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This is a question Tightwads

There's saving money, and there's being tight: saving money at the expense of other people, or simply for the miserly hell of it.

Tell us about measures that go beyond simple belt tightening into the realms of Mr Scrooge.

(, Thu 23 Oct 2008, 13:58)
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Privatisation of utilities will doom any green efforts to failure
This is not just for the OP, but for anyone who's thinking of doing his or her bit to cut energy usage to a) save teh environments, and/or b) reduce utility bills.

It's the latter consideration which will royally fuck up any plan to go green.

Companies have a legal obligation to maximise profits for their shareholders. Rightly or wrongly, that's what they're required to do, whether by boosting income, or cutting costs, or any other legal option. Fuck any of that ethical nonsense, if it doesn't make wads of cash for Johnny Sharecrop- er, I mean Shareholder, then it doesn't get done.

So you cut your electricity usage and thus your bill. Not for long, not if everyone jumps on that bandwagon. As soon as the utility company sees its profits take a downturn it will take steps to address that problem. And the easiest way to do so? Increase the per-unit charge. So last quarter you used 100 units of Nikolai Tesla's finest at a quid per unit, and paid the utility company £100 for the privilege. This quarter you did the smart thing and installed energy-saving gizmos all over the house, so your usage dropped right down to 50 units. You've just saved fifty quid! Well, you would have done, except those energy saving gizmos cost you well over fifty quid to buy. And, the utility company, not wanting to see another quarter with income halved, will raise the per-unit cost to two quid, so you'll be back to paying just what you paid before. That's assuming the utility company doesn't raise the price further to punish you for your temerity in thinking that you were somehow entitled to reduce your payments to it.

If a couple of people here and there do the whole energy-saving thing then fine, those people will benefit from it. The utility companies aren't going to care if a couple of customers work out how to dodge their protection money, er, I mean reduce their bill payments. But if everyone does it, then the utility companies will take action. And no-one will save any money. So why bother?

For green efforts to work, there has to be an economic incentive for people to jump on-board. Don't punish people for not doing something; instead, reward them for doing it. Carrot, not stick. In the case of energy usage, the carrot has to be smaller bills, and that won't happen while the utility companies are privatised. Nationalise them and remove the profit motive. Charge people enough to cover the cost of provision and maintenance, but take away the requirement to maximise profits. (The argument about the ethics of privatising utilities and treating them as commodities is another story entirely...) Once the profit motive is removed, customers will see a positive effect (i.e. reduced bills) from their green efforts, and from that will follow the reduced carbon outputs, and all the other pie-in-the-sky benefits we're told will miraculously happen if only we'd plug in a low-power light bulb or two.
(, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 17:06, 1 reply)
100% agree with you
You are a smart man (or woman - can't be bothered to look at your profile :))
(, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 19:33, closed)
I'm a bloke
Would a girl really be interested in realhamster.com?
(, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 21:38, closed)

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