Avatar Unleashed: The War on Trees
It is conventional wisdom to shred or destroy any personalized junk mail that comes to your house, in order to avoid thieves, scammers, or phishers stealing personal information and going on permanent vacation on your dime. One credit card application with your name on it in the wrong hands can lead to financial ruin, a downward credit score tailspin and hours of headache on the phone with bureaucratic institutions full of personnel who keep passing the buck since no business really has any sense of organization or efficiency anymore. (Traditionally, it is said the only thing ALL Americans have in common is death and taxes – to which I would add said nightmare phone calls which we have ALL experienced at least once (if not 100 times) in our lives. (Add those lost hours up – what could we accomplish with that time??)
I have for years now been utterly convinced that we are needlessly and aimlessly destroying the planet in many ways. One such way is through junk mail. I’d like to offer an experiment for 2019 which would ultimately prove this point: that we ALL keep a collection of the junk mail sent to us throughout the year, and then post a photo on our social media. Maybe then we will start to recognize the severity of this problem, and figure out a way to stop destroying our rainforests willy-nilly, all in hopes of companies making yet more money off of us. Hashtag junkmail.
And don’t be fooled by those who suggest there is such a thing as a “do not mail list.” Yes, you might be successful in petitioning to have your name removed from the hundred or so lists on which it currently resides; however, there are always new lists being created. And we are powerless to prevent our names and addresses appearing on these lists, which will continue to be augmented throughout our lives.
Case in point: offers in the mail to apply for new credit cards. Let me start by saying that after graduating from seminary, I spent a good ten years in NYC as a working professional musician. Now, you can imagine what this means in terms of income – to put it bluntly, NONE, really. In a gig economy, there simply aren’t enough gigs; and those who hire for them will pay the lowest possible amount, even often going with the cheapest bidder (at artistic expense), just to save a few extra bucks. It basically means a miserable existence. Hey, what can I say? We suffer for our art. Anyway, I was able to live this meager life thanks to the kind folks at Citibank Visa who were so generous in lending me untold amounts of money, so that I could pay rent, have food to eat, and God(ess) forbid actually try to have some semblance of a social life. All told, during that time I amassed a credit card balance – not LIMIT, but balance – in excess of $30,000.
Yes, you read that correctly.
In 2008, I accepted a full time job at a non-profit organization. So, whereas I wasn’t really rolling in the dough, I was able over the next ten years to pay most of that off through thrifty living, constantly obsessing about my budget, and really “battening down the financial hatches.” I like to think of myself as a success story in terms of clawing my way out of consumer debt. I do still have some credit card debt (in addition to the ball-and-chain of student debt which most Americans will carry for their entire lives) but I am actually possibly in striking territory of PAYING IT OFF COMPLETELY by the end of this year. In the meantime, my credit score has SHOT UP like nobody’s business! Of course credit scores fluctuate, but Experian and TransUnion recently rated my credit score as “great” and “excellent,” respectively. I am quite proud of this accomplishment, and would be happy to offer advice to anyone saddled with debt who is looking for a way out. If I can do it, anyone can do it!!
Needless to say, due to such a rapid reduction in debt – and the resultant surge in my credit score – banks are literally falling over each other trying to get me to apply for a line of credit with their organization. I must be some kind of model financial citizen in their eyes. LOL™ Not quite sure why – if any of them really looked closely at my checking account on a month to month basis, they would probably reconsider! However, I guess 10+ years of 100% payment history ;-) at least shows that I know how to “play the game,” so I must be reliable enough to be deemed worthy of borrowing even more money from them.
Back to the credit card applications that come monthly/weekly/daily in the mail: I don’t own a paper shredder. And obviously don’t want to just throw these applications (with my name and address) in the trash. But I also live in a NYC one-bedroom apartment, so storage space is at a premium. Thus, I have gotten into the habit of putting any junk mail with name and address into my backpack, taking it to work (where there is a shredder) and just “putting them in a pile” in my office. Then, once every few months, I go through them, open the envelopes, and shred the pieces with my name, and recycle everything else.
Lo and behold, this picture represents just THREE MONTHS worth of said junk mail – most of which is from companies offering me lines of credit:
Read that again: this is only THREE MONTHS worth of junk mail. Now, multiply this pile of paper by 4 and imagine what the annual yield might look like. (The pile on the left are the stacked actual offers with name and address which I just counted -- in excess of 50 pieces of paper.) Then, multiply THAT number by, let's say, 60 years - to account for what will likely be my entire adult life span (assuming I live to be 80, and accounting for the fact that even withOUT my financial acumen, I have still constantly been receiving these offers since the time I could legally drink alcohol - even when my credit score was in the crapper!)
Then multiply THAT number by the current number of American citizens -- which according to the last census is in excess of 328 MILLION. No, it's not a one-to-one correlation: many of those citizens are children, many are homeless (too many, if you ask me), and many are in such financial despair that a bank would never deign to offer them anything. BUT, you get the picture, right? THIS PAPER COMES FROM TREES THAT ARE CUT DOWN TO PRODUCE MAIL THAT GOES STRAIGHT INTO THE TRASH OR RECYCLING BIN. IT'S TOO DAMN MUCH DESTRUCTION OF OUR FORESTS -- ALL WITH THE SOLE DESIRED END OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOTS OF MONEY MAKING MORE MONEY.
Dear credit card companies: I appreciate that i have demonstrated enough financial maturity that you feel called to invite me to join your stupid club. But, I absolutely RESENT you feeling that it is acceptable that you are destroying our precious natural resources IN MY NAME to that end.
PLEASE STOP! HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE EVER HEARD OF EMAIL????
Obviously, this will probably fall on deaf ears. But, I like to think that by bringing one person's collection of junk mail to light, it will spur others to take notice, and also raise their voices in unison, in hopes that we can stop this insanity before it is too late. If it isn't already.
I have for years now been utterly convinced that we are needlessly and aimlessly destroying the planet in many ways. One such way is through junk mail. I’d like to offer an experiment for 2019 which would ultimately prove this point: that we ALL keep a collection of the junk mail sent to us throughout the year, and then post a photo on our social media. Maybe then we will start to recognize the severity of this problem, and figure out a way to stop destroying our rainforests willy-nilly, all in hopes of companies making yet more money off of us. Hashtag junkmail.
And don’t be fooled by those who suggest there is such a thing as a “do not mail list.” Yes, you might be successful in petitioning to have your name removed from the hundred or so lists on which it currently resides; however, there are always new lists being created. And we are powerless to prevent our names and addresses appearing on these lists, which will continue to be augmented throughout our lives.
Case in point: offers in the mail to apply for new credit cards. Let me start by saying that after graduating from seminary, I spent a good ten years in NYC as a working professional musician. Now, you can imagine what this means in terms of income – to put it bluntly, NONE, really. In a gig economy, there simply aren’t enough gigs; and those who hire for them will pay the lowest possible amount, even often going with the cheapest bidder (at artistic expense), just to save a few extra bucks. It basically means a miserable existence. Hey, what can I say? We suffer for our art. Anyway, I was able to live this meager life thanks to the kind folks at Citibank Visa who were so generous in lending me untold amounts of money, so that I could pay rent, have food to eat, and God(ess) forbid actually try to have some semblance of a social life. All told, during that time I amassed a credit card balance – not LIMIT, but balance – in excess of $30,000.
Yes, you read that correctly.
In 2008, I accepted a full time job at a non-profit organization. So, whereas I wasn’t really rolling in the dough, I was able over the next ten years to pay most of that off through thrifty living, constantly obsessing about my budget, and really “battening down the financial hatches.” I like to think of myself as a success story in terms of clawing my way out of consumer debt. I do still have some credit card debt (in addition to the ball-and-chain of student debt which most Americans will carry for their entire lives) but I am actually possibly in striking territory of PAYING IT OFF COMPLETELY by the end of this year. In the meantime, my credit score has SHOT UP like nobody’s business! Of course credit scores fluctuate, but Experian and TransUnion recently rated my credit score as “great” and “excellent,” respectively. I am quite proud of this accomplishment, and would be happy to offer advice to anyone saddled with debt who is looking for a way out. If I can do it, anyone can do it!!
Needless to say, due to such a rapid reduction in debt – and the resultant surge in my credit score – banks are literally falling over each other trying to get me to apply for a line of credit with their organization. I must be some kind of model financial citizen in their eyes. LOL™ Not quite sure why – if any of them really looked closely at my checking account on a month to month basis, they would probably reconsider! However, I guess 10+ years of 100% payment history ;-) at least shows that I know how to “play the game,” so I must be reliable enough to be deemed worthy of borrowing even more money from them.
Back to the credit card applications that come monthly/weekly/daily in the mail: I don’t own a paper shredder. And obviously don’t want to just throw these applications (with my name and address) in the trash. But I also live in a NYC one-bedroom apartment, so storage space is at a premium. Thus, I have gotten into the habit of putting any junk mail with name and address into my backpack, taking it to work (where there is a shredder) and just “putting them in a pile” in my office. Then, once every few months, I go through them, open the envelopes, and shred the pieces with my name, and recycle everything else.
Lo and behold, this picture represents just THREE MONTHS worth of said junk mail – most of which is from companies offering me lines of credit:
Read that again: this is only THREE MONTHS worth of junk mail. Now, multiply this pile of paper by 4 and imagine what the annual yield might look like. (The pile on the left are the stacked actual offers with name and address which I just counted -- in excess of 50 pieces of paper.) Then, multiply THAT number by, let's say, 60 years - to account for what will likely be my entire adult life span (assuming I live to be 80, and accounting for the fact that even withOUT my financial acumen, I have still constantly been receiving these offers since the time I could legally drink alcohol - even when my credit score was in the crapper!)
Then multiply THAT number by the current number of American citizens -- which according to the last census is in excess of 328 MILLION. No, it's not a one-to-one correlation: many of those citizens are children, many are homeless (too many, if you ask me), and many are in such financial despair that a bank would never deign to offer them anything. BUT, you get the picture, right? THIS PAPER COMES FROM TREES THAT ARE CUT DOWN TO PRODUCE MAIL THAT GOES STRAIGHT INTO THE TRASH OR RECYCLING BIN. IT'S TOO DAMN MUCH DESTRUCTION OF OUR FORESTS -- ALL WITH THE SOLE DESIRED END OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOTS OF MONEY MAKING MORE MONEY.
Dear credit card companies: I appreciate that i have demonstrated enough financial maturity that you feel called to invite me to join your stupid club. But, I absolutely RESENT you feeling that it is acceptable that you are destroying our precious natural resources IN MY NAME to that end.
PLEASE STOP! HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE EVER HEARD OF EMAIL????
Obviously, this will probably fall on deaf ears. But, I like to think that by bringing one person's collection of junk mail to light, it will spur others to take notice, and also raise their voices in unison, in hopes that we can stop this insanity before it is too late. If it isn't already.
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