So....Kyle Kulinski had a video on blackrock buying up public utilities like electricity and massively raising rates to squeeze every ounce of profit out of people. And I really just have to ask like...WHY? Don't get me wrong, I understand why it's happening. Because companies wanna maximize profits screwing people over and because the government is lax on regulating this crap and just lets it happen. The "why" im asking is different, I'm asking WHY SHOULD THIS BE A THING?! What good does it serve? None! It just allows these vulture capitalists to come in and screw people!
Honestly? My city has government owned water, at least. I think electricity is privatized, but water isn't. And water is an issue for surrounding townships. Rates are out of control in the suburbs because they all got these scumbag private companies coming in and raising rates because in this century's version of the roaring twenties, F U, that's why. You dont matter, only corporations do, and their bottom line. If they can squeeze every cent out of you, they will. But in the city? It's not as bad. Why? Because the city owns the water. We got a municipal water company. SOCIALISM STRIKES AGAIN! But really, this is the good kind of socialism. I honestly think we should see this model more. Because you know what? When local governments own the utilities, they dont do this crap. They charge you what the stuff costs, and that's that. And I wanna be clear, just because this is socialism doesn't mean it's not market oriented. It's still market...socialism. The companies are publicly owned and operated by the city, BUT...you still get a water bill at the end of the month. You dont get "free utilities" here. it just removes the profit motive, where these vultures dont come in and PRICE GOUGE YOU for essential resources, and yeah. Money goes in, money goes out. You can't explain it. Well, you actually can. You see, the system isn't for profit, so they charge you...what it costs THEM to provide you the service, and that's that. It's more efficient that way.
Sure, some stuff should remain private, but I can't see any reason why utilities like water or electricity should be privatized. The profit motive doesnt make the service better. If anything it makes it worse. It removes public accountability and raises prices.
Oh, and because the AI topic came up in the video, yeah, that's a huge problem with electricity in the 2020s. These tech bros are building HUGE AI data centers that use as much electricity as entire major metropolitian areas with millions of people in them. All so chatgpt can regurgitate what it found out from a 5 second google search. Oh, and trump just made it illegal to regulate AI. And we SHOULD regulate AI. I'm not a luddite, I'm not opposed to AI because i believe in some weird dignity of work BS like, say, Vaush, and his deranged rants on the topic, but I really have to ask, is AI even worth it? Like really, I feel like AI is a massive bubble. It's this thing investors are obsessed with because they think the possibilities are endless and they're artificially trying to force it into our lives, but I dont see it as being all that. it's just the chinese room experiment. Input in, output out. It's not real intelligence. It's just a fancy complex word generator.
Is it really worth it using so much electricity for this? Is society made that much better by it? And thats the thing. THEYRE using the electricity, and WE'RE getting squeezed for it. Again, if we had a just system, then the companies using too much power would be held accountable. Theyd be forced to pay for their excessive usage.
If anything, that's more capitalist. You use most of the power, you pay the most money, and probably be taxed to oblivion if you, a single customer, use the energy of entire cities. Call it an environmental tax, or an excessive usage tax. Point, is, THEY should pay for it, and we shouldnt. Ya know, my UBI has a carbon tax, we'd get money back for their excessive usage. And yeah, just the humanist approach to the situation. People over corporations and their profits. THeir profit motive is a motivation to positively contribute to the economy. We shouldnt subvert our needs to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment