That's a pretty big leap of faith right there.

The truth is we already have a cryptosystem that is not only free, but always works. We have had it for years: PGP. Only the extremely savvy use it. We have a non-free one that does cost a mere "few pennies:" digital certificates. Only the insanely savvy use it.

The existence of a system does not imply its use. That should be common knowledge for people who hang around on a website that is mostly geared toward startups.

See the difference?

"they'd be happy to pay pennies for [safer email system]" is an assumption that has been explored for years and is clearly completely false.