I found an news post on MSN that didn’t seem interesting to me. It was called 11 Legal Things That Are Expected To Be Banned in the Next 20 Years – Are You Ready? I clicked on the link and it took me to a slideshow list, which I don’t really like. Maybe it gives them the chance to keep me on the page long enough to throw one more ad at me, but I’m a fast reader. Just give me the whole list.
Let’s go through the list and see how it affects me. Maybe I might be losing some freedom I currently have. I mean, that’s what making something illegal does. It diminishes someone’s freedom. In some cases, as in criminal acts, that makes sense, but you can make way too many laws, and that ship sailed a long time ago.
- Telemarketing. No reason to make it illegal. Just set you phone to not accept phone calls from anyone not in your contacts. Everyone else can leave a voice message, and you can get back to them if you like. My phone even says telemarker when I get the call. It’s just not worth the effort to make this illegal and it’s vague sometimes. Of course, lawyers will love making this illegal, because they will get more work, another good reason to not make things illegal. In short, don’t feel even the slightest bit obligated to answer a phone call from a questionable source.
- Multi-level marketing. I have no idea what this is really. Someone is peeved by it though, so let’s make it illegal. Seems like some sort of money making scheme, so savvy people will just avoid it. Also seems vaguely defined, as they are saying some charities are MLM. This leads to more legal and court costs to determine if it qualifies. If it sounds too good to be true, dig a little deeper, and make sound decisions.
- Microtransactions. Basically, kids shouldn’t spend their parents money in game apps. Seems legit. Why not ban that for adults too. I hate downloading an app to find that it doesn’t work as expected without additional costs.
- Beauty contests. This doesn’t affect me at all, so I have very little to offer. I do know a girl who grew up in pageants and it seemed to have little affect on her. If anything, it was a fun memory. I guess it depends on how seriously you take it. My view of this is it has a lot to do with the parents. I guess it shows they have good genes. The dumb thing to me is that we believe beauty is not supposed to be a valuable trait, but it is a very valuable trait. I wish I had more of it. Honestly, I think these are harmless and make the parents and kids happy, under most circumstances. Making them illegal is an extreme measure.
- Data privacy. I think rather than making it illegal there should be a disclamier that pops up every time you connect your computer to the Internet. It should say, anything you do on the Internet is being tracked by someone. I really don’t care too much about what advertisers do honestly. The ad systems are really just trying to get the right product to the right people. Big brother is really the only privacy violator we should be concerned about.
- Single-Use Plastic. If there is a demand for a product, it will continue to be used. People don’t have time to wash every single item they use and reuse it. People dream of going back to milk bottle refilling days. Good luck. Our world moves way to fast to support that method. Here’s a solution, make all plastic biodegradable.
- Subscription Services. This is definitely a problem, but it makes too much money to stop. When someone is getting rich off of something, they will lobby congress if they have to. The problem with making everything a subscription is that you never actually own anything. It’s a bad model for personal property, but fine for actual services.
- Skipping ads. I do it on YouTube. I didn’t go there to see that content. I’m almost never interested in the particular product they are selling either. Maybe they aren’t tracking my preferences well enough? It’s more likely that it should be illegal to force someone to watch something they don’t want to watch. I just pictured a future where people are chained to a chair with some mechanical device that doesn’t let them turn their head away from the video and wiry things forcing their eyelids open. Is this where we are heading? Honestly truth, if someone clicks skip, they were presented with an ad that wasn’t going to make a sale anyway. They are not interested in that product. Consider the skip to be good feedback on which ads are a total failure.
- Fireworks. They are exciting and beautiful and I like them. Some of the best things in life are a little dangerous. Let’s not be fraidy cats about everything.
- Selling cigarettes. Doesn’t affect me too much, but I watched my dad die from them. I honestly hate the way they smell, except for maybe cigars or pipes. I think smoking is bad for your health, and really not a cool thing to do, but I also think adults should be able to make up their own minds about what the take into their bodies. It’s another one of those nanny state things, and I don’t support a nanny state.
- Online Tracking. Like I said earlier, use of the Internet should come with a disclaimer. Someone is logging what you do for their own protection, and to connect you with the things you are searching for, or wanting to buy. I do support the idea of anonymity. It’s just very hard to manage this on the public internet, but there are ways that don’t involve the legal system.
What are your thoughts on this article? Do any of these things peeve you enough to make them illegal? Do you think we have too many or too few laws? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!
Ken's Life 