[jiggunjer]

I think if people had to pay per email, email wouldn't have become as big as it is. Especially since in your scenario compromised credentials could incur financial losses. Turning it into a paid utility would cripple it.

For many people, email is synonymous with free digital communication. Ideally such an essential service should not discriminate against homeless people or people with disabilities.

[causi]

Turning it into a paid utility would cripple it. I don't think I've made it clear enough that this is a proposed addition to the current ecosystem.

Especially since in your scenario compromised credentials could incur financial losses

Why would you be liable for that? An equivalent of the FDIC would work fine.

[BlueTemplar]

Then we should first make sure that a computer and Internet access are luxuries rather than necessities.

[jiggunjer]

Since we're regressing, maybe make water and electricity luxuries too.

[BlueTemplar]

In the sense that you shouldn't be required to know how to use them to be a full-fledged citizen. (Last I checked, a whopping 20% of citizens had trouble using them.) This involves stopping considering "digitalization" as a cost-cutting measure - and it never was to start with anyway, if one of the goals was to maintain the same quality of service - real human beings are just so much better at it.