Thursday, March 26, 2009
The insanity that is capitalism
There's a water shortage after three years of drought. We need to cut back usage. The Santa Clara Valley Water District has voted to cut back water usage 15%. Ah, but it's not that simple. You see, SCVWD, which manages all the reservoirs etc. in the county, is just the "wholesale" provider of water. They then resell that water to 13 (!) different "retail" water providers, some private, some municipal, who actually sell the water to people like me. In order to achieve that 15% cutback, each of those 13 different providers will have to decide separately how to do so, either by passing ordinances in the case of the municipal providers, or by charging higher rates for excessive usage in the case of the private companies.
And that's just one county. What a stupid, irrational mess. A better world is possible. And a better system of water distribution as well.
There are those enjoying the water that we do have, however, like this Eared Grebe, in breeding plumage, photographed today on Shoreline Lake (Palo Alto). The fish was presumably enjoying the water too, at least until the Grebe came along. :-)
