And so we should do nothing?

Absolutely not, and perhaps I should have been clearer in that respect. There needs to be more of an understanding of why people spam and what can be done to tackle that issue head on, its a social/educational issue. Do you think the people spamming the Nigerian scam do it because its a good laugh? No they do it because they think they will make money from it, some of the are succesful, even to this day, but its now such a common message that its almost a net legend. Education of these people to show them the err of their ways would deal with the problem. And typically thats a more expensive problem to solve and requires resolve from politicians and lawmakers, who unfortunately are overwhelemed with other "more important" issues. Until there is a much more hand in hand joint social / technical attack on the root causes then we will always have spam. I've tried many of the technical solutions and they end up shooting you in the foot more times than they are worth, although I do agree a more stronger mail transfer protocol should be developed but not just to deal with spam issues alone. Its akin to the way that most [all?] governments have abysmally failed to make any progress on dealing with illegal narcotics. The publicilty campaign formally known as "The war on drugs" was focused on attacking the suppliers and the manufacturers, when the root cause of the problem is with the demand of the people who use the drugs in the first place. We're now off topic and you don't need to send me an email Susan! Regards, Neil.