04 November 2009

SNAKE OIL SALESMEN

I receive daily Email news aggregations from a number of conservative sources. Unfortunately many also bombard my mailbox with ads for really dopey products, which are written to be persuasive but ought to be suspect to anyone with half a brain. There are two types- health and financial products.

The health claims are totally off the wall although written to sound convincing. Any time alternative health cures deviate from mainstream medicine they should be greeted with a high degree of skepticism. A cursory search on the Internet will usually yield contrary information from reliable medical sites or user testaments that the product doesn’t work as advertised. These are the sorts of things one would expect from new age weirdos, not conservatives.

The financial “advice” is even more insidious to the extent that the proponent has probably loaded up on the new hot stock they are urging everyone to buy. Such promotions are based on the other idiot principle; that someone else will buy what you own at a higher price until it eventually crashes and the last person winds up losing their investment. We also hear gold being constantly promoted in television commercials by people who own gold. If they can induce enough people to buy in the price will increase and they will benefit. I don’t propose to give financial advice here but to my mind gold has already had a big run up. If enough people buy gold the price will rise but eventually hit a point that is at odds with reality. Nor do I suggest that one ignore the real danger of eventual high inflation due to government debt and not invest defensively, but there are always alternative commodities and investments.

I find it offensive that these organizations are using subscriber lists to lure the gullible into risky if not dangerous situations. It undermines their overall credibility and is an inappropriate abuse of subscriber trust.

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