The, telemarketers, the.* It's odd that in Tyler Cowen's contrarian examination of the do-not-call telemarketing legislation, he treats the private home as if its status were not different from that of any other entity in the marketplace, arguing against current do-not-call legislation on the basis that it would impede the future development of market mechanisms that would compel telemarketers to purchase the privilege of invading one's privacy. (Problem solved! Too bad I'll be dead of apoplexy before then.)

Even in an admittedly deliberately contrarian discussion it's disturbing to see privacy rights, even in their ultimate lair as it were, being held a poor second in importance to market considerations. The access of spammers and the rare door-to-door solicitor to a private residence can still be controlled in ways that leave the dweller's sense of security and serentiy intact, but telemarketers trespass directly into private space and time, inconveniencing and harrassing the resident in a way over which it is difficult to exercise control. The suggestion that one should purchase more - and not necessarily efficacious - services from the phone company in order to "opt out" is akin to suggesting that obnoxious salesmen have the right to waltz on into the living room and start pitching if one happens to leave the foyer door unlocked.

Even Pitt's famous formulation regarding keeping the King of England out of your face suggests something fundamental about one's castle that goes beyond obduracy against just government interference. It's my home, goddamnit. It's not the street, it's not a shop, it's not my place of business, it's not the neighborhood pub or café. Not your home, m%^&*f#$@*, my home. My home. Get off my property.

*Obscure reference to Lileks making obscure Simpsons reference.

Posted by Moira Breen at July 28, 2003 07:50 AM