Email was invented gratis by government and university employees who were largely paid by the public. Email worked fantastically for decades before the private sector monetized it with spam and CTAs to drive more interactions.

No, we might be having this discussion on mars instead of iPhones.

None of our elites care about: a) 99% of us living a meaningful life b) technologically moving humanity forward (supports bullet a)

Install elites that care about those and then you can use any measure you want, any system you want, etc. Instead we’ve replaced god with money. Only an upgrade for the 1%.

And so what if we did, if it meant Americans were better off economically?

I can tell you I am no happier now that I have email than I was back in the snail mail days. In fact, if anything it's a negative.

And so what if we did, if it meant Americans were better off economically?