Every few years, I seem to write about the concept that email should not be a free service. The concept that the government should charge a fee for using the Internet for email should not be so overwhelming.

The government created the Internet and we are using it for both personal and commercial benefit. Email is sapping the strength and vitality of the United States Post Office. It is primarily the loss of first class letters and communication, to email, that is causing the rate hikes that direct marketers are paying for.

Email is both a terrific personal communication tool and a great new direct marketing channel. Both uses would benefit greatly from the forethought of spending a Millicent on the communication.

Clutter would be cut down. Duplication would begin to be taken seriously. Traditional postage costs could be maintained or increases could be slowed. Rules of the game would be set and have an umpire (the postal service).

Privacy issues would dissipate. With government, the Post Office, involved rules that have survived for over two hundred and twenty five years would be transposed to the email environment.

Since September 11, 2001 our world and nation have changed and our needs and priorities as well. There is greater need for scrutiny of email, both domestic and foreign. I'm not advocating a 'big brother' invasion of our privacies. Certainly the same scrutiny that traditional postal mail receives should be given to email. Our postal service and their counterparts worldwide monitor traditional mail. Why should email not be governed under the same systems?

Many have argued, in the past, that a surcharge, administered at the ISP level and paid by them to the government would be more government interference. Frankly, as direct marketers, the constant increase in postal rates is already a form of government involvement - but not a positive.

Actually, from a security point of view, government involvement has arrived, and to some extent been welcomed. It is now a question whether we as direct marketers want to shoulder the bulk of the Postal and Interactive mailing environment or do we want the whole country to rally behind a key element of our freedom - the written word.

Make no mistake, the Post Office will continue to lose money as more and more of our needs are satisfied through electronic communication. Direct marketers will continue in disproportionate ways to shoulder the costs for everyone's postal needs.

September 11, 2001 changed the way we are doing business. Whether by email, postal or otherwise. Normal will never be what normal was, we are a product of our experiences and although we will renew our everyday lives, things have been reshaped. Our government must play a larger role in maintaining the atmosphere needed for us to conduct our business. That does not have to mean intrusion. It does cost money to pay for these services. A taxable source is Email.

The crippling computer viruses that have plagued many of us recently call for a formalized method of response. MIS departments searching various anti-virus, software utility company websites cannot fix the email communication system, part of the Internet. Today's response for direct marketers and all businesses calls for a government ready to allow American business to conduct business.

This costs money, and if we who use email as a profit center want it to grow properly and develop, we are going to have to pay for it.

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Roy Schwedelson (roy@worldata.com) is CEO of Worldata, Inc. (www.worldata.com), a leading List Marketing, Electronic Marketing, and Database Services company;

3000 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton FL 33431.