Is door-to door work ethical?

badboy

Not neccessary in connection with JWs, is door-to-door work ethical?

Lets say I deliver leaflets featuring certain products, most people might not B interested and throw the leaflets in the bin.

I f the leaflets,lets say offered lawn mowers, a product U can buy in any gardening centres,isn't U really doing a job that is wasteful to the envirement as well as the fact U can look in a directory anyway?.

It may also B a waste from the viewpoint that perhaps only 1 in a 1,000 leaflets delivered to homes will B interested.

In short, U R effectually(sp?)defruading your employer.

What do U think?

scootergirl

Door-to-door peddling is as annoying to me as telemarketers or those pesky people that target you at the mall "excuse me maa'm (that always gets my goat anyway) do you have a few minutes to answer a few questions".

~Christy

You know when healing's occurred when you can remember when you want to and forget when you choose.-Bessel van der Kolk

NeonMadman

Though annoying, I don't think there's anything unethical about going from door to door to promote a product, service or religion. It's a time-honored way of disseminating a message of any sort. 40 or 50 years ago, people used to go from house to house for all sorts of things, milk delivery, ice delivery (in the pre-refrigerator days), etc. The Fuller Brush Man is a virtual American icon!

However, cultures change. Mainly due to the increase of violent crime, I don't think that calling at people's doors uninvited is as socially acceptable today as it once was. That, more than anything, is probably the strongest argument for the JW's to change their tactics - they just don't work that well anymore.

I don't think your paper-wasting argument is relevant, since one could print up thousands of leaflets and distribute them in many different ways, placing them on windshields, leaving them in public places, mailing them out, handing them out on the street - each of these methods would cause about the same amount of wasted paper. If the leaflet distributor gains the amount of business hoped for from the distribution, then it really wasn't a waste. Any form of public advertising carries with it the understanding that response will be from a small percentage of the recipients. If the response is adequate to make the venture profitable, then the endeavor is not considered to be wasteful.

Amazing

New businesses often use this method because the phone book only prints once a year. Often a new business is conserving funds and not willing to pay out larger amounts in radio and TV advertizing ... until they are sure that their product or service will take hold.

In my work (though I no longer do this) most agents send out mailings. It brings in a corresponding amount of business every time. Mail is only junk mail if it does not interest the receiver. I glance at all my junk mail, and keep what interests me.

In much of the USA we have recycling, either through the local garbage service, or at the local county dump, or state sponsored recycling center. Many people support this, and it can and does work in reducing waste of paper.

I don't mind door-to-door campaigns to distribute literature. I enjoy it when local politicians do this ... press the flesh ... as we say. I don't mind if JWs or Mormons stop by ... the only problem with JWs it that, unlike the 1950s through the late 1970s, they don't really talk and debate anymore ... just no fun.

Jim_TX

Good morning,

Well, I think that part of the attraction of distributing leaflets in the past was their low-cost, and an a business was able to 'target' their market by going into a particular area of town.

There used to be a company locally - devoted to sending out fellas (and gals) door-to-door with flyers - and they would place them into the screen door handle. These leaflets would advertise some of the local businesses and their specials of the week/month.

That business is no longer around - or has morphed into some other sort of business.

Even if you printed 1000 leaflets, and only got 1 customer from that - many times it is worth it to the advertiser. It then boils down to how does the store 'gauge' whether the advertising is working. Then it gets into printing 'coupons' for redemption, etc.

A lot has changed through the last 5 or 10 years though. The Internet, TV, Cable, etc. has become more widely used for advertising.

Sorry... got off topic I suppose... not answering your exact question.

I don't know about the 'ethics' of going door-to-door. - shrug- You could argue that one all day.

I'll be quiet and 'listen' to what others have to say.

Regards,

Jim TX