Read into the scenario further, my friend.

Do you have a business that depends on a lean capitalization model built primarily on the technology platform (with built-in versatilty for tomorrow's innovations) rather than the traditional frameworks that these "issues" might impact, or do you see your generalizations as an extension of a personal experience that applies universally?

> Plainly: I have shared my "opinion" which is based on fact concerning very real influences on my ability to conduct an ongoing business with the same manner of freedoms I had believed would remain for quite some time.
Since the internet and online conduct has not been clearly defined and is yet resistant to regulation, the fact Congress is trying to find a way to tax sales and expand on exploring ways to control online conduct is the very motivation companies like AOL and Google are SCRAMBLING to set precedence by enacting their own revenue schemes....like collecting "fees" or "tarriffs" on email delivery (initially).... AND (here's my main point, and illustration for the obtuse)....this is the immediate impact I have experienced:

A. Since my companies thrive on Customer Collection and Cultivation, we use email extensively: we send a minimum of 220,000 emails to enrolled/permission-opted customers per month; in June of 221,169 sent 26% (57,503) went to AOL customers, who now demands $143 for the privilege of actually having my emails delivered when it did not cost me previously, which translates into $1700+ annually for a medium that used to be FREELY available.

B. Add the proposed rate of a half-cent for a similar program from Yahoo!, and a bundled price of 1/3 cent for MSN (which includes hotmail) and my average cost to send out 92% of my monthly emails NOW is apporximately $2800 - TODAY! Who knows about 2 months from now, right?

C. Since I must now rely on a Certifiable Sender (or course, a Perferred Provider/Partner to Google - only 1 mind you), when I add in THEIR fee, you are now looking at approximately $4500 per month (or about $55,000 annually) to do what I did for FREE only 3 months ago.

This "fee" structure, this ability to introduce "tiers" or "classes" of users and Use to the World Wide Web is more dangerous than you could so naievely defend, my young friend.

This one new "cost of doing business" is more than a small "overhead variable" to absorb quietly.....and I feel I am not alone in this. They may be irrelevant numbers to causual internetters like yourself, but even in my small group of companies, they are enough to cause long debates during lunch. I know what it means now, the bottom line....but since you feel so strongly about the logistical justification and defensibility of these "developments,"...tell me:

Whose job will I need to cut to be able to absorb the immediacy of this capital cost? This $55,000 represents the salary of one of my trusted and loyal Managers, 2 of my outside Sales Associates, or 2 of the part-time assistant administrators here in the office.

The fact that I need to continue to utilize email as a means to generate revenue will not cease.

The fact that I have 100 families depending on their employment with my corporate group wil not change...until a decision is made who cannot be sustained in order to maintain the company. (I am personally pretty proud of that....100 families...a benchmark for me, something much bigger than even my own father ever accomplished).

You preach Caveat Emptor? Yet you cannot even begin to afford the personal investment of a sound future of the society you live in by blindly clutching your personal penchant for doing things on the cheap with complete disregard for preserving the universal privilege of CHOICE! This is not like a conversation about a "market driven economy" - it is about an influence that threatens the ability of the individual to have a voice in making independent decisions and preserving visions (remember, this is not politically motivated, it is money-driven....Um-Ahhh anyone recall the influence exerted by ENRON on the power outages? how many people died, and where was there any choices left to be considered? AND-the internet is NOT a governmental utility)

I suppose it is a perspective of scale after all. I know I am 30 years older than you (my GOD, that was hard to admit!), and my life experiences vastly differ from yours, but I am still taken aback at your minimizing the issue with petty comparisons..........

Think about it.....in my terms....and DO reply!
WHOSE JOB DO I CUT SEPTEMBER 1st ??

Just so you can have it "your way"???