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Because we as a society have decided that we are all better off if it's cheap enough that poor people can still use it on a whim. Of course this results in som
by dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Because we as a society have decided that we are all better off if it's cheap enough that poor people can still use it on a whim. Of course this results in some people over-using but we think that's less of a problem.
- azinman2 7y agoI don’t know about the rest of the US, but in SF water pricing is tiered. A small amount costs x per gallon. A larger amount costs 2x per gallon. And even larger amount costs 4x per gallon, etc. Unfortunately the rich can still abuse this, as it’s not actually proportionate to income. I wish more public fees were, like speeding tickets, car registration costs, etc, so that rich/poor impact was more normalized. N.B. The multipliers are illustrative and not the actual numbers.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoTiered pricing seems like a decent compromise. Scaled pricing is stupid. I didn't work my ass off climbing the ladder just to get screwed out of the same fraction of my money by the government as when I brought home a few hundred a week. If you want to cut the poor a break then make fees and fines tax deductible.
- sitkack 7y agoAhhhh, I want a gold classism card as well. Climbing the ladder is a choice that the rest of shouldn't have to bear. Your choice, your price.
- nshepperd 7y agoArtificial suppression of water prices is equivalent to a direct cash transfer proportional to water usage. The more water you waste, the more money you get. The exact same thing (making the poor able to afford water) could be accomplished much less destructively by making the cash transfer a flat constant (thereby not incentivizing gratuitous water wastage).