are emails soon to cost 5 cents each?

[MrBoj]

I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but the US gov. is really desperate, desperate and hungry, hungry for your money, just like all the corporations of the world. It seems that there are attempts to pass a bill that will make emails cost 5 cents each, similar to a phone bill. I recently received an email from a friend of mine which follows below:
Guess the warnings were true. Federal Bill 602P 5-cents per E-mail sent. It figures! No
more free E-mail! We knew this was coming!! Bill 602P will permit the Federal
Government to charge a 5-cent charge on every delivered E-mail. Please read the
following carefully if you intend to stay online and continue using E-mail. The last few
months have revealed an alarming trend in the Government of the United States
attempting to quietly push through legislation that will affect our use of the Internet.
Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service will be attempting to bill E-mail users
out of "alternative postage fees." Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge
a 5-cent surcharge on every e-mail delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at
source. The consumer would then be billed in turn by the ISP. Washington DC lawyer
Richard Stepp is working without pay to prevent this legislation from becoming law. The
US Postal Service is claiming lost revenue, due to the proliferation of E-mail, is costing
nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed their recent ad campaign:
"There is nothing like a letter." Since the average person received about 10 pieces of
E-mail per day in 1998, the cost of the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents a
day -- or over $180 per year -- above and beyond their regular Internet costs. Note that
this would be money paid directly to the US Postal Service for a service they do not even
provide. The whole point of the Internet is democracy and noninterference. You are
already paying an exorbitant price for snail mail because of bureaucratic inefficiency. It
currently takes up to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from coast to coast. If the US
Postal Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail, it will mark the end of the "free" Internet
in the United States. Congressional representative, Tony Schnell (R) has even suggested a
"$20-$40 per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond the governments
proposed E-mail charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story
the only exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of E-mail surcharge "a
useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th, 1999 Editorial). Do not sit by and watch
your freedom erode away! Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your
friends and relatives to write their congressional representative and say "NO" to Bill 602P.
It will only take a few moments of your time and could very well be instrumental in killing
a bill we do not want. PLEASE FORWARD!

Is this ridiculous, or what!?free things are so hard to come by these days, and the rapid advance in technology only makes things worse; what a paradox.

[Steve]

well I'm all in favor of puting 5cent charge on e-mails I'd spend my entire day signing up for junk to be sent to a hotmail adress and slowly drain away the company's money.

he he he

[Lantra]

mmm 5 cents huh........interesting i guess i am lucky that i am living in canada not the states.

[Niteowl]

What's this, 5 cents to send or recieve?
People don't have control as to how many emails they get in a day...
Spam could become a real liability if it will cost to recieve...A lot of people would just cancel their internet access..

[Danny]

Don't be silly. This is just another stupid Chain Letter that someone seems to think it's a good idea to forward to a lot of people. Just ignore it...

[Sl'askia]

*agrees with Dan* yep...sounds like a chain letter to me...*loads a shotgun and blasts the chain letter to bits....*

[Steve]

well theres no better time than now to do it. claim you need the money for a better tomorrow by defending the U.S. say it's for the good of the nation etcetera etcetera.

[The Magog On The March]

5 cents? Wouldn't that be kind of.. useless?
" but the US gov. is really desperate, desperate and hungry, hungry for your money"
Did you ever consider that maybe they're trying to pay off the U.S' HUGE deficit? Anyhoo, I completely doubt that this is really going to happen. Sounds like an extremely lame chain mail

[Disgruntled Intern]

EDIT: for stupidity on my part.

[ January 12, 2002: Message edited by: Disgruntled Intern ]

[abe22]

*Gets the email* I must remember to send them a thankyou bomb...

[Surfacing]

Well if this is true i'm just glad i live in Australia and if they did charge us for it, that means if american's pay 5 u.s cents that means we pay 2.5 cents aus, so not to bad.

[Gluk Schmuck]

Originally posted by The Magog On The March:
5 cents? Wouldn't that be kind of.. useless?

Well, if I had 5 cents for every email sent in one day I wouldn't need to save-up any more money for my Xbox or my big upgrade. I probably wouldn't need to worry about money for a looooooooooooooooooong time...

*starts dreaming about getting 5p for every byte of data exchanged in a week*


Edit: I missed this first time round...

Originally posted by MrBoj:
the rapid advance in technology only makes things worse

Does it? Oh yes, I'm so dissapointed about having to buy a next generation console (Xbox), getting an upgrade for my PC (*waits for money to grow on trees*) and buying all those great games for my Xbox and PC...
Oh no! Project Ego has a draw distance of about 8 kilometers!
Eve Online's playable environment consists of 50,000 galaxys!
What next? Unreal Championship, Project Gotham Racing, Halo, Auto Modelista?
What a terrible future we have in store!

[ January 13, 2002: Message edited by: Gluk Schmuck ]

[MrBoj]

Gluck, your sarcasm is suffocating me.....
no need to get upset, everyone has their own gripes with society, just, my god, i can hardly breathe in here, stop it gluck, *hack, hack, cough*

ok, ok, enough, enough. I is this a simple hoax? We'll see, we'll see, but if it isn't, I wouldn't be surprised.