[Scribbler1]

I think some of us are missing a couple of big points here regarding the telemarketing industry. First, it's mainly an industry that shouldn't have existed in the first place. The employment argument is weak at its base as these companies were not started to create jobs, but to make the owners money. It used to be called a "Boiler-room operation" in its infancy, where scammers would set up a bank of phones and an auto-dialer in a basement and pitch phony products and money making schemes to unwitting people. Business in general sees the work force as overhead, a necessary evil they have to pay. I liken it to gas in your car, where the car is your business and the gas is the employees. The only reason you buy gas is because you need it to run the car, and if you could buy a cheap car that ran on, say, water, you'd stop buying gas in a heartbeat.
Secondly, and most important, is telemarketers are intrusive. This isn't the town square where you can hand out leaflets to passers-by. *I* pay for that phone in *MY* house and I expect a certain amount of control over who uses it to bother me, as well as the expectation of privacy. If any telemarketing industry supporters worked the night shift and were rudely awakened 3 hours after you went to bed by someone you didn't want to speak with you'd be all for the do not call list pretty fast!
And don't consider using the arguments I've heard before, like just unplug your phone or get caller ID. I don't pay for the phone to unplug it and miss calls I may want to get. You'd forget about the poor downtrodden worker pretty fast if a friend or relative had an emergency and couldn't call you because you unplugged the phone. And forget about caller ID, the phone companies (who are in this too, but like to keep a low profile) charge to block calls from showing up on caller ID equipment so you don't know who the hell is calling anyway.
As for me, if I want something and can afford it, I already have it! I don't need some underpaid, overworked (exploited) High School dropout waking me up to tell me what a great deal he has on timeshares in Florida.