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Seriously? You really think that the purpose of charging for electricity is to be mean to poor people? Electricity is generated by enormous, complicated machi
by csense 6y ago
Seriously? You really think that the purpose of charging for electricity is to be mean to poor people?
Electricity is generated by enormous, complicated machines. Those machines cost money to build and maintain. They consume massive amounts of coal or natural gas, which has to be transported in. They have to pay specialists to keep everything running. They need to have people on call 24/7/365 to maintain thousands of miles of wires.
All of that costs money.
There's a simple rule: Everyone pays for the electricity they consume.
The electrical power industry is highly regulated by the government. Utilities have to provide power to all areas, they can't overcharge people too far above their costs, and they have to give plenty of notice before rate increases or disconnection for non-payment.
- belltaco 6y agoHogwash. It would cost only $12B a year to pay for electricity for the poorest 10 million households. The defense budget was increased by 43B/year in 2018.
- thehappypm 6y ago“Only” $12,000,000,000 / year.
- aaomidi 6y agoWhat's more important? People having basic utilities or the latest killer drone?
- thehappypm 6y agoComparing costly new services to the national military budget is classic “whataboutism”. The military budget is a popular punching bag. It’s true, about 4% of the US GDP goes to the military. That 4% buys us — and our allies — nearly guaranteed deterrence from major armed conflict. And a lot of that spend goes right back into the economy.
- aaomidi 6y agoDo you think giving people electricity and housing and education doesn't "go right back into the economy"?
- lxmorj 6y agoYou don't think usage would go up dramatically if electricity was free?
- aaomidi 6y agoYou could have a free tier per person.