Spam exists because there is an (almost zero) fixed cost associated with
sending it out.
false. snail mail spam exists despite having significant costs associated
with sending it.
-- False. Snail mail spam exists because the return is higher than cost.
That doesn't contradict my assertion.
Let me put it a different way:
Artifically increasing the cost of email will not prevent spam. It will
reduce spam. It will change who uses spam to advertise. It will also reduce
the volume of email that we want to receive.
A large percentage of the snail mail I receive is spam, something like 75%.
One reason snail mail spam is not as annoying as email spam is that the
overall volume of snail mail is lower, so it's easier to deal with the spam
portion of it. But the overall volume of snail mail is lower than that of
email precisely because snail mail is so much more expensive than email (both
in terms of money and effort).
If we increase the cost of sending email, we'll find that many of the best
things about email - e.g. that it makes it easy for us to keep in touch with
people with whom we would not otherwise do so - will be gone. And we'll still
be getting spam, it will just be 'slicker', and trying to sell us different
products. And the folks who are sending it will claim that they have a right
to do so.
Keith
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