Third day in a row of record heat here in Santa Clara. My air conditioning has been making my electric meter spin madly. I pity those of you who don't have cheap reliable government-provided electricity but instead must purchase that expensive unreliable private enterprise provided electricity for twice the price (or for those who can't purchase private enterprise provided electricity for any price and must rely on expensive diesel generated electricity). I might go walking down the street and take a few photos of that shiny glistening Santa Clara Muncipal Utilities power substation just so I can play them back as a slideshow on the background of my Macbook while smiling at the people who say "government is the problem, not the solution!" while I pay half as much for my power as they do thanks to the people of the City of Santa Clara gathering together and building their own power plants and power substations for themselves (that whole WE THE PEOPLE thingy).
When folks elsewhere are having blackouts, we have reliable electricity flowing to our wall outlets. When folks elsewhere are being reamed by private utilities, we pay half the price. AND THAT IS TRUE EVERYWHERE THAT MUNCIPAL UTILITIES PROVIDE ELECTRICITY! And it's not because Santa Clara Municipal Utilities is subsidized by taxes. Indeed, the City of Santa Clara has lower taxes than all the surrounding cities because of "in lieu of taxes" revenues from the electrical utility. It's simply that for necessities that we cannot easily live without such as electrical utilities, government is more responsive to the people than private enterprises are. Once a private enterprise has obtained monopoly status, it has no incentive to economize, reduce headcount, and increase its reliability. But for the City of Santa Clara, if the electrical utility becomes unreliable, we would start clogging our city councilors' phone lines with complaints -- and WE KNOW WHERE THEY LIVE. They aren't anonymous unelected people in some giant corporate tower thousands of miles away. They live HERE, and we voted them into office, and if they don't serve us, we can kick them out and elect city councilors who will, and if worse came to worse and dozens of people were dying from the heat because of their incompetence, we could get together with our baseball bats and pitchforks and run them out of town with their homes burning behind them.
Now, folks say that private enterprise always works better than government, and that's why we should not allow government to provide health insurance. To them all I have to say is this: Muncipal power companies, bitches. When you idiot ideologues were sweltering in the dark during the rolling blackouts in 2000, we few cities in California who own our own power companies were nice and cool. If Medicare For All operates with even HALF of the efficiency of Santa Clara Muncipal Utilities, it would still be TWICE as efficient as private insurance companies are at providing health care funding. And there's no reason to believe that Medicare For All would be any less efficient than Santa Clara Municipal Utilities.
So you guys who say private enterprise is always better than government can just go take out a third mortgage on your homes to pay for your electrical bills during this heat wave. I, on the other hand, shall pay for it with the contents of my change jar. Hasta la vista, baybee! And may someday we get government-provided health insurance as reliable as government-provided power. Government of the people, by the people, for the people. We The People, fuck yeah!
-- Badtux the Cool Penguin.
Grover Norquist loves it here. My bill doubled in one month in 2000, went down for a bit, & now is back up to the price it was when it doubled. NO central air. No cross-breeze either.
ReplyDelete*sigh*
On a happier note, I found just what you need to freeze, and reheat that fabulous chili of yours in Big Lots today for $1.50 each.
"Reynold's cleverware."
we the people, indeed. the medical care on the rez is free to apaches. my daughter is spending the last summer of her med school (paid by the tribe) driving in a mobile clinic to the more remote locations to deliver checkups and vaccinations. there is a lot of stuff happening on the rez that made the republicans in phoenix shout "socialism" and get as red in the face as their tacky ties.
ReplyDeletethe lumber operation, the sawmill, and the cattle co-operative are all administered by the tribal government for the benefit of all. same with the ski resort. the fees paid by the belaangaana who come to hunt trophy elk go into the general fund.
we had our fill of being exploited by the power brokers for our utilities and built our own. now we sell surplus to those same guys.
Ahh yesm mb,
ReplyDeleteThat's the third time this morning that I've been reminded of the stupidity of American business practices and their short-term thinking, as compared to Indian (Native American, not India) and Japanese.
"Muncipal power companies, bitches"
ReplyDeleteThat was beautiful! It brought a little tear to my eye.
The only thing I knew before your post about government run utilities was a commercial about the Alabama Co-Op, because we are so close to them. I (honestly) thought it was just another lying commercial, but now you (who has no reason to lie) says that it MAY be true.
Of course, I don't have that option. I have the option to have a heat stroke or pay the bill, but I appreciate you for educating me on this.
My hometown in southern Virginia had a municipal utility that functioned much as the one in Santa Clara. The big power company serving the rest of the area spent no small effort to subvert the municipal utility. Even southerners in the mid 20th century knew the value of cooperative effort.
ReplyDeleteHello, Mr Penguin.
ReplyDeleteAt one time, I lived in a city (and I mean 'city,' not 'metro area') where there was both public & municipal power available.
The municipal power was always less expensive.
Outside of the city, there was a co-op. To get service connected, you had to buy (at least) one share. Kinda steep.
The cheapest power around.
That is, in my experience, co-ops run cheaper than municipalities.
Damn right about Muni power utilities. I grew up in a small northeastern city with its own power utility. They said we were terribly backwards because it was the 600s and the city still hadn't hooked into the regional power grid. But we had a dam, and a coal plant for backup and top-off power, so there was no need. Well, comes November 1965, and the whole northeastern US gets blacked out. Well, not quite. Holyoke MA didn't black out that night. In factbecause the family ahd been listening to records that night, no radio, no TV, we weren't even aware there had been a blackout until the next morning, when we got the Springfield paper which had been printed on the presses of the Holyoke Transcipt.
ReplyDeleteDancing Larry
As the self-appointed representative of all the citizens suffering under the yoke of Pacific Gas and Electric in neighboring San Jose: Bite me. =]
ReplyDelete