CONSUMERS FOR PAPER OPTIONS: A federal mandate for waste.

A few years ago, my credit union decided to charge me for mailing my monthly statements. Since those monthly statements are tax records, and I keep tax records on paper for many years, I told the credit union that if they chose to charge me, they'd lose a customer forever. They folded.

A year or so later, I began receiving monthly mortgage statements informing me that my next mortgage bill was due in 'X' days. Since the mortgage is automatically paid from my checking account (as was my auto payment at that time), I called to have the paper statements discontinued, since all were automatically paid and showed in the monthly credit union statements I keep for tax purposes.

"Can't do that," I was told. "The federal government now requires us to send out the statements whether or not you need or want them." I also receive a 7-10 page monthly pile of crap from my prescription drug plan - either email or paper, with no option to stop it. Since I refuse to disclose my email address to avoid getting on another thousand email distribution lists, I'm now left having to shred 7-10 pages of garbage that I don't want every month.

This is typical progressivism - punish the innocent to protect the guilty; punish the smart to protect the stupid.

Obviously there are some documents I want; others I do not. Why shouldn't it be my choice?