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Individuals buy water from their municipality, which is free to reallocate and reprice at that level. However, the municipality can pay market rates at the whol
by singron 4y ago
Individuals buy water from their municipality, which is free to reallocate and reprice at that level. However, the municipality can pay market rates at the wholesale level, where water rights are currently a concern. Is there some business with an unquenchable thirst for water that will pay absurd prices per gallon that a municipality wouldn't comfortably match on average? And isn't the status quo much worse where those businesses basically get the water without paying?
- brewdad 4y agoWhat happens when the citizens of say, Stockton, can't afford to pay the rates citizens of Mountain View are willing to pay? Does their town just die?
- singron 4y agoIs water $100/gallon in this scenario? What is the price of water where you would decide you aren't willing to pay and society isn't already some post-apocalyptic hellscape? This is the same reason we don't contemplate heating fuel prices suddenly rising 1000x until entire towns die in their homes from hypothermia. That event would imply the kind of prior economic collapse that makes guns a lot more valuable than money. In reality, scarcity causes a minor rise in price, some less valuable demand becomes infeasible (e.g. alfalfa), some alternative supplies become more feasible (e.g. loss-reduction, desalination, long distance transport), and the price reaches equilibrium well before the point where we start killing each other.