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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (94749)	11/8/2008 9:46:24 AM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 541427

A silver lining. Expect Less Junk in the Mail As Marketers Continue Cutbacks By Anita Huslin Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, November 8, 2008; Page D02 Marketers are generally a persistent lot, but they're beginning to think that bombarding your mailbox might not be worth it. At the rate things are going, credit card companies will send a billion fewer unsolicited offers to consumers by the end of the year, dropping from 5.2 billion offers last year, according to data released yesterday by Synovate Mail Monitor, a market research firm. Home-equity credit mailings dropped 66 percent in the third quarter this year to 72.9 million, compared with 215 million in the same period last year, according to market research firm Mintel Comperemedia. Mortgage mailings dropped 44 percent to 182.4 million from 324.1 million in same period last year. ad_icon Among large institutions, Citibank and Charles Schwab cut back the most, reducing 98 and 95 percent, respectively, of their consumer-banking solicitations in the third quarter of this year compared with the second, according to Mintel. Bank of America mailed 49 percent fewer credit card offers and HSBC, one of the first banks to announce big subprime write-offs in the housing crisis, sent 44 percent less. Representatives of the four companies had no comment. "People who have good credit don't need another credit card," said Barry Kassel, chief executive of RTC Relationship Marketing in Georgetown. "And other people are overextended. It's an over-commoditized category in which anybody who passes a credit screening pretty much has too much credit card in their wallet already." Catalogue companies, already pinched by a postal rate increase last year, began scaling back earlier this year. Late last month, the Postal Service projected that it would carry 9 billion fewer pieces of all types of mail in fiscal 2008 than it did the year before. "All of the catalogers I'm talking to are working to reduce their dependence on mail," said Hamilton Davison, executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association, which estimates that companies spend $5.6 billion on postage annually. "The industry is feverishly trying to figure out a way to find viable [customers] in other ways and when it does there'll be an enormous migration away from mail." Look at intimate apparel, but never buy? That slinky lingerie catalogue may stop showing up. High-end houseware companies, feeling the ripple effects of the housing downturn, are cutting back, too. Earlier this year, after reporting a 42 percent revenue loss, Williams-Sonoma said it would trim its mailing list. Neiman Marcus, renowned for its holiday wish book with trinkets such as the $20 million personal submarine or $12 million Bombardier Learjet, is cutting back. "We have reduced the number of catalogues by double digits over our original budget, reduced the paper weight, looked at alternative, more efficient formats, taken pages down per book," said Stan Krangel, president of catalogue retailer Miles Kimball, which has multiple brands including Exposures and Walter Drake. "Many of these options hurt response from the consumer, but we have to reduce our costs and are constantly seeking efficiencies. We are looking at the same trend for next year." Earlier this year, a survey by the Direct Marketing Association showed a 55 percent drop in the number of companies that said a paper catalogue was their primary market channel for business. For average American households, Mintel analysts estimate, the trend points to more room in their mailboxes. Last quarter, for example, 8.3 fewer pieces of credit card junk mail showed up compared with the same period in 2005.

To: Lane3 who wrote (94749)	11/8/2008 10:16:50 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541427

Rather this than a military draft, but-- I am opposed to required anything. Our high school has always demanded 100 hours community service to graduate and I spoke against it, even though the boys easily had several times that because of their own chosen activities. Mandatory is not the tone to set for bringing in willing participants. Now that I think about it, the fact that our well-off school required so many hours smacked a bit of noblesse oblige. Or is this a good thing? Will think about it. I prefer setting the example and offering opportunities for voluntary service and hope that's the direction the Obama admin takes.

To: Lane3 who wrote (94749)	11/8/2008 10:44:01 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541427

by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, Besides my philosophical opposition to the idea of requiring service, I have to note the obvious generational divide. Requiring the young to serve but "encouraging" the old to volunteer. How about requiring service for able bodied seniors in order to qualify for Social Security and Medicare? All of the same community arguments would apply to seniors as well as the young....except that they have the right to vote and would destroy anybody who tried to pass such a proposal. Slacker

To: Lane3 who wrote (94749)	11/8/2008 11:08:23 AM
From: Travis_Bickle	Respond to of 541427

I'm dead set against the mandatory altruism thing. Maybe your efforts will help someone that is worthy of being helped, or maybe the benefit will go to some black-hearted toad. But this kind of stuff gets proposed pretty frequently and nothing ever comes of it.

To: Lane3 who wrote (94749)	11/9/2008 6:21:16 AM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541427

>>In a much quoted passage in his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." It is a striking sign of the temper of our times that the controversy about this passage centered on its origin and not on its content. Neither half of the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. The paternalistic "what your country can do for you" implies that government is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man's belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, "what you can do for your country" implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant or the votary.<< Karen - Here, Milton Friedman uses the words "country" and "government" as if they are interchangeable. In doing so, I think he distorts the meaning of Kennedy's call to action. Even if the government is requiring the service, aren't those who are being of service doing it for the benefit of their fellow countrymen? We generally consider our men and women in the Armed Forces to be serving their country, not their government. Why should it be different for people who serve in schools, or hospitals, or community centers? - Allen