The Golden Rule: thou shalt answer calls from phone banks (if you've ever worked in one yourself)

I’ve set up my charitable giving to happen automatically through a bank. I’ve also become quite unsociable about accepting phone calls or house calls soliciting donations.  Since I worked in 2002-2003 calling for the Minnesota Orchestra Guaranty Fund, and later worked for Arts Marketing, calling for the National Symphony in late 2003 after coming back to DC, I guess I’m not following the Golden Rule. People working in phone banks, often at minimum wage (in 2003 if was $6 and hour in MN and $6.50 in DC) need to earn their commissions, right?I also get calls from my “supported self-publishing” companies, either about an upcoming project, or trying to push sales of books that are over 10 years old.  Although, the Kindle price has made the latter a little more reasonable. “Do not call” doesn’t seem to work at all.  The problem is that there isn’t time to talk to ten callers a day, and argue them off.  I wonder if some of the people I called when working for symphony orchestras got calls all the time from various places. And at Arts Marketing, we had a young man come down from Toronto to help the staff increase sales.  He had been a music major.  Musicians want to compose and perform in public, not make a living with hucksterism.    In fact, I even got calls from a rock musician selling long term care insurance for a living.  - Full Post