The trams still need a public right-of-way, which amounts to a road.
Besides, you wouldn't want to own a piece of property with no road
access. Even if you personally never use a motor vehicle, you would
occasionally need a road so that moving trucks and furniture delivery
and utility maintenance and garbage trucks could get there. But I
guess that if you're willing to live without electricity, water, sewer
(no septic tank either, you need a road in order to access the
equipment required to install one), gas, garbage pick-up, and pretty
much every other modern convenience then it's worth a shot.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 25 of 42:
|
Mar 3 06:21 UTC 2006 |
> Besides, you wouldn't want to own a piece of property with no road
> access. Even if you personally never use a motor vehicle, you would
> occasionally need a road so that moving trucks and furniture delivery
> and utility maintenance and garbage trucks could get there.
Oh, I don't know, it's not that bad (but then I have access to my house
via a public stairway and footpath and the road isn't all that far away.
|
nharmon
|
|
response 26 of 42:
|
Mar 3 13:08 UTC 2006 |
> Food could be transported by rail to the stores[...]
How do you get the food from the rail yard to the stores? I think you
underestimate the importance of commercial trucking.
|
bru
|
|
response 27 of 42:
|
Mar 3 14:17 UTC 2006 |
Food could be transported by rail to the stores, and people could take trams
to buy it.
That is how it used to work up until the age of automobiles, and it could
still work if all cars suddenly no longer worked. But it would require that
stores either run rails to their location, or move to where the rails are
located.
|
keesan
|
|
response 28 of 42:
|
Mar 3 14:33 UTC 2006 |
Railed transport is still much more common in Europe and other parts of the
world. Where my friend lived in a Budapest suburb, most of the local streets
were unpaved sand and had almost no traffic. You would walk a few blocks to
the nearest paved road and take a bus to the tram station. The stores were
along the avenue where the tram ran. Same thing when I was growing up in
Boston, on a street where there was a total of two driveways and no garages
and the houses were a few feet apart from each other. It was a very nice
place to live. We were a few houses from the main avenue and met all our
neighbors while out shopping. If you bought a lot of groceries you put them
in a box and got them delivered. We took the tram partway into downtown then
switched to a subway. When I was about 5 or 10 they replaced the trams with
stinky buses.
You don't need 40' of paved surface for a garbage truck. You don't even need
garbage trucks to come to every house, they could collect from our wheeled
carts if people wheeled them all to a main street that was paved. No
incentive to steal the carts since everyone already has the same one.
|
nharmon
|
|
response 29 of 42:
|
Mar 3 15:41 UTC 2006 |
> If you bought a lot of groceries you put them in a box and got them
> delivered.
How would the groceries be delivered?
|
johnnie
|
|
response 30 of 42:
|
Mar 3 15:49 UTC 2006 |
By four-wheeler (no need for roads there).
|
nharmon
|
|
response 31 of 42:
|
Mar 3 15:52 UTC 2006 |
hehe
Seriously, mass transportation is great and everything, but it is not a
replacement for roads. That is just silly.
|