Is popup advertising fair to the consumer?

[Spitfire]

It is 3Q 2030.

You're arguing with your wife again. It seems she's
missed her spending quota again this quarter. A proud
patriot, you have no problem spending 85% and
sometimes 90% of your income on consumer goods, yet
she can't manage to spend even close to the 75%
required by law. It's that foreign mentality, you
suppose--that's what happens when you are educated
overseas and without the benefit of a corporate
sponsor. You have to remind her that if the Internal
Consumer's Service (ICS) catches her, she'll be doing
time in Philip Morris™ Prison like her uncle.
Oh well, hopefully a night at the town's
AOL-Time-Warner-Clear-Channel-Blockbuster™
Authorized Media Distribution Center will smooth
things over with her. That reminds you--you need to
have your eye- and ear-implants inspected for this
quarter again, otherwise you won't even be allowed in
tonight.


You haven't attended church services for a while.
Although your wife is a devout follower of God's
Customers™ and shops in the Church Store at LEAST
five tiems a quarter, you're not yet convinced that
converting from Consumers For Jesus™ was that sound
an investment.


Your son Rick has just graduated from the local
McDonalds™ High School. You want him to go to
Pepsi™ University like his sister, but he wants to
go to Coke™ College. Not that it matters--the
permits you get at either school are the same.
Although he really wanted to attend Stanford™, his
corporate sponsors rejected that proposal, based on
what it might do to his credit rating.


Your youngest daughter just graduated Pepsi™ U. It
was expensive, but she is all set now, having received
a Creative Thought Permit and a Entrepreneurship
License. On top of that she's accepted a job at
Fortune 10 corporation. Of course almost everyone
works for a Fortune 10 nowadays, there being only
thirty-some corporations left. It's too bad she had to
sign all those NDA's though--you'd really like to be
allowed to know where she would be living and how to
get in touch with her. Ahh well, it's the price you
pay for our corporate security.


Your older daughter, after twenty quarters of
employment, was finally permitted to tell you that she
is working in middle-management at AT&T. Of course,
every job in the United Corporations of America is
middle-management. The cheaper--skilled--labor is all
outsourced to Those Other Countries, whatever they are
called. In ten more quarters, assuming her credit
rating remains good and she has attained Shareholder
status, she'll be allowed to talk face-to-face (no
encrypted channel) with us again!


Apparently, her five year old daughter has been
grounded again, this time for racking up a $6000
fine--singing "Happy Birthday™" at a party without
a Media Distribution License. She really needs to be
taught a lesson--that as a patriotic Consumer of the
UCA, she needs to respect the rights of Shareholders
and property owners. What a dangerous thoughts she
has! She thinks she should be allowed to say whatever
she pleases, no matter what it does to someone else's
portfolio! No one can get it through to her that
terrorist ideas like that will land her in one of
those "special" schools--and she'd be subjected to a
lower quarterly limit on all her credit cards.


Fax from your wife--she'll be late tonight. Corporate
HQ has re-instated fourteen-hour work days until the
end of this quarter. It's too bad she's not allowed to
quit her job--you could get her a pretty sweet
management position any time in your department at
Microsoft.