5 Cent charge on E-mail

[Spencer Thiel]

First off, never believe anything that you receive via email.

Second off, go to <http://www.snopes.com> anytime you receive stuff like
this and most likely the answer will be there.  (I'm not going to bother
because you can be assured that this isn't true)

Third off, the post office is supposed to operate at zero profit.  If we
are sending less mail due to email, their costs should be down.


At 11:47 AM -0700 6/22/99, you wrote:


>Just received this.  Does anyone on this list (Millison?) know if this is
>legit?
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Pearse, Joaquin <jepearse at avondale.com>
>To: 'Jim Herring' <combo31 at hotmail.com>; 'Adam Graff' <agraff at bellsouth.net>
>Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 4:09 PM
>Subject: 5 Cent charge on E-mail
>
>Looks like US Post Office isn't happy that we are not using snail mail and
>wants legislation passed charging us 5 cents each time we send an E-mail.
>Read on and have your objection heard loud and clear!!!!!!
>Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and
>continue using email: 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 your use of the Internet.
>Under proposed legislation the U.S. Postal Service will be attempting to
>bilk email users out of "alternate postage fees". Bill 602P will permit the
>Federal Govt to charge a 5 cent Surcharge on every email delivered, by
>billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer would then be
>billed in turn by the ISP.
>Washington D.C. lawyer Richard Stepp is working without pay to prevent this
>legislation from becoming law. The U.S.Postal Service is claiming that lost
>revenue due to the proliferation of email 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 citizen received about 10 pieces
>of email per day in 1998, the cost to the typical individual would be an
>additional 50 cents per day, or over $180 dollars per year, above and beyond
>their regular Internet costs.
>Note that this would be money paid directly to the U.S. Postal Service for a
>service they do not even provide. The whole point of the Internet is
>democracy and noninterference. If the federal government is permitted to
>tamper with our liberties by adding a surcharge to email, who knows where it
>will end. 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 New York to Buffalo.
>If the U.S. Postal Service is allowed to tinker with email, it will mark the
>end of the "free" Internet in the United States. One congressman, Tony
>Schnell ® has even suggested a "twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge
>on all Internet service" above and beyond the government's proposed email
>charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story, the
>only exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of email
>surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come" March 6th 1999 Editorial)
>Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away!
>Send this email to all Americans on your list and tell your friends and
>relatives to write to their congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P. Kate
>Turner Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman Attorneys at Law
>216 Concorde Street, Vienna, Virginia.
>Joaquin E Pearse Jr.
>Electrical Engineering
>Avondale Industries, Inc.
>Phone  (504) 436-5349
>Fax      (504) 436-5798
>jepearse at avondale.com<<mailto:jepearse at avondale.com>>


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-Spencer T.