Bank Account Running Low and 1 Week Until Payday… All Thanks To the Power Company
Filed under: Expenses
This is getting crazy! Even with meticulously tracking our spending, we’re still coming up short.
Just a couple days ago, we received our gas and electric bills for December. OUCH! It was a very cold December, with the month averaging 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Even with keeping our thermostat at 68, our combined bills came to over $300!
I really despise our power and gas companies. They’re profiting hand over fist and they’re complaining that if they don’t get to raise rates, they won’t be able to do their maintenance. I call shenanigans on that. They just raised rates across the board last winter which brought the pain to everyone and now they want to do it all over again.
I don’t mind this company making a reasonable profit. There is no reason to be in business if you can’t profit. But their profits more than doubled before the last rate increase, and I’m sure last year set a record profit for them.
I’m all for returning to the age of utility regulation. Yes, you heard me right - a libertarian wants industry regulation. You see, the free market only works when there is competition. They dropped regulation to foster competition and none showed up. Nobody came to this party because they would have to drop so much money in infrastructure and supply that it wouldn’t be worth it. That means we’re left with a monopoly provider who gets to punish its customers mercilessly. The only solution is to wrap the industry back into regulation to allow them to profit but also force them to operate in the public interest by improving services, researching cheaper and cleaner power sources, and such.
Since there is no relief in sight, I have been forced to cause further discomfort to me and my family by dropping the thermostat another degree to 67 and turning down the water heater a notch. Hopefully the rest of the winter won’t be as cold…
January 17th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I’m at home with my parents and the thermostat is set on 66, and we’ll turn it down at bedtime. If my mother weren’t home, we’d probably have the thermostat set a little lower. With enough layers, sweaters, or jackets, you’ll get used to it.