Water restrictions are stupid: a rant
Received the quarterly water bill: $46.25 for a three bedroom house for three months. $23.63 was for water use (30 kilolitres). At a price (after the price rise) of 80c per kilolitre.
That’s 80c (actually 79.82c) per 1000 litres.
You charge 79.82c per one thousand litres and find, surprise!, surprise!, people use a lot of water.
Wow.
But wait! There’s more. There’s a drought! So they use too much water! So, you ask them nicely - since there is no effective enforcement - to use less water, calling that water restrictions. And find it really doesn’t work all that well. You move on to ‘stage two’ ‘water restrictions’.
I tell you how people will use less water. Raise the price.
Simple, efficient, predictable, cost-saving, easy. That’s what a price is, a scarcity value. If something becomes more scarce, it becomes more valuable. So you raise the price to reflect its increased value. And people act accordingly.
But no, water is magical you see. It is this special, precious thing which SO important that people mustn’t use filthy money to reflect its scarcity. No, no, we must do this through admonition and pretend coercive injunctions. So much nicer than mere money, mere filthy lucre.
Crap, crap, crap. It’s typical modern ‘environmentalism’ (sic). Posturing garbage.
If water is scarcer, then show its scarcity. Raise the price. And, what do you know, you might not have to build as many dams.
Here endeth the rant.
That’s 80c (actually 79.82c) per 1000 litres.
You charge 79.82c per one thousand litres and find, surprise!, surprise!, people use a lot of water.
Wow.
But wait! There’s more. There’s a drought! So they use too much water! So, you ask them nicely - since there is no effective enforcement - to use less water, calling that water restrictions. And find it really doesn’t work all that well. You move on to ‘stage two’ ‘water restrictions’.
I tell you how people will use less water. Raise the price.
Simple, efficient, predictable, cost-saving, easy. That’s what a price is, a scarcity value. If something becomes more scarce, it becomes more valuable. So you raise the price to reflect its increased value. And people act accordingly.
But no, water is magical you see. It is this special, precious thing which SO important that people mustn’t use filthy money to reflect its scarcity. No, no, we must do this through admonition and pretend coercive injunctions. So much nicer than mere money, mere filthy lucre.
Crap, crap, crap. It’s typical modern ‘environmentalism’ (sic). Posturing garbage.
If water is scarcer, then show its scarcity. Raise the price. And, what do you know, you might not have to build as many dams.
Here endeth the rant.