Well, here we go again. Now it is a judge who orders us to conserve water. I for one will not conserve one single drop that would take me out of my comfort zone.
The last time I was in a conservation drive, I got screwed by the PUC and the San Diego Water Department. Some of you remember that year, the times of the saying, "If it's yellow, be mellow; if it's brown, flush it down."
The campaign and the the conscience of the consumers were so successful that the water meters registered magnificent conservation success and the water supply was in fact maintaining sustainable levels. This great success had some consequences. ONE, the water bills went down.
TWO, the water department was therefore forced to decide about whether or not to lay people off, keep gasoline in the fleet vehicles or raise the rates to bring the income back to comfort levels. You know what happened. The consumer lost. The civil servants won. Remember, this is in San Diego where every December General Dynamics would lay people off because it was the end of the government contract year.
Readers, whoever you are and no matter where you are. Do not conserve one drop of water nor one single kilowatt because you will be the one punished for your sacrifice. Judge, whoever you are, I abjure you to be honest in this matter and to force the utility to follow the rule of economics in these United States, layoffs come before the punishment of the consumer. You, judge, have to stand up for the consumer and reward the one making the sacrifice, not the bureaucrat printing out the bills. You see judge, the consumer has a long memory. If the elephant had died before this present drought, you would not be reading this. Unfortunately for you and for the utilities, there is always at least one elephant who survives long enough to excercise his memory.
Water conservation, "Bah, humbug." Why haven't we constructed an aquaduct from Lake Louise to San Diego? The Romans could have, would have. Are we too concerned over some minuscule form of wildlife that our urban life style has to enslave itself to wildlife preservation rather than to the preservation of urbanized capitalism? I, for one am not. See you in court, I guess.
