Today, a good friend who owns a small parcel of land near Hawthorne got a bill from the NEW water company.
It used to be that he paid $25 a year for maintaining the water lines up to his property.
Please realize that this is an undeveloped parcel, and also that there is no water on his property. There is however a line TO his property.
And, it is not unreasonable to pay $25 a year to help support a water system that you do not use, but may use in the future.
The new water company, The Walker Lake Water Dist., which we suspect is a private for profit company, has raised the rates for landowners and water users to $25 a month.
His bill today, the first he has received, is for two months, and includes a late-charge fee of $2.50.
Not a bad way to start out a new business, to not mail a payment notice, and instead tack on a 2.50 fee.
Such a deal.
Now he can do one of two things, he can pay, or he can refuse to pay.
If he pays, then they will be bleeding him and others who don't use any water, to keep his land from being seized for non-payment.
If he does not pay, then the recourse is that his land may be taken. Rather, his land may be stolen by a private municipality whose services he does not use, yet has the legal right to grab his land.
What a world. What a wicked wicked world.
Welcome to the new age of privatized water.
Our government has totally failed us. They have sold out to the rich and powerful who prey on the weak and helpless.
We'd better get used to it, because these changes are happening faster than we can respond.
In my youth I had no inkling that we would end up like this. None.
So let this be a word of warning to all you folks who object to paying taxes to support our common infrastructure. If we don't pay our taxes, then the local governments will not be able to provide services, and then will outsource to for-profit corporations. Corporations who have no moral compunction or good will toward citizens. What a horrible mess.
On to other good news. Just got my latest issue of the Nation, August 18, 2008. An article titled Economic Free Fall? by William Greider talks about our dependence on foreign creditors. It talks about Congress' bailout of the Wall Street giants. Congress has knuckled under to corporate interests in promising to keep multinational wall street firms from losing money. Or to keep the CEO's from losing so much of their salaries and bonusses. Powerful mega-banks and investment firms are to be given blank checks to use, without proper dialogue or discussion or oversight.
These bailouts will reward those very people who have caused this problem in the first place. What irony.
And there are no strings attached, like future prudent behavior, and acting in the national interest.
This is a must-read article. You must read it.
Corporate socialism in the modern age, where most are repulsed at the idea of socialism. Socialism for corporations, but nada for the people.
It is a terrible, rickety house of cards, and if we make it through the end of the year without entering the Last Depression, I will be amazed.
According to the article, there are some solutions.
1. Re-enact the Glass-Steagall Act which prevented commercial banks from combining their business with investment banking.
2. Re-enact federal interest rate ceilings.
3. Re-enact federal laws prohibiting Usury especially regarding credit cards and 'payday loan' houses. As quoted in the article "...people of great wealth must not be allowed to use it to ruin others who lack the same advantages. A decent society cannot endure it."
4. Pass and enforce regulations that restrain the excesses of banking and finance.
5. Curtail the Federal Reserves expanding powers, and stop them from rewarding corporate failures.
6. Quit spending our taxes on the war in Iraq, and use them to rebuild our struggling economy.
7. Nationalize Fannie Mae, etc. and restore them to non-profit federal entities.
8. Set stern conditions for receiving federal money including anti-trust enforcement, supervision, strict lending rules, and severe penalties.
9. Make the Federal Reserve's actions visible and accountable, and a subsidiary to the Treasury Department.
10 Create a financial system Americans can trust.
Read the article, perhaps you can see it online.
That is my rant for the day. Regardless of who wins this election, we are all in deep trouble. When TSHTF, and it will hit the fan, the greedy wealthy in their gated communities will eventually find themselves in the same mess that they helped create for the rest of us. A year's supply of food, a gated community, guards, and a private water supply will not stave off the forces of chaos for much longer than a year at best. And when they get hungry, too, they will be out with the rest of us looking for sustenance.
Capitalism is touted to be the best form of human development. Unfortunately it is sociopathic. It has no conscience. It cares only about profit.
Yes, start a compost pile, start laying out your garden for next year. Buy a moped, build a solar air heater for your house, install a swamp cooler. Start your NNEMA group, bake your own bread, develop cottage industries, get your lending libraries in order.
While you still have time.
Corporate Cannibalism is a no-win situation.
You had better get mad, start paying attention, and get involved before you become just another victim along with the rest of us.
Good luck.

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