Spam Composes 90% of All E-mail

E-mail used to be a very effective way of passing along small bits of information. For people in different time zones, this meant one could stay in touch without having to time a phone call. Now, though, the inbox is more likely filled with garbage from people one doesn’t know. According to one study, spam now makes up 90% of all e-mail.

A Reuters report says that US email security company Postini “has detected 7 billion spam e-mails worldwide in November compared to 2.5 billion in June.” The same report says “Spam in Britain has risen by 50 percent in the last two months alone, according to Internet security company SurfControl.” Spamhaus, a body that keeps tabs on this kind of thing, says that 80% of the spam out there originates from 200 illegal gangs.

Once upon a time, it might have been cute to hijack someone else’s network and send out e-mails to prove that one could do it (which meant that the operating system and network software needed fixing). However, it is now about profit. The very same Reuters report says that spam costs $1,000 per employee per year in lost productivity and higher computing bills. While that is a pretty mushy figure, presuming its order of magnitude is close to correct, spam costs the global economy a great deal.

Those who think this is a problem for computer departments miss the point. Buying Viagra, herbal medicines and sexual performance enhancers on line is the problem. Quite simply, spam is profitable for the people sending it. Take the profit motive away, and there is every likelihood that spam will cease to be a problem.

This points up the great failing of economics as it is applied in the real world. It is seen as a thing in itself rather than as a quantified system of studying human wants and their fulfillment. When someone makes a trade with someone else, the basis of the exchange is not numerical but emotional and often irrational. Why is one product more expensive than another? Quite simply because people want it more and are willing to pay more for it. Supply and demand curves and all the rest just put numbers to this.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home