I’ll Bite on Telemarketers

Economy |
By David Stokes | Read Time 1 minute

We are on the No Call list, and nonetheless somehow receive a large number of calls each evening. Lately, Discover has been particularly active in trying to get our business. I have nothing against telemarketers themselves — they are just people trying to support a family and earn a living, or work part-time through college, or burn their way through 20 years of purgatory, whatever their reason might be for doing what they do. Sarah already made a key point as to why some no-call lists need to be allowed: fax machines. Unsolicited faxes have a direct cost in paper and ink to fax machine owners, and as such are not merely some random inconvenience.

I do believe in some type of hard-to-define right to privacy. I like No Call lists, and do not feel they are an intrusion on free trade or a right to work. They are a voluntary listing of people who choose not to receieve calls, and should be respected by telemarketers in the same way "No solicitation" signs on doors should be respected.

About the Author

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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