Here I am, a sucker, writing for free

Hey Kids! Do you want to get paid for all those great thoughts you post on your blog? Turn your brilliant "musings", random thoughts and pithy viewpoints into CASH! Someone has finally found a way to monetize (a great 1990's dot.com era word) your positive perky paragraphs of pixels! And you can do it in the comfort of your home!

In a neat bit of vertical integration, Hot Nacho also pays writers Bangalore-style word rates for content to fill out the garbage web pages: as little as $3 for a 300 word article. Another piece of Hot Nacho software collates the garbage into a coherent spam campaign -

Whenever there is money floating around and suckers to be fleeced there will be fleecers. As a G-tier blogger I was somewhat fascinated to see that I was a target, now after reading an interview with a blog spammer I see "it's nothing personal", it's just business.

This is another example in which a shared code amongst individuals is exploited by the person who doesn't share the code. The group will use multiple methods to halt this individual using the social, technical, and legal means at their disposal. It's a drag and it will drag on. Partly because of the examples set by the richest and most powerful. "Hey, they get away with breaking the rules and murder, why not me?"

At the heart of this phenomena is a person's lack of consideration for anyone else and the value money has to them over other people's needs. Other people's experience using the web is meaningless to them. Your blog is just another commentary posted on a semi-busy corner destined to be papered over with offers for penii pills.

Some people engaging in these practices might have qualms, but they have seen selfishness pay off again and again. Qualms can be rationalized; punishment for exploiting systems and social customs is nonexistent or easily dodged. Here the Bush Administration is truly leading by example. Any attempts to put a stop to the selfishness of the few at the expense of the many are questioned and ridiculed. "It's Un-American!" As if the greatest American value is to trick people out of their money.

The power of the magic phrase "to create shareholder wealth" has trumped all other values in huge parts of society. If you even question this assumption with the suggestion that some oversight might be a good idea, you are branded as an obstructionist, communist or protectionist. I'm not anti-business. In fact I'm a big fan of all sorts of businesses. But like the children disciplined by Nanny Jo on Super Nanny, business actually is better with some structure and rules.


The reality is that businesses benefit immensely by certain rules and regulations. Also, society overall benefits from certain forms of regulations. Rules and regulations that individuals would be unable to demand can come about through the power of government. Businesses don't want to admit it, but they need a working legal system, a working banking system, trustworthy accountants and protection from illegal practices like dumping and fraud. Some constantly look for more regulation from government, but only when it benefits them! With a government tied so close to the money spigots of corporations it is hard for elected officials to say, "The good of the majority trumps the good of the corporate few." It is almost impossible for a politician who has taken big money from an industry to stand up to them and say, "This regulation is for your own good. You know it, I know it and the American people know it. Your selfishness is hurting you, your industry and the rest of the country. Cut it out." Yet those are the exact words that they might need to hear.

I've heard multiple people long for someone to stand up to politicians who are doing terrible things and demand, "Welch: You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
(Click on the Welsh and McCarthy photo to hear Welsh's famous quote.)

Talk radio, think tanks and a culture of selfishness has been teaching for a long time that decency is bad for business. And that the standard response to a request that people do the right thing is to attack the questioner. I think that part of the struggle against an acceptance of cruel selfishness is to show we are connected -- via weblinks, the air we breathe and the food we eat. As Rev. Joseph Rossi, S.J., said when discussing the role of higher education in today's society.

Concern for self is not sufficient. Wealth, security, advancement are not enough; they can never be the focus. If they are, Ignatius believed, then truly one can be said to be uneducated.