James
Try being a citizen of some other country!  In Canada we pay tax as well
as a customs charge on any package valued over 15 dollars Canadian which
isn't much.
I think people in some other countries have it even harder.
One way of looking a it though is 'user pays'. If you don't pay directly
for something then everyone pays for it in their taxes.  That might suit
someone who gets lots of packages in the mail but what if the shoe was
on the other foot and you were someone trying to make ends meet and knew
you were subsidizing richer people's hobbies in your taxes. You might
have that on your list of proposed tax cuts!
I don't like paying customs 5 bucks for every package over 15 bucks
including the ones they DON'T OPEN but I do support user fees for
certain things like Parks admission fees etc.  I think it can be a fair
solution in many cases.

"James M. Cheshire" wrote:

> So your saying that, being a citizen of the united states,
> I have to pay a fee for every inspected package from
> overseas? Sounds like another ploy by the government
> to make more money, like trying to tax email, etc.
>
> - James
>
> Columbellidae Studies
> c/o James M. Cheshire
> 3185 Raccoon Valley Rd.
> Granville, OH 43023-9472
> USA