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Day in and day out, we are bombarded with commercials for "natural this and natural that;' vitamins, acai berries, novel methods to remove hair, grow hair, enlarge what we want grown and shrink what we want reduced. Credit for this marvel of American marketing is vested generally with the "Amazing Ginsu Knife" that fueled 2 to 3 mil- lion sales between 1979 and 1984. No! No! is a hair removal product. I have no idea if it works, is proven, tested or anything for that matter. The other day, I was watching TV, and the words "No No" caught my attention. I didn't think, "Wow, what a cool product!" Actually I thought back to my childhood, when kids, like today, were often cruel and a young child was labeled with that name. It also focused me on how much of our economy is built on the advertising and sale of garbage — ranging from products and ser- vices that simply do not perform what they represent themselves to be — to those that actually cause harm. My guess is that if you ingest pills designed to grow certain parts of your body and others to reduce other parts —your net will be that your money was wasted but you will probably not be harmed for the long term. If, however, you are duped into pulling your funds out of an IRA to invest online in gold or silver, you may end up devastated by a scam where you have lost your hard-earned savings. Oh No! Hour after hour, I see commercials attempting to induce people to call 800-numbers of outfits located in plac- es unknown with promises that your tax problems will be resolved for "pen- nies on the dollar; your home "saved" from foreclosure and your credit card debt gone with our simple "program." Calling these outfits leads to a slick sales pitch, by sales- people — not by licensed pro- fessionals — and the results usually prove to be a disaster. Yes, the FTC does take enforcement action against such companies and false product claims, but only on a limited basis after serious financial losses are sustained by countless people. I some- times say to myself, "Why would CNN let such companies adver- tise on its network?" There is, however, a bigger problem. If magically, all of the worthless products and services that are pushed at us through the media were to dis- appear, what would happen to our economy? In order to sell a worthless product, people are needed to design, engineer, manufacture, package and ship it. And of course — to market it, which means artists, website developers, produc- tion crews, advertising gurus, editors, media buyers, media sellers and the list goes on. Without the advertising, how would television survive? You simply can't sustain operations without revenue. We are talking about a lot of jobs — something of great concern these days. If the garbage prod- ucts and services disappeared, we'd lose a major chuck of our economy and GNP. A while ago, I lament- ed in a column that consumer spending, which drives our economy and jobs, is contrary to our own interest to save and limit debt. Garbage prod- ucts are just another twist. We need them for the economy — as long as we say, "No, no. Not for me:' ❑ Ken Gross is an attorney with Thav Gross and host of The Financial Crisis Talk Center show that airs weekly at 9 AM on Saturday mornings on WDFN 1130 AM, "The Fan" and 1:00 PM, Sundays, on MyTV20.