Case Scenario:
A Congressional staffer calls you on the phone for advice. Her boss may propose a law where sending an email costs 5 cents for every email address included in the message. The government does not get the money; it goes to the recipient(s) of the email. That is, each person has an email credit account. For every email sent, 5 cents automatically transfers from the sender's accounts to the recipient's account. This "postage" collection occurs when the email first appears on a U.S. email server, or the message does not proceed.
Part A: First, the staffer wants your opinion about the impact this system has on spam volume. What would you say, and why?
Part B: Second, the staffer wants to know whether the system would be more efficient if each recipient sets the price for receiving an email. In other words, one recipient might set the price of 0 while another might charge $.30 per email. Assume software exists that permits this to happen automatically and the sender can find a recipient's price before sending. What do you recommend?