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I like these stories because they make me remember that things like electricity and water are not free. Water and electricity should be a lot more expensive, t

I like these stories because they make me remember that things like electricity and water are not free. Water and electricity should be a lot more expensive, then people would start to understand that having an Electric car, 10+ devices in the household, a washer, a drier, lights, tvs and all that shit is expensive for the lot. But people don't really care, as long as our things work and we are not bothered by anyone else. Pretty much like this

xenocratus 6y ago
So you want people to use gas cars and gas-powered boilers to heat their home? Or should we make that more expensive as well so we can make sure more people spend more time with heating off in the winter?
- astrange 6y ago
  Isn't a gas-powered heater more efficient than an electric heater powered by an LNG plant? Electric heating is pretty ineffective, although heat pumps can work well.
  - black6 6y ago
    Yes. No line/transmission loss; direct heating from combustion.
  - tomsmeding 6y ago
    It might be, but it's also depleting a natural resource that refills _really_ slowly. Electricity at least can be (though is often not) generated from resources that do renew, like solar and wind energy.
    - astrange 6y ago
      It is, but this is one of the areas where synthetic fuels would be useful. Airplanes are another, since batteries are heavy and worse don’t get lighter as you use up the charge. Apparently there is some research in synthetic natural gas, which is an unfortunate name.
numpad0 6y ago
Infrastructure is infrastructure
stinos 6y ago
Water and electricity should be a lot more expensive, then people would start to understand In combination with educating people not to waste these sources, perhaps. Even then, just a fixed rate might not actually do it: don't recall the exact numbers but just like some small percentage of the entire population earns most, there's also a certain percentage who spend (or waste, depending on how you look at it) more of these sources and because they have the money anyway, making things more expensive will not hit them at all. Instead the lower end of society will take a hit. Which is of course part of the idea, but for some of them that might actually be the extra costs leading to not being able to pay all bills anymore or worse. tldr; I'm not entirely convinced yet, but it seems that to solve problems like this a system where those who use most pay extra (think: you wanna fille your huge pool with drinking water? you'll pay)

xenocratus 6y ago

So you want people to use gas cars and gas-powered boilers to heat their home? Or should we make that more expensive as well so we can make sure more people spend more time with heating off in the winter?

astrange 6y ago
Isn't a gas-powered heater more efficient than an electric heater powered by an LNG plant? Electric heating is pretty ineffective, although heat pumps can work well.
- black6 6y ago
  Yes. No line/transmission loss; direct heating from combustion.
- tomsmeding 6y ago
  It might be, but it's also depleting a natural resource that refills _really_ slowly. Electricity at least can be (though is often not) generated from resources that do renew, like solar and wind energy.
  - astrange 6y ago
    It is, but this is one of the areas where synthetic fuels would be useful. Airplanes are another, since batteries are heavy and worse don’t get lighter as you use up the charge. Apparently there is some research in synthetic natural gas, which is an unfortunate name.

numpad0 6y ago

Infrastructure is infrastructure

stinos 6y ago

Water and electricity should be a lot more expensive, then people would start to understand In combination with educating people not to waste these sources, perhaps. Even then, just a fixed rate might not actually do it: don't recall the exact numbers but just like some small percentage of the entire population earns most, there's also a certain percentage who spend (or waste, depending on how you look at it) more of these sources and because they have the money anyway, making things more expensive will not hit them at all. Instead the lower end of society will take a hit. Which is of course part of the idea, but for some of them that might actually be the extra costs leading to not being able to pay all bills anymore or worse. tldr; I'm not entirely convinced yet, but it seems that to solve problems like this a system where those who use most pay extra (think: you wanna fille your huge pool with drinking water? you'll pay)