For your claim that Aunt Tilly is never going to find herself paying to send mail? That’s how E-mail systems used to work. That’s how many people, including Esther Dyson, say they want them to work. Search the web for a decade of proposals for e-stamps, email-taxes or related proposals. On what do you base your claim that there is no chance of this happening? Do you not agree the risk of it happening becomes much higher if Goodmail becomes established?

Realize that while I call goodmail’s price high, because it is vastly more than the real cost of sending an e-mail, it’s a price I can easily see the market accepting. I sent 5440 personal emails last year, or $14 if I didn’t pay a certification fee. (Though I sent many thousands more since I didn’t count ccs, or mailings to my personal mailing list) but it’s still going to be under $100. What the price stops is software that mails on behalf of others, and people who host mailing lists. And for many people the bureaucracy would be more than the money. Most such proposals also have no way to easily deal with anonymous mail. They have many problems — but some powerful people think they are a good idea. So there is something to fear.