Ask HN: Why not have a government awarded email for every U.S. citizen?

I'm curious of HNer's take on why a government based email system for U.S. citizens would be a bad/good idea? I figure the notion of 'privacy' is already out the window with most adopted email and messaging platforms hence a government based system that ran in parallel with staunch laws that allow the user to overtly own their own data and have legal privacy protection is something I'm curious to hear peoples opinions regarding. I doubt its a popular idea but I'm wondering as to why it would be any worse that not having it.