- cross-posted to:
- memes@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- memes@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43287453
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If God wanted us to have free energy he would have put a nuclear fusion reactor in the sky
Under socialism, your utility bill would just be a massively subsidised token price you pay because housing and everything related would not be treated as a means of extracting profit…
To preface: Scotland does not have socialism.
But, water here is controlled by a quasi-publicly owned company and paid for via general home taxation (known as council tax). There is no meters tracking usage, we’re free to use as much as we wish.
I never have to think or worry about usage. If I need water I get water. It’s paid for as part of my general taxation, as you put it, a token price.
As an added bonus to being quasi-publicly run, as opposed to privately for profit, we’ve had very few of the water scarcity or quality scandals that have plagued England for years now. Resulting in national headlines, political campaigns, and court cases.
If the same were offered for other utilities I would be delighted.
I’m posting this comment so that people have real life examples they can refer to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Water
Note: businesses still pay per usage, this setup is only for home use
Now try to implement that in Las Vegas. Pay per use is the way to go anywhere with constrained water supply, regardless of whether is a public or private utility. (I should definitely be public.)
If only America were the richest nation on the planet and humanity had invented some kind of tube that can transport water from places rich in water to places scarce in water…
If you’d given the example of Nouakchott or Timbuktu then I’d perhaps understand your point but your example has more than enough resources to achieve socialised water. The thing preventing it is political will, not economics or technical inability.
Put some dye in the water and tell them its oil.
You really know nothing about the water situation in the American southwest. Good luck piping enough water (from where exactly?) when the entire Colorado River is being used up and aquifers are approaching empty. And that is with usage metered water.
'Member when the USA was capable of feats of world class engineering?
'Member when building pipelines across continents was easily achieved in the middle of the 20th century?
'Member when you used to actually build shit in your country?
'Member when you weren’t defeatist cry babies that went “wahhh, it’s too difficult to provide basic necessities to our population at a price that doesn’t financially cripple vast swathes of the population 😭”
In the richest nation on earth, with huge tracts of land, consisting of multiple varying biomes and geographies…
The transport of water was figured out hundreds of years ago. The Romans built impressive viaducts. I’m sure the world’s foremost industrial and economic superpower of the last 100 years can figure out how to move water across state lines.
Blah blah blah, from where?
Mississippi can’t spare it, not without creating an ecological disaster anyways. Great lakes? I live 40 miles from Lake Michigan which puts me on the other side of the water table so we aren’t allowed to use it for similar reasons.
The only ecological answer for the southwest is conservation. Pumping water in is the kind of fantasy only an immature silicon valley billionaire should be dumb enough to think would work.
And who said the price should financially cripple anyone. There are plenty of ways to tackle that without making water free at the point of use. Of all the financial burdens people in this country face, nobody is being crushed by their water bill. Not unless it’s the last straw in a giant bale.
Pumping water in is the kind of FaNTaSy only an iMmATure silicon valley billionaire should be dUmB enough to think would work.
A century after we started building a national electricity grid, we need a National Water Grid for England to move water around the country to where it is most needed to balance supply and demand
Water industry proposes ‘National Water Grid’ as means of distribution to meet demand
The government should introduce a National Water Grid so water can be moved to where it is needed, according to Water UK.
Water UK is the trade association for the UK water sector and the proposal was outlined as part of its submission to the Independent Water Commission’s call for evidence for the Cunliffe Review.
In its submission to the Cunliffe Review’s call for evidence, it requested a “new vision for water” in a White Paper, for improved climate resilience, for regulators to be “fit for purpose”, and for accelerated investment.
It also requested a National Water Grid for England, saying: “A century after we started building a national electricity grid, we need a National Water Grid for England to move water around the country to where it is most needed to balance supply and demand.”
“The water resources planning process has contributed to maintaining security of supply for several decades. But it increasingly looks inadequate for meeting the challenges of the future, including those exacerbated by climate change,” Water UK said.
“The risk of drought is rising but hosepipe bans as an emergency response are becoming increasingly unacceptable to the public.
Canal & River Trust chief executive Richard Parry said: “A legacy from our industrial past, Britain’s historic canals are a readymade national network to move water across river catchments and between water companies.
“Our canals already transfer water daily for millions of homes, including in Bristol, Cheshire and Somerset, whilst the Grand Union Canal is central to an exciting project to move millions of litres of surplus water per day from the Midlands to the water stressed south east.”
Lancaster University professor Nigel Watson said: “It is worth recalling that this is not the first time the idea of a national water grid has been proposed for England.
“Back in the 1970s, in the era of the Regional Water Authorities, outline plans were drawn up but never fully developed or implemented."
It is also worth noting that the challenges of developing and operating a national water grid would not only be technical and engineering-based, as an effective system of governance and control would be needed to handle the numerous inter-regional water transfers involved, to allocate water among competing water providers and users, and to settle disputes.
“Water transfers always create winners and losers, whether that means water consumers and other users, landowners, or the environment.
"Creating a national water grid might imply a need for a new national-level public organisation, as a kind of whole-system ‘overseer’ or authorising body.
Campaigners say ‘fundamental issue’ for water is ownership
We Own It lead campaigner Matthew Topham said: “Whilst suggestions like a National Water Grid and devolving power away from Whitehall might be sensible suggestions in theory, they do not address the fundamental issue of ownership.
“Private investors and shareholders have treated our water sector like a cash cow for decades, sweating the assets for every penny of profit they can get whilst vandalising our rivers and lakes.
“The government has just closed its so-called independent water commission. The commission was banned from even discussing the possibility of public ownership, even though recent research shows it could save us up to £5bn a year.
“90% of the world run water in public hands and 82% of Brits support public ownership.[2] By ignoring the obvious solution, our government is putting privatising ideology ahead of pragmatism.”
Yes, obviously America would have its own challenges to contend with but as I said before, you’re the richest nation on the planet, with vast economic and natural resources, and you have plenty of world class engineers and architects, and world class universities.
Your billionaire class have more than enough wealth to cover the vast costs if they were taxed appropriately, but they would rather hoard it for frivolous items like yachts and private jets. Rather than engineering feats like pipe networks that improve the day to day lives of ordinary people.
The industrial revolution happened over 100 years ago, the technical ability is there. Political will is the sticking point, not economics or engineering. You have a rail network, a road network, a communications network, an electricity network, and some places even have a gas network and an oil network. All of which had huge challenges that were overcome. A water network is viable if desired and demanded by enough people. Socialism works when it’s allowed to. But instead you use pessimistic American exceptionalism to say “it could never work here” and anyone who suggests it is dumb and immature? Come on, get over your learned helplessness and fight for a better world!
The state isn’t there to lower utility bills for the “people”, it’s there to grow, protect capital (and subsequent expansion of exploitation) so it can compete with other states in the global market. You’ll only see mass renewable adoption after bourgeois state prices everything in and decides that it’s best course of action for capital growth
Before ai I was wondering what cool stuff could be done with excess power from cheap solar if it surpasses battery charging for overnight use
What if we used thst excess power to build a giant spicy autocomplete mechsnism that people can ask questions?
