Thursday, 6/20

I don't know if it's the world most sustainable business model. But I'm not complaining.

After complaining yesterday about being called “old” I'm now going to admit something that may prove I am indeed partially fossilized—I still subscribe to a couple of magazines. Yup; I pay someone some money, and (usually) once a month printed pieces of paper, bound together, show up in my mailbox, where I can then peruse them at my leisure, even if there's no wi-fi or 4G available.

You know—like we old people did back in the 20^th century.

Well, a couple of months ago I received a notice—once again, by mail—that one of those magazines had violated federal law by illegally selling its subscriber list to third parties, and that, as one of those subscribers, I was entitled to financial compensation as part of a class action lawsuit. I filled out the card and mailed it back via that old company called the US Postal Service, wherein I promptly forgot about it. Or, I should say, forgot about until yesterday, when I received a check for 82 dollars and a handful of change, once again via that old company called the US Postal Service.

So there. I may look older than I sound, but at least I'm making money off of it!

The 82 bucks was a nice surprise; Loraine's already coming up with ideas for places for us to eat out, courtesy of the magazine's little transgression. But my first thought was about the business end of it. I received 82 bucks because they did something wrong. It's punishment; I just wish more corporations who jump over the wrong side of the ethical line were treated like that. However, the 82 bucks I received just about equals four years of the subscription price to the magazine. Just how serious was selling off the mailing lists? I realize magazines have several revenue streams, only one of which is subscriber fees, but to agree to pay such a settlement must mean that they did something really, really wrong.

Hopefully, they've learned their lesson. And hopefully, other companies that think about jumping over the wrong side of the ethical line take note of what I'm pretty such isn't a sustainable business model. I mean, I'm not counting on it, especially in today's “the bigger you are the less you have to worry about” world. But still...it's nice to see that at least someone gets more than a slap on the wrist for violating laws these days. Now, if we could just do the same to companies that do real damage by destroying the planet or turning half of its citizens into opioid junkies; well, then we'll have made real progress.

For now, we'll just have to hope that the magazine (to which I still subscribe, by the way) learned its lesson. We'll just have to hope that my privacy is not violated by someone else. And we'll just have to hope that Loraine has an inspired idea or two on how we can spent the $82 that showed up in the mail, just because, as we learned yesterday, I'm older than I sound, and have at least one habit to prove it.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)