Some people are sick in the head, some just foolish

“Times are tough, man, just getting tougher–cover me!” Those words from Springsteen sure apply to us today, between the terrorism, the economy, and sick people sending real and fake anthrax though the mail. The people I really resent, though, are the ones trying to take advantage of people’s fear to make a quick buck. Fortunately, the government can sometimes help with this, and in fact, the FTC is doing just that, as Reuters reports in U.S. Warns 40 Web Sites on Bogus Bioterror Products. The people running these companies are sick in the head, I think. But okay people, scared or not, oregano oil and zinc mineral water will not prevent or cure anthrax!

While the operators of the websites discussed here have clearly passed the line into unlawful actions, I am also getting more than a little fed up by companies that are adding patriotic graphics and words to their advertising. What bin Laden and Al Queda did was bad enough but please, let’s not use it to make a few bucks, okay? Keep America rolling, says one of the big car companies, but what they’re truly doing by offering zero percent financing, according to analysts, is pulling in future sales and settting themselves up for weaker spring and summer sales. One market researcher suggested that as many as 400,000 sales were being pulled into October and November from the first half of 2002; the car companies like the incentives so much, though, that they’ve extended them into January. These executives are just foolish.